Loss And Quest

Chinese American literature and African American literature, as two branches of American literature, attract more and more attention from all over the world. Among all those famous authors from minority, two female writers, Toni Morrison and Amy Tan are quite conspicuous.This thesis analyzes The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison from the newly-rising perspective of post-colonial feminism; studies African American and Chinese American women's identity crisis and aphasia problem and points out the process of rebuilding identity. The aim is to illuminate the minority groups who are lost in western countries.The thesis is divided into six parts:The first part introduces Toni Morrison's and Amy Tan's life, influences and their important works: The Bluest Eye and The Joy Luck Club.The second part of the thesis is about the literature review on two authors and two books at home and abroad.The third part explains the theoretical basis of the thesis: post-colonial feminism and points out the reflection of the post-colonial feminism theory in two books.The fourth and the fifth parts are the main body of the paper which is about the loss and the quest for identity of African American and Chinese American mothers and daughters in the United States. Though the backgrounds of two novels are quite different, both of them reveal how the view of"the white is superior"changes the American minority ethnic people in life, how the bewilderment of mother-love leads to the daughters'suffering and how the"black skin, white mask"makes the minorities lose their identity.The last part of the paper is the conclusion. This chapter reveals the process of Chinese American and African American mothers'and daughters'loss and quest for the identity and concludes that the minorities in America, especially the females, have to hold their own ethnic spirit and survive in such a society as America.