The Interpretation Of Toni Morrison’s Black Initiation Ideal In The Bluest Eye And Song Of Solomon

As a widespread cultural phenomenon and an important individual experience in human life, initiationprovides a broad space for literature creation and becomes an eternal theme of literature. And American literaturealways focuses on the problem of the youth. As the first black woman writer who wins the Nobel Prize forliterature in the history of American literature, Toni Morrison breaks the traditional mode in creating andexploring the fate and inner spiritual world of African American, especially much content in her works areconcerned about the hard initiation process of black children under the shock of white culture. Through thesedescriptions, Morrison reflects and explores the right initiation ways of the black youth.The Bluest Eye is the first book Morrison created, and Song of Solomon is Morrison’s only novel that has amale protagonist. These two novels focus on the initiation process of two protagonists, and have become thetypical initiation story. But because of Morrison’s black woman identity, domestic scholars often pay theirattention to racial and feminist problems, thus the initiation theme in Morrison’s works was ignored. In this case,this thesis takes Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye as the research object under the western initiation theories.According to analysis of two main characters’ growth surroundings, growth journey, growth results and thesignificance of growth, it will summarize Morrison’s initiation ideal about the black youths.The thesis is divided into five parts:Chapter One is an introduction, including Toni Morrison’s life, her works and achievements in Americanliterature, and the research purpose and significance of this thesis.Chapter Two is literature review. It mainly reviews the domestic and abroad research about Toni Morrisonand her works. Through these reviews, the limitation about Morrison’s research is found. The review aboutinitiation theme in Morrison’s work is inadequate, let alone Morrison’s initiation ideal about the black youths.Chapter Three is the theoretical framework which provides definitions, characteristics and developments of initiation stories, then draws the unique characteristic of American initiation story. And this chapter also narrates the important element, mentor, in initiation story.Chapter Four is the main body of this thesis, which analyzes the protagonists’ initiation process under thetheory of initiation story. Under the shock of white culture, Pecola can’t discard the temptation of blue eyes andloss herself, thus, according to Marcus, Pecola’s initiation is a tentative initiation. On the contrary, Milkmanfinds the way for escaping the control of white dominance and gets epiphany and maturity under the mentor’sguidance. Compared with Pecola, Milkman’s initiation is decisive initiation. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis. Through depiction of different initiation process of twoprotagonists, Morrison demonstrated that initiation failures of black youths are not only caused by racism butalso their loss of black identity. Through arranging two different initiation results intentionally, Morrison wantsto express her initiation ideal about the black youths. She thinks that the black youths will get decisive initiationuntil they immerse in black culture for finding the harmony between self, community and family. Only in thiscase will the black get initiation of physical and mentality.