The Art Of Narration In Toni Morrison's Fiction

Toni Morrison (1931- ) is the most prominent and successful African American woman writer of the 20th century. She received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993 for her excellent achievements in writing, and has remained the first and only African American woman to win this award. As a gifted writer, Morrison is a master with the art of narration. In her novels, she unfailingly employs writing techniques that best serve her message. In this thesis, I take a look at three of her novels, namely, The Bluest Eye, Beloved and Sula, and examine the way in which Morrison uses different narrative devices to facilitate the communication of her themes.This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction,which includes a brief survey of Toni Morrison's writing career and her three books, The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved. Chapter Two analyzes two narrative techniques used in The Bluest Eye. They are the use of multiple narrative perspectives and the presentation of contrasting lifestories in the novel. By employing these two narrative techniques, Morrison indicates the standard of beauty should be different in different people's eyes. It is harmful for black people to internalize white beauty as the only standard. Chapter Three discusses the two narrative techniques in Beloved. By employing the Gothic mode of narration and the interior monologue, Morrison shows readers the distorted personality and traumatized hearts of black people brought by slavery. And Morrison also indicates that only when black people open their hearts to each other can they find true love and have their spirit saved. Chapter Four gives a survey of the narrative techniques exploited in Sula, which are centered around the use of circular structure and irony. By employing these two narrative techniques, Morrison shows us that a rebellious black woman can be supportive to her community at the most impossible times. Through irony, Morrison also reinforces the theme of the novel, which is: appearances can be deceptive.The last chapter is the conclusion in which I contend Morrison is a narrative artist whose novels stand consistently as a combination of narrative techniques and thematic contents. And I believe that this research will help not only to deepen our understanding and appreciation of Morrison's fiction, but also to suggest a new way of studying her novels.