Ethic Metamorphosis In Tonni Morrison's Beloved

Characterized by a strong concern for the sentiments and desires of human beings in confrontation with life and death, and by a relentless exploration of the secrets and significance of the enigma of life endorsed by almost every person, all literary phenomena seem to focus on the common theme, the "discovery of human nature." All the world-famous masters, from Kafka to Kundera - including Proust, Joyce, Faulkner, Woolf ..., never stop the exploration and the discovery of human nature, the deepest charm of human nature. In accordance with this tradition, Toni Morrison becomes an epoch-making literary master with her unique technique and style, and she is regarded as one of the most outstanding writers in the 20th century. She has created 8 novels and a lot of theses and prose writings since 1965 till 2003, which adds a glorious page to the world literature. What Morrison describes with her novels is not only the life of Afro-Americans, but also the entire history of black mind. The Afro-Americans that Morrison describes are only human beings, not some kind of things in whites' eyes or some kind of set-off of the white world. She records the life of blacks, who have their own thought, personality, and human nature. It is no longer observed and pondered from the perspective of the whites. In Morrison's works, all the characters, either whites or blacks, shows their human nature without any "color". She reveals the psychological crisis and ethic metamorphoses of Afro-Americans under the racial problem, and simultaneously tells the reader that the American whites are also undergoing the similar psychological crisis and ethic metamorphoses, which are even more serious than the Afro-Americans.Picking one of the multitudinous flowers that this great master creates, the novel Beloved, the thesis attempts to discuss the psychological crisis and ethic metamorphosis of Afro-Americans and American whites in Morrison's work from the viewpoint of ethics and psychology. The thesis consists of five parts. The first one is the introduction which briefly introduces the background of Beloved and psychological course of black American literature. By analyzing the psychological crisis of the main characters in Morrison's eight novels, it discusses the ethic metamorphoses of Afro-Americans and American whites which are caused by the racial discrimination and persecution. Chapter one analyzes the metamorphoses that each character manifests and the respective influences on the characters. It also discusses briefly the three kinds of ethic metamorphoses of Afro-Americans: the destruction of self-identity, the indifference to social morality and the metamorphosis of moral standard. At last, this chapter discusses the philosophy of Toni Morrison, and reviews the transformational course of Afro-Americans' psychology and ethics.Chapter Two is the discussion of the social ethic metamorphoses that the American whites experience. As a weak community in American society, the black people have been suffering the persecution and discrimination ever since they stepped onto this land. This discrimination comes not from any certain individuals or communities, but from the social conducts of the entire white society. And this discrimination keeps on haunting from the deep minds of all the whites, no matter they are kind or rude to the blacks. Although there exist a number of white people who are really benevolent to the blacks, their kindness is restrained and purposeful. Their starting points may verify a lot: Some intend to make their slaves more efficient; some aim at realizing their political ideals; some do so perhaps only because of their pity which is the same with what they pay to pets like cats or dogs; and others perhaps put up that appearance for some other purpose. Their ideas, whatsoever, are just the same with other whites who never accept the black people as their equals. This social dehumanization of black people has initiated a series of moral and ethic metamorphoses and seriously harmed the ethics and moral system of white society. In the western society, the discrimination of aristocrats against peasants is long-standing. Just like the racial discrimination causes bi-directional ethic and psychological crisis, aristocrat's discrimination and persecution initiates similar psychological problems for both aristocrats and peasants. When confronting the blacks, who are with different skin but without economic basis, the former under-discriminated peasants in turn discriminate and persecute the blacks just like what the aristocrats had done to them. The ethic and psychological metamorphoses severely damages the ethical judgment of the entire society. Meanwhile, the development of capitalism makes the money-based mentality widely influential through out the entire American society. When money becomes the main standard of value judgment, moral judgment gets weakened. Therefore, the whites, intentionally overlooking the atrocity they commit to Afro-Americans, do not endure any revolt from the black people. All of these are unacceptable in the human moral system. Hence, the American whites have undergone social ethic metamorphosis, which causes serious social psychological crisis and ethic metamorphosis.Chapter Three is an in-depth analysis of the social causes of the ethic metamorphosis of Afro-Americans and American whites and its damage to American society. In economical aspect, both in the countryside and in the city, the Afro-Americans are extremely poor and always suffering discrimination. The extreme poverty and discrimination in both city and countryside cause the blacks serious psychology crisis and ethic metamorphosis, which simultaneously initiate respective psychological and ethic metamorphosis of American whites. The Afro-Americans have "alienation from" or "strangeness to" the American society. The conflict between different cultural and value judgment confuses Afro-Americans about the maintenance or betrayal of the traditional black culture. Thus the entire black communities drop into the psychological conflict and chaos. At the same time, a series of ethic and psychology metamorphoses also severely damage the moral system and value system of the entire American society.The last part is the conclusion. The moral judgment exists in every activity of people's life, and people will do something and undo something else because of their ethic judgment of right or wrong. Morrison penetrates into the deep mind of Afro-Americans with her peculiar writing style, and records the history of black mind. She reads the mind and reveals the ethic metamorphosis of both blacks and whites. Nevertheless, Morrison is never pessimistic, and she always gives hope to her characters at the ending of her novels. She has been always longing for the racial fusion and spiritual cure of the entire world.