From Isolation To Integration:the Revelation Of Paradise

Toni Morrison, one of the most important black women writers in contemporary American literature, was the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in1993. Toni Morrison is mainly concerned about the issues of black cultural construction in her writings. She stresses that African Americans should step out of self-enclosure, abandon deep-rooted racism. Paradise focuses on how African Americans seek of emancipation in the development of black culture.Set in the period between1960s and1970s, Paradise delineates the conflicts between the isolated black communities (Haven and Ruby) and the neighboring Convent. In Paradise, the black people establish a relatively independent community which is proved to be an utopia in the end. And the black people’s pursuing of freedom and prosperity eventually evolves into a bloody killing. This thesis aims to analyze why their ideal paradise is destroyed in three aspects:internalized racism, rigid hierarchy, and strict patriarchy. This thesis contends that it is unrealistic to establish an ideal utopia featuring in alienation, isolation and exclusivism.Thus, for Toni Morrison, in order to realize the dream of establishing a paradise for the blacks, they should, first of all, eliminate the racism internalized in the black’s mind, and fully integrate into the society which includes both blacks and whites. Secondly, they should erase the class polarization, and strive for the equality shared by every one. Finally, they should eradicate the patriarchal ideology, and seek for gender equality and harmony. In modern society, it is imperative that one should strive to establish a paradise tolerating differences in race, gender and class.