Perplexity And Self-awareness In Growing Up

Song of Solomon is Morrison's only novel portraying a male protagonist among all her nine ones. Since its publication in 1977, the novel has drawn the attention among the critics at home and abroad because of the freedom Morrison employs in dealing with politics, conception, linguistics, and arts. Song of Solomon has been discussed through different approaches like feminism, social culture, and Marxist criticism. Among all criticisms, though the psychoanalytical approach has been touched on by a few scholars, its sub-branch ego psychosocial analysis is seldom employed to the novel, especially in China. Therefore this thesis attempts to discuss Song of Solomon from ego psychosocial approach with the expectation to contribute a little to the study of the novel.This thesis is intended to discuss the initiation theme with Erik H. Erikson's ego psychosocial stages through the discourse analysis. It employs four ego psychosocial stages in Erikson's theory, namely, early childhood, later childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, to discuss the three phases of Milkman's initiation:perplexity, leaving and maturity. The thesis analyzes Milkman's four ego psychosocial states and their influencing factors, and provides some suggestions for ethnic minority youth's initiation on the basis of the lessons in the course of Milkman's initiation. In initiation, ethnic minority youth should be self-respected, seek approaches to ethnic culture and learn to appreciate dominant culture objectively. Those suggestions might help American ethnic minority youth under racial inequality to reach their ego psychosocial maturity and establish stability in America. And those suggestions could also be applied to other multi-ethnical countries.This thesis consists of four chapters, plus the introduction and the conclusion.The Introduction provides some research background and literary reviews of Song of Solomon, and then states research questions, methodology and significance of this thesis.As the preliminary of the whole thesis, Chapter One introduces the theoretical framework, Erik. H. Erikson's ego psychosocial stages, and the initiation theme, and then states the feasibility of their joint work in the thesis.Chapter Two discusses Milkman's first phase of his initiation, the perplexity, through his four stages of ego identity development, in which Milkman's self awareness, family awareness, and community awareness and their influencing factors are demonstrated in his direct contact with his family and the north black community.Chapter Three concentrates on Milkman's second phase of his initiation, leaving for Danville, which displays changes of Milkman's self awareness, family awareness, and community awareness and their influencing factors in his interactions with the local black community.Chapter Four analyzes the last phase of Milkman's initiation, maturity. This chapter is also about Milkman's early adulthood, and his three-dimensional awareness is examined in his interactions with the local black community.The conclusion reviews Milkman's ego psychosocial development as a whole, provides some suggestions for the initiation of the ethnic minority youth, and discusses the potential social significance of these suggestions.