Searching For The Lost Self-identity

Toni Morrison, one of the most important contemporary women novelists and critics in America, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Beloved, Morrison's fifth novel published in 1987, is considered by many to be Morrison's best. Morrison was inspired by the true story of a black American slave woman, Margaret Garner, who escaped from slavery in Kentucky and killed her child when slave masters overcame her in Ohio.Toni Morrison has composed works on African Americans to depict their history, destiny and spiritual world. Beloved combines history with ghost story, seeks to explore the impact of slavery, both on the psychology of individuals and on the larger patterns of culture and history. The novel vividly displays the inhuman treatment and deep psychic trauma imposed on the Black, which suppresses their desire for freedom years after their final escape from the slave owners. Slavery destroyed much of the heritage of the Africans; the novel narrates the recreation of a new people and culture, a people forced to hold a new identity in face of brutality and dehumanization.This thesis consists of three chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion.Introduction part states Morrison's family background, her life experience that helps to shape her later writing, and an short introduction of her works, followed by critical reviews on Beloved.Chapter One begins with the discussion of the epigraph of"beloved", and testifies that the dominant ideology supported by western education and science is the root of slavery and racism. African-American people are forced to give up their African language and culture and replace it with a new one of the whites. Sethe has forgotten the words of her mother's language. In addition, the slaves have been deprived of their African names and are replaced with code names given by colonialists. The loss of language and name indicates the fact that the slaves suffered a kind of cultural devastation. The most dangerous of slavery's effects on the former slaves is compelling them to avoid any identification of selfhood as human being. Chapter Two is the extent to which slavery and its legacy are still eroding black souls and blocking their way to selfhood. White discourse manages to occupy the vacuum of self, so unconsciously that the black community believes what whites advocate, that is, blacks should not own so much as Baby Suggs does and should not ask for so much as Sethe does. Thus the jealousy of the neighbors hinders them from informing No. 124 of the arrival of the capturers. In addition, Paul D fails to understand Sethe's infanticide and leaves her. This chapter depicts the great difficulty in the formation of black subjectivity, both individually and communally.Chapter Three demonstrates the possible ways for the African Americans to gain selfhood. First, the unbearable living conditions in Sweet Home make Sethe speculate on the essence of slavery. Only by ways of overstepping the bounds that are constructed to restrict them can slaves claim their humanity. Second, Beloved, the ghost girl with complex identities, helps the major characters confront the past sufferings. Third, Sethe and Paul D eventually understand each other, which creates the possibility for both of them to hold selfhood in the family. In the end, when Denver walks out of her house to ask for help, the community defeats its pride and helps Sethe and Denver to go through the difficulties of their life. All the characters end up with a promising future.The thesis ends with a conclusion that generalizes the major points and prompts readers to find out access to an equal and harmonious life, the real paradise for all people.