An Analysis Of Beloved From The Perspective Of Narrative Ethics

Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize for Literature winner in1993, is a black woman writer aswell as a brilliant novelist in America. Her works have received high evaluation from allliterary fields in the whole world. Beloved which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in1988isconsidered as one of her best novels. Since its publication it has aroused the attention of thescholars both at home and abroad.There are a lot of ethical factors in Morrison’s works, such as mother-daughterrelationship, loss of self-identity, maternal love, etc. Beloved is of no exception. It is knownthat Beloved has been exposed from a large number of perspectives, but few scholars havestudied it from the perspective of narrative ethics. According to Liu Xiaofeng, one of theforerunners of narrative ethics theory, narrative ethics refers to the story consisting ofabundant ethical ideas and explores the ethical content of narrative. Therefore narrative ethicsis applied in this paper, to make an analysis on the ethical factors from three narrativeperspectives—female narrative, family narrative and race narrative in Beloved, to exploreMorrison’s ethical ideas and exhibit her contributions to the black race even the whole world.This thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion.The opening part mainly gives a brief introduction to Toni Morrison, Beloved, and aliterature review. Then follow a brief account of narrative ethics and representative theoristsbesides the aim of this thesis.Chapter One discusses Morrison’s ethical ideas through female narrative which isconfined to the story of black females’ experiences and ethical appeals for self-value underslavery in Beloved. Firstly, black females’ situation and their oppression both in body andspirit under slavery are introduced. Secondly Sethes’ ethical pursuit of self-value is analyzed. This thesis draws a conclusion of Morrison’s ethical ideas that black females should strugglefor freedom and self-value. In the struggle process, their self-value must be in accordancewith the collective value standard of the black community and the community may serve asthe source of help. Only by this means, can black women get the real freedom in body andspirit.Chapter Two makes an analysis of Morrison’s ideas from family narrative narroweddown to the story happened in a black family with the changes of family structure in Beloved.The novel is about the changes of Sethe’s family structure and centers on Sethe’s maternallove. Due to the special experiences under slavery, Sethe takes the responsibility of what ablack mother should have and tries her best to keep the family structure complete. ThroughSethe’s family narrative, Morrison shows her ethical ideas on maternal love that the maternallove of black women is excessive and thick as well as distorted because of the distorted mindcaused by the brutal slavery.Chapter Three explores Morrison’s ethical ideas from race narrative which refers to theblacks’ painful feelings under slavery and their struggle against the whites in Beloved. Thefirst part of this chapter discloses the blacks’ sufferings during the slavery period and revealsthat racism has brought great pain to the blacks. Under the cruel situation, the blacks haveformed their special survival ethic. The second part takes Sethe for instance and shows thatSethe’s ethical choices of obedience and struggle are for pursuing survival ethic. The thirdpart gets Morrison’s ethical ideas on race that the blacks should bravely confront their historyand help each other to go out of their painful past. Only doing this can the blacks recover theirethnic consciousness and build their glorious future.The conclusion shows Morrison’s writing intention and the value of her literary creation,and sums up the first three chapters. Slavery has been abolished for more than a hundredyears, but the blacks in modern society still live in the shadow of slavery and abandon some responsibilities, which is the root of various problems faced by the blacks in modern society.With strong ethnic and political consciousness, Morrison instructs the blacks in modernsociety to bravely get rid of the shadow left by slavery to get their ethnic consciousness andhelp each other to change their current situation. At the same time, she advises the blackwomen and single parent or teenage mothers to awaken their self-consciousness for theirself-value or responsibility as a mother. Morrison’s ethical ideas are of great value in solvingthe problems of the blacks in modern society and the problems existing in other races.