An Interpretation Of The Scapegoat Images In Beloved

Morrison, in Beloved through the exploration of tragic fate of Sethe's family and other ex-slaves, discloses all kinds of traumas on the slaves caused by slavery as a most vicious institution. This thesis probes into the causality between the merciless slavery and Beloved and Sethe's fate of being chosen as scapegoats, pointing out that Sethe's infanticide is out of her maternal love, in an abnormal way because of that background and lack of support of the black community, and that slavery is the real murderer of Sethe's daughter. Sethe's infanticide shows that under slavery, the maternal love of black women is severely distorted, what's worse, their identities of being mothers are even deprived of especially when their families are destroyed. Slavery compels Sethe to slaughter her daughter in order to save her from becoming a slave, which illuminates the sin of the institution of slavery. Even after the abolition of slavery, the traumatic memory continues to haunt the ex-slaves, who are though physically free but spiritually enslaved by the past.The thesis is composed of six parts cohesively interrelated as one organic unit, targeting at illuminating the causality between the brutality of slavery and the tragic fate of the characters in the novel.The part of Introduction firstly gives a general idea of Toni Morrison and Beloved. Then the author reviews the study of Beloved abroad and in China. After the brief introduction comes the operability of analysis of the scapegoat images in the novel on the basis of archetypal criticism.Chapter One gives a brief introduction of the archetypal criticism. Archetypal criticism finds out archetypes in literary works and applies them to the interpretation and analysis of the literary works in order to dig out underlying meanings of literary works.Chapter Two tries to find out the archetypes of the leading characters, Beloved and Sethe. Through the analysis of the text, the author discovers that Beloved and Sethe accord with characteristics of Rene Girard's scapegoat.'Beloved is ostensibly slaughtered by her mother. Yet through a thorough analysis of the background of the infanticide it is clear that Beloved is a scapegoat victimized by slavery. Sethe's infanticide is partially due to the black community's betrayal out of their jealousy. After she comes home from jail, she is shunned out by the black community for eighteen years, like a scapegoat driven away.Chapter Three shows the realization of Sethe's infanticide. She has been sad for the loss of her daughter, so when Beloved comes in the flesh, Sethe strongly believes that she is her daughter and dedicates all her energy and love to her. At the end of the story, when Mr. Bodwin comes, she mistakes him as the slave catcher and tries to kill him instead of slaying her daughter again, which gives her the opportunity to correct her previous mistake out of her intention to protect her daughter and demonstrates her deep maternal love to her daughter. Denver, due to the coming of Beloved, comes to understand the past which she has not heard of before. When she finds Sethe needs help, she bravely turns to the community for help and gradually grows up.Chapter Four reveals the future for individuals and the black community. Morrison probes into the solution for the ex-slaves to achieve their mental liberty by courageously confronting the past because the future is inextricably connected with the past. In addition, the pivotal role the community play in the process of development of individual is also manifested. Morrison thinks the black women's survival can never be separated from the black community.The Conclusion summarizes the thesis and emphasizes the significance of the employment of archetype in the novel, which can help to add the readability and profundity of the novel.In addition, it intensifies Morrison's indictment against the slavery.This thesis analyzes the changed use of the archetype in Beloved, connects the work with its creating history cultural environment, and studies why Morrison uses this kind of displacement in the certain cultural background, which can help readers to understand the literary work well.