| Tony Morrison is one of the most important writers in contemporary America, and she is the first black female writer who got the Nobel Price for Literature. Morrison published The Bluest Eyes (1970), Sula (1973), The Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992) before she got the Nobel Price in 1993. At present, Morrison not only has a broad general audience, has become the academic community's "beloved". However, in these academic studies, awareness of Morrison's black identity has not been a focus of study, especially ,there is a lack of systematic study on the development of thinking about African American identity .This is an important reason for my thesis's topic.The text is divided into five parts:The first part firstly defines the identity of this article, then tries to analyze the origin of African American identity, reveals the reality of the Blacks'identity is deliberately conflicted and made vague, which results in the Blacks'unprecedented anxiety, and describes the importance of the establishment of African American identity. After that, the paper analyzes that Morrison's thinking about African American identity has experienced a general process of development: there is a inheritance of thinking from author's previous novel, and the process is basically African Americans identity's discovering, searching and construction.The second part firstly demonstrates the importance of the Black's self-identity cognition which helps to guarantee the integrity and unity of themselves. Whether one is able to get rid of the other's mental restriction, depends on whether one has self-identity cognition, so Morrison gives much attention on Black woman's self-identity. Then the paper compares Pecora and Sula to prove that Sula is a new free black woman having self-identity cognition. This part mainly analyses Sula's discovery of self-identity and shows Sula's self-consciousness through her objection of female traditional rules, rebellion of black community, free sex, lesbian complex and so on.The third part analyzes the limitations of one-sided emphasis on self-identity, elucidate the Black national identity's significant impact on the Black individual's psychological growth, and the Black national identity's promotion on the Black's comprehensive development. At the same time it also explained why Morrison paid closer attention on the Black national identity. Then the part demonstrates that blacks'identification is the cause of Milk Man's spirit growth through the metaphor of geographical space between the south and the north, as well as the Milk Man's education gotten from Blacks. It primarily studied that understanding Blacks'history and culture is important to affirm Blacks'national identity At last, it discusses Morrison's reflection on the Blacks'narrow-minded nationalism.The fourth section shows the internal contradictions on the Black identity in Blacks, and then analyses how the author express Jade's bewilderment on Blacks'culture and Son's alienation on American civilization. After this, it explores Morrison's negative attitude toward Jade and Son by displaying Whites'discrimination against Blacks, Whites'personal centrism and Blacks'conservatism and backwardness. Lastly, it shows the author's affirmation of the dual identity of African Americans as Black and American, from the two aspects of description and image.The fifth section explains that the history of blacks is the necessary methods and resources to construct African Americans'identity, but because the White mastered the right of expressing for a long time, Blacks were ignored or distorted, and the history about Blacks written by the White represented Whites'civilization and superiority, which leads to that Blacks'historical culture is thought vague and inferior. So Morrison is determined to reconstruct Blacks'history to achieve the purpose of reconstruct African American identity. After this it demonstrates that the Beloved is opposite to the mainstream of American history by the content, narrative methods and portrayal of characters, and the Beloved is also a reconstruction of Blacks'history and identity. The Beloved plays a significant role to help African Americans to shake off the historical shadow.Finally, the thesis makes a summary of Morrison's achievement. The reason why Tony Morrison is considered as a great Black writer is not only because of her literary skills, but most for the sense of national mission in her novels which has developed the mental status and living environment of contemporary African Americans. |
