Different Experiences But Similar Fate

Richard Wright is considered a figure as milestone in the history of Afro-American literature and one of the American most highly respected spokesmen for Black problems and the oppressed black American in the late 1930s and 1940s. Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner for literature, speaks out for the black women in the literary world with her passion, talent and eloquent works.The former researches are only on one one author. The researches on male writer Wright are mainly black men in his works, whereas the researches on female writer Morrison are mainly black women in her works. Therefore, on the basis of the former researches, this thesis focuses on a comparative study of the two black mother images in Richard Wright's Black Boy and Toni Morrison's Sula.Through the comparative study, this thesis aims to show black mothers' deep maternal love and what they have to suffer and struggle for the love under racial and gender discrimination, and expound that no matter how different their personalities and experiences are, black mothers cannot get out of their doomed tragic fate.The thesis consists of four chapters. In the first chapter a general introduction is made of Wright and Morrison. The second chapter focuses on the study of the two mothers' love and their suffering for maternal love. The third chapter researches on the racial and gender discrimination Ella and Eva suffer and their struggle under double discrimination. The fourth chapter mainly analyzes the two mothers' different experiences but similar fate. Although the two black mothers have different personalities and different experiences but their fate is quite similar. This thesis tries to dig out the reason why they are different in experience but similar in fate. Through the analysis and research, the conclusion comes out that no matter black mothers are strong-willed or weak, no matter how they struggle, if racial and gender discrimination exist, they cannot get out of doomed tragedy.