On The Death Theme In Toni Morrison’s Novels

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the death theme in Toni Morrison’s novels from a new perspective-Black Feminism, and the death theme is the highlight in Morrison’s four novels:The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved and Song of Solomon. Morrison has developed female characters that are on the fringes of a community already hampered by color, gender and class. The author of this thesis analyzes the death theme in her four novels in two aspects:First, the author of this thesis analyzes the reflection of the death theme in the four novels one by one. Black Feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together, and the end of the Feminism is to combat racism, sexism and class oppression. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola’s fate is a fate worse than death. In Sula, the protagonist ends up in a miserable death. Morrison neither idealizes the character Sula nor portrays her negatively; Sula is described as a rebellious and courageous woman. In Beloved, there is a strong sorrow when Sethe had to kill her baby to protect her. In Song of Solomon, Hagar becomes the victim of the dominant white culture. She becomes man’s subordinate and even tries to kill her lover, and she dies for love eventually.Second, the author of this thesis analyzes the implication of the death theme. The lives of black girls and women are deformed by the internalized white beauty standards. The misunderstanding of mother’s comments and lack of black mother’s emotional concern make the black girls and women desolated spiritually. The devastation on emotion, spirit and body under the slavery causes the black mother to kill her own baby to protect her from the class oppression. Female characters suffer the double burden as they are abandoned by the black male:not only are women oppressed by racism, but they must also pay the price for men’s freedom.