The Growth Of Women Characters In Toni Morrison's Novels

As one of the most influential writers, Toni Morrison has published eleven novels and won the Nobel Prize for literature. Morrison's status in literature is not only her personal triumph, but also the success of African American literature and African American nation. Critics mainly comment Morrison's novels from the perspectives of black feminism, post-modernism, post-structuralism, culture studies and so on, whereas few of them have done integrated analysis of her works in terms of African American women's growth. Taking six of Morrison's novels in different periods as examples, this thesis aims to explore African American women's initiation in their resistance against predicaments from race, class and gender and its development.The thesis is divided into four parts. Chapter one is mainly about Morrison's representation of women's miseries and sufferings under the background of slavery, racial discrimination and sexism. Chapter two discusses African American women's unsuccessful growth caused by broken family, self-denial and alienation from the community in The Bluest Eye and Sula. Chapter three takes Beloved and Love as examples to reveal women's progress in the process of growth by their struggling for identities and reuniting with the community, which reveal that their consciousness for growth is awakening. Chapter four demonstrates African American women's successful growth by regaining identities and returning to the community in A Mercy and Home. Facing with the same traumas, protagonists have obtained awakened consciousness for growth with the help of instructors, siblings, and the community.Based on the studies of women's growth in Morrison's six novels at different stages, it is easy to find out that Morrison shows a positive and hopeful tone in her later works. What's more, African American women's initiation has developed and progressed gradually, moving from loss of self in previous works to struggle and revolt in her mid-term novels, to self-reliance and regaining of identities in her later works. The analysis of Morrison's novels helps readers understand their profound themes and development better. What's more, the studies of African American women's growth offer ethnic groups guidance and encouragement.