An Exploration Of Gender Identity Of The Female Characters In Sula

Toni Morrison published Sula in1973, which is the American black womanwriter’s second novel. Owing to the heroine Sula’s controversial image in the story,mang critics in the American literary circle hold rather different attitudes towards thisnovel. Sula is in America from the end of World War I to the mid1960s when theblack civil right movement and women’s liberation movement were on the peak. Itdescribes three heroines’ ups and downs as well as their community Bottom. Thisthesis presents the process of black women’s search for the self through an analysis ofthe three female characters’ status, personality and behavior. After three heroinesexperience from receiving the gender roles ruled by male-centered society to resist the“femininity” conducted by males’ discourse, they construct a new harmonious genderidentity. Morrison puts great emphasis on the process of independent thinking foreach black man, which leads to endow the black people with the rights same as thewhite. Morrison believes that for the black people the recognition of their race is toaffirm identity of both individual and the whole group of the black. The problem ofconfirming identity directly influences the black people’s fate and their future inAmerican.The first chapter is the research on gender theory, and then introduces the maincontents of Tony Morrison and her work Sula. At last the thesis proposes this article’swriting intention and value. The second chapter analyses and subverts the traditionalgender system and the strict social hierarchy. The third chapter is to find and re reconstruct the protagonists’ gender identity. The fourth chapter is the conclusion.From the unique angle of view, Morrison in Sula reveals the representation of theblack history and black women’s tragic fate. She helps the black women reshape theirgender identity in dilemma under dual shackles of patriarchy and racism.