On The Images Of "Mad Women" In Toni Morrison’s Novels From The Perspective Of Black Feminism

Toni Morrison as one of the most influential and representative novelists in contemporary America,has paid much attention to the Black group through unique angle,and transmits the voice of American Black women to the society to develop and expand the Black culture.Madwoman being one of the common themes of feminine literature in the twentieth century,Toni Morrison describes the Black madwomen images under the background of patriarchy and racial discrimination,reappearing their anger,anxiety,traumas and madness,and reflecting their wisdom and braveness as well as continuous pursuit of freedom.Toni Morrison has created various African-American female images who had different characteristics and weird behaviors but extremely thriving vitality from all walks of society.The thesis consists of five parts,mainly discussing the development of mad women’s identities through analyzing the “mad women” images of the three novels: Beloved,Sula and The Bluest Eye.It includes three stages: the first stage is about Black woman’s confusion period,with the main character Pecola in The Bluest Eye as example,showing how Black women lost their own identities;the second stage is the lonely Black women’s self-salvation,taking Sula as example,who searches for self-identification to resist patriarchal oppression in an experimental but unsuccessful way;the third stage is the awakening period of Black women’s identities: the typical character being Sethe,who resists slavery oppression by killing her own daughter.Through interpreting the mad women’s behaviors in everyday superficial details,this paper reveals to gain diversified interpretation of her women images.