Pursuit And Perplexity Of American Dream In Song Of Solomon

Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1993, is the most distinguished African-American woman writer. Song of Solomon, published in 1977, is her third novel which won the National Book Critics'Circle Award. In this novel she concerns herself with the destinies of her African-American people and race in an unjust society. She depicts that blacks pursue their dreams indefatigably trying to seek their own positions in the American society. This thesis explores the generations of African-American's pursuit and perplexities of their American Dream.Through assiduous reading of Song of Solomon, the author of the thesis is deeply impressed by the struggles, sufferings and perplexities of the black people in a hostile society. The Dead family in the novel is a witness to the sad history of the whole black race. Through disclosing the true reality of the Dead family, Morrison reveals that the African-Americans are easily subject to the physical and spiritual assault under the circumstances of slavery and racism. It is a work that reveals the harsh reality of African American's life with its grave injustice and its underlying discontent as well as the aspiration of the blacks.Although many scholars have made substantial researches on the novel, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that Morrison tells us the generations of African Americans'attempts to pursue the American Dream in respective ways, but they fail to gain the self-realization because racism is the obstacle on their ways to a happy life. At the same time, she indicates that the way out of their perplexities is not the total assimilation into the white cultural values, not the radical ways, but to take the advantages of both the black and the white culture, for the African American people and culture are the inseparable part of the American society. Only knowing of this can the American blacks"fly without leaving the ground"in the U. S..This paper attempts to elaborate on the detailed study of pursuit and perplexities of American Dream in African American's life. The introduction presents a literature review relating to the novel, the origin of the American Dream , the American Dream explored in the previous African American literature and the structure of the thesis. Chapter One examines the pursuit of their American Dreams, in which I intend to manifest their respective approaches to American Dream. Chapter Two analyzes the perplexities blacks suffered in their lives. Chapter Three analyzes black heritage as a way out of the dreamers'perplexities, in which I intend to show the significance of the black cultural heritage in the their lives. Morrison sees black traditional culture as the source of power for blacks to walk out of the perplexities in American Dream. The conclusion part lays emphasis on reaffirmation of the focus of the thesis.