Reconstruction Of Black Identity For African Americans: A Thematic Interpretation Of Beloved And The Bluest Eye

In1993, Toni Morrison became the first black female writer to win Nobel Prize for literature, which is of great significance to African American literature. As the best representative of the contemporary black writers, Toni Morrison applies black language, black folklores and myths into her stories, which spreads black culture to the world. Conscious of her social responsibility, Morrison concentrates on the overt and covert racial discrimination black people confront in America. She not only exposes the pain but also attempts to heal black people’s psychological wound. Her works empower black people to recognize and face their own race, their own culture and their own identity.Ever since the publication of her works, scholars and critics have shown great interest in assessing her works with different critical methodologies. While a good many critics focus on the external factors which lead to African American’s identity crisis, this paper puts more emphasis on the internal factors which bring about loss of black people’s identity such as self-hatred, cultural loss and intra racial racism within the black community.The paper takes Toni Morrison’s two masterpieces Beloved and The Bluest Eye as the sample to analyze the factors which lead to black people’s identity crisis so as to discover effective approaches to the reconstruction of black people’s identity. As Toni Morrison’s most excellent work, Beloved reveals the unspeakable pain which black people suffer from the legacies of slavery. And the novel makes it clear that revisiting the past is an indispensable way to reconstruct black identity. And at the same time, Toni Morrison is acutely conscious of the cultural colonization in the ideological field imposed on black people. Little black girl Pecola’s tragedy condemns severely the destructive impacts of white culture invasion on black people’s psyche. The novel points out only rooted in traditional African culture, can black people find their own value and identity.The paper consists of five parts. The first part centers on Toni Morrison’s tremendous achievements in literature and current research on her works at home and abroad.The second part shows dehumanization of black people due to racial oppression and their self-hatred due to cultural loss in Beloved and The Bluest Eye. For example, Sethe takes away her daughter’s life in order to keep her child’s humanity; Paul D buries all his painful memories into his heart. And some people totally yield to white culture invasion:for example, Pecola dislikes her black skin and longs for a pair of blue eyes. And Pauline is brainwashed by white values and devotes herself to her white employer’s house, ignoring her own family. And Cholly transfers his self-hatred to more vulnerable ones. Due to long time of racial oppression, many black people suffer from identity crisis even after obtaining freedom.The third part analyzes the causes for the loss of black people’s identity. The invasion of white culture, loss of parental love, and the apathy of black community are the important factors leading to black people’s identity crisis.The four part explores some indispensable approaches to the reconstruction of black people’s identity. Loving self, building up harmonious family relationships, and relying on traditional African culture are the effective methods for black people to reconstruct their identity. Additionally, in order to reconstruct their identity after freedom, black people should learn to walk out of the shadow of the past and construct harmonious black communities.The fifth part summarizes the paper on the whole. The successful portraying of various characters accounts for Morrison’s thoughts about reconstruction of black people’s identity. As part of black culture, Toni Morrison’s works have exerted far-reaching influence upon the literary world.