The Cultural Identity Of Toni Morrison And Her Creation Of Early Novels

Toni Morrison is a well-known African American authoress in the literary world nowadays. Her novels reflect the historical change and real life of African blacks in the United States. The ethnic and culture identity is the sign of her writing. Based on her early creation of three works, Song of Solomon, Sula and Tar Baby, and combining Stuart Hall's two views of essentialism and constructivism of culture identity, the thesis analyzes the characters in these three novels and their life exploration in order to have a comprehensive understanding toward the culture identity of Morrison.The Introduction is mainly about Morrison's works and her achievements, then considers the "Culture Identity" as an significant theme in the study of Morrison. From the beginning of her creation, Morrison paid special attention on the culture identity of African blacks. These three novels can represent her ideas about it in three aspects.Chapter â…  unscrambles Morrison's Song of Solomon from the perspective of "African". Different from the black male writers, whose works are full of violence and ethnic rebel, Morrison focuses on the black community itself and shows more about their awareness and acceptance toward culture conflict. The upbringing experience of Milkman in Song of Solomon clearly reflects the double impacts of Western white culture and black culture. The white culture instilled by his father did not make him mature, and the black culture successor Pilate leads his spirit growth. The story shows that it is the only way to resist white culture and search cultural identity from the blacks'history and culture values.Chapter â…¡ unscrambles Morrison's Sula from the perspective of "Female". Morrison insists on writing works as an identity of black woman and from the perspective of black women, and points out the non-rational factor of ignoring women in the traditional culture. Sula shapes two black women, Sula and Nel. As most traditional black women, Nel lost self-identity in the marriage and family life. But Sula is shaped as a woman who resists the white culture as well as the role of traditional black women's. In this way, Morrison explores the ignorance of gender differences in black culture, and shows the complexity of cultural identity for black women.Chapter â…¢ unscrambles Morrison's Tar Baby from the perspective of "American". Jadine is a black girl, who grows up in a white family. Jadine feels strange to black culture, therefore it is hard to establish the black culture identity. On the other hand, Son shows the closure of black culture. His black racism rejects the progress factors of white culture, so it is also hard and even impossible for Son to stand firm in contemporary American society. The pursuit of Son shows Morrison's view that "American" is an indispensable part of the culture identity for African blacks.After analysis, the thesis concludes that "African","Female" and "American" are Morrison's three aspects to view culture identity, which also shows the rational and comprehensive thinking in this issue.