The "Love" That Kills And The Love That Heals

Toni Morrison, the first female African-American Nobel laureate in literature, theNational Book Critics Circle Award winner, the Pulitzer writer, to name a few, haspresented the world with nine novels, two children's books, one play, one short story, onelibretto, and one literary criticism collection up until now, and is still producing. Shedevotes herself to exploring the life and psychology of different generations of the blackpeopleintheAmericansociety.Based on the close reading of her three novels, Jazz (1992), Song of Solomon (1977),and Beloved (1987), I argue that because of the geographical and emotional displacementshown in Jazz, the capitalistic society reflected in Song of Solomon, and the cruel slaveryportrayed in Beloved, the African Americans for a long time in history were incompletehuman beings, deprived of everything needed for a normal life, unable to use the properchannels to express their love, and thus bringing about destructive outcomes in the end.The killings that take place in each one of these novels have deeper social and culturalreasons rather than the mere effort to regain the lost lover, to acquire moneyand power, orjust toterminate lives for the plain hatred towards the white. It is the black people's forcedinability to stand up for themselves, to voice their opinions, to pursue their aspirations inthe white-dominated American society that prevents them from offering their love to theworldinanormalway.Butfortunately,Morrisonisnotat allpessimisticaboutthefateofherpeople.Eachofher novels discussed in this thesis ends with the peaceful mindset of the characters, therecovery of broken hearts, and a bright view of the future. Morrison presents the readerwith such endings in her novels so as to extend a message both to the African Americansandtotherestoftheworldthatwiththenurturingoftheblackcommunity,therecollectionof the personal and collective history, the closeness to nature as well as the mutualunderstanding and assistance between the black and the white, the African Americans willin the end walk out of their past sufferings, and build up a fabulous world with the lovetheysharewithoneanother.