Surpass From The Difficult Position

Toni Morrison is the most prominent African-American woman author of the 20th century. In the Song of Solomon, there is a black young man who is named milkman, and he finds his family name by chance in the process of looking for gold. The process of looking for golden makes milk man have a new understanding about his identity and know life's meaning.In American society, dominated by white people, white culture is the main stream culture. In this situation, black people are marginal people who have serious identity crisis. This paper mainly centers on discussing the African-American identity change, which is based on the post-colonialism.This paper includes introduction, text and conclusion. Introduction presents the phrase of development in African-American literature, Morrison's main works and the current research of her works. There are four chapters in the text. The first chapter presents the identity theory in the post-colonialism and the identity crisis in African-American literature. The second chapter centers on analyzing the reasons of identity crisis in the Song of Solomon, which includes historical trauma, culture break and black people's racist. The third chapter discusses the process of African-American identity change. The fourth chapter analyzes the methods of thoroughly getting rid of the identity crisis, which are not only approving ancestor and personal identity, but also balancing the relationship between personal identity and collective identity. At last, there is a conclusion: Black people are in particular historical circumstance. If they can approve and stand on the base of the black culture, and tolerate other cultures, they would promote the equality between black culture and white culture. Only protecting their nation's culture and blending it into the mainstream society will they promote the development of harmonious society.