A Study Of Parent-child Relationships In Toni Morrison’s Novels

Toni Morrison who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in1993became the firstAfrican American woman with such a prestigious honor. Her novels are rich in contentand profound in thought, filled with her reflections and concerns about the destiny ofAfrican Americans. This thesis gives a study on the African American parent-childrelationships in Morrison’s novels from the perspectives of cultural studies,psychological analysis and feminist approach while probing into the distortedrelationships between black parents and their children living under racism, and thetragedies that happen to them as a result of the distortion. This thesis specificallyconcentrates on three of Morrison’s representative novels, The Bluest Eye, Beloved andSula, taking into consideration the African American’s history and culture, the position ofAfrican American women in both family and society to analyze how the parent-childrelationships influence the future of African Americans in the white dominated world.The thesis aims to find out the inner connections between the characters’ destiny andtheir respective relationships with their parents or children, so as to find a way forharmonious development of the African American parent-child relationship as it is crucialto the future of African Americans. The parent-child relationships are divided into fourcategories---Indifference and Estrangement, Desperate Love and Control, Rebellion andRevenge, Harmony and Hope. While retrospecting on the past slavery experience and itsnegative impact on the parent-child relationships of African Americans, Morrison alsoshows her hope in the future generations of the Blacks in America. Through themanifestation of some positive types of parent-child relationships in African Americanfamilies, Morrison indicates that with proper guidance from the parents together with thehelp from the black community, it is hopeful to build a harmonious parent-childrelationship in black families. The African Americans can embrace both the black culture and the white culture by keeping their essence in order to pass it on to the next generation.They will finally stand firm on this foreign land and create a future of their own.