| Toni Morrison, the first African-American Nobel Prize Winner for literature, invigorated the African-American literature in the 20th century with her outstanding craftsmanship and in-depth exploration of the black racial issues, making her works as a must read for researchers of contemporary African-American literature. From 1970 to 1999, Morrison had produced a total of seven novels: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998). All these exquisitely-made literary works had charted a new course of the development for Afro-American literature and raised the eyebrows of literary critics worldwide. Traditionally, Morrison was viewed as an ardent black feminist novelist. Yet, Morrison's wisdom extended beyond the limited gender issue. What truly distinguished her literary works from the radical protest novels as Native Son lies in her profound contemplation of the human nature, love, cultural disparity etc.In addition, boasted as a defender of black culture and black woman novelist, Morrison had her deep and acute understanding of racial conflicts and harmony and often embedded her works with her keen observation of the racial, sexual, and class crises within the black community and the entire American nation as a whole. In this respect, fictitious as the text was, it served as a fine recorder of socio-historical facts and of changing mentality of African-Americans. The Bluest Eye, Morrison's debut work, was a good case in point. The Bluest Eye (1970) came into being at a conjunction when the sweeping Civil Rights Movement receded and the African-American women's Renaissance was about to take the center stage. In this novel, Morrison challenged the widely-accepted slogan in the 1960s i.e. black is beautiful and for the first time placed a little black girl's tragic childhood as the focus of the black novel writing. Besides, the novel touched on multi-faceted crises within the black society besieged by Whites in urban areas.Through the vehicle of close reading and socio-historical interpretation of the text itself, this paper aims at validating the fact that the misery of a number of characters in the novel does not result from mere racism imposed by Euro-Americans but even more fatal and hidden tragedy is triggered by multiple forces that involve inward identity and cultural loss within the black racial groups and the castration of the role of male in black family and consequent domestic violence stemmed from dire economic situation, and multifaceted persecution towards vulnerable members of subculture and etc. In addition, Toni Morrison also intentionally wielded her craftsmanship during the creation of The Bluest Eye, deconstructing the potent mainstream white culture, and showing a way out that only when Afro-Americans have a clear understanding of themselves and embrace the cultural heritage can they be exempt from losing themselves and ending up tragically. |
