A Studyonthe Theme Of Maternal Lovein Belovedand A Mercy

Maternal love is an invariable theme in Toni Morrison's fictions. In Beloved and A Mercy, Morrison depicts two crazy black mothers: one kills her daughter with her own hands; the other one sells her own daughter to a stranger man. These two mothers'activities are beyond normal people's understanding. However, there is unspeakable pain behind the seemingly distorted maternal love.In Morrison's definition of motherhood, mothers are nurturer, protector of children and cultural bearer of nation. At the same time, motherhood has huge energy to heal all pains. This essay tries to discuss how black mothers express their maternal love in rough life under the influence of racial slave society, how mothers and daughters lose themselves because of the lack of love, and finally, how they cast off sorrowness, find self- worth and self- identity, then get rid of the past and begin new life.This essay consists of three parts: introduction, main part and conclusion. Introduction briefly introduces the life story and masterpieces of Toni Morrison, and then it talks about the current situation about the critics for Morrison's novels at home and abroad. After that it indicates fundamental theory needed in the essay. At last it shows the manifestation of maternal love in the two novels.Chapter one expounds the humiliation of motherhood by the system of slavery. Two mothers in the novels endure miserable experience brought by slavery. The painful experience makes them realize the cruelty of slavery and the hopelessness as a black female slave. The instinct of motherhood impels them to protect their daughter in their full strength. Although the ways in which mothers express their motherhood are different, their purposes are the same: let daughter keep off miserable life. By now we can understand mothers'thick maternal love.The second chapter analyzes the trauma and rootlessness of mothers and daughters due to lack of maternal love. As a result of absence of maternal love and misunderstanding of it, daughter cannot understand African American tradition and value. She fails to find her own identity, and then becomes rootless. Under this circumstance, daughter loses herself on the way seeking love. Mother who loses daughter is also incapable of forgetting the past pains and beginning new life, living in grief all day. Chapter three discusses the empowerment that extended maternal love or community love gives to mothers and daughters. The extended maternal love is strength of the whole nation and community for healing the entire trauma. With the help of community, daughter retrieves herself, reconstructs self- identity through self- affirmation. The wounded mother also forgets the unspeakable past and restarts a new life.In the conclusion the essay points out the embodiment of maternal love in Beloved and A Mercy. With the help of the novels, Morrison accuses the devastation of maternal love by slavery. In the meantime, she suggests African American women should admit and develop cultural identity of their own. Only if forget the pain and grasp national cultural heritage can African American women dominant the destiny of their own.