| The African American female writer Toni Morrison is famous for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993,and her dual identities of being an American black and a female attract the public all the time.From the publication of her first novel The Bluest Eye,Toni Morrison has already published eleven novels,and A Mercy is her ninth novel.In this novel,in the last seventeenth century,three women Florens,Lina and Sorrow with different background suffered the oppression from race,class and gender,and after a series of struggles they became awakened and independent.By employing theories of American black feminist criticism,this thesis analyzes the images of Florens,Lina and Sorrow.At that time,American black females suffered the oppression from race,class and gender.These three women were from different races but faced the same oppression.The black girl Florens was abandoned by her mother when she was young.She was sold to Jacob's farm and became a slave.When refused by the blacksmith,she got second life and started to pursue her own happiness and freedom.The Native American Lina lost her family in a plague and was adopted by the Presbyterians then sold to Jacob later.Through returning to her own culture,Lina became strong and capable.Sorrow was a mulatto and lost her father in a shipwreck.She was rescued by the sawyer and raped by his sons.Then she was sold to Jacob and became a slave.Sorrow turned into an independent mother after the delivery of her daughter in the end.With the perspective of American black feminist criticism to interpret A Mercy,the readers can have a better understanding of the oppression that American black females faced from race,class and gender.Although in the process of gaining independence and awakening was full of setbacks,American black females never gave up finding the ways to get rid of the bitterness and pains,and they still devoted themselves to finding their identities and creating a better future. |
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