An Analysis Of Alienation In Toni Morrison’s Trilogy: Beloved, Jazz, And Paradise

As the first African American woman writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison is one of the greatest writers in the contemporary literary world. Toni Morrison reveals her concern about alienation in her representative works—historical trilogy Beloved,Jazz and Paradise. In addition, when dealing with alienation problem, Morrison more considers from the black community internally, that is to say, reflecting on these distorted and alienated relationships from the black nation’s own perspective. This thesis interprets the trilogy from the perspective of alienation, emphasizing the analysis of self-alienation and interpersonal alienation, and reflects on alienation based on the above analysis. Wherein,the analysis of self-alienation consists of the analysis of female self-alienation and male self-alienation. The analysis of interpersonal alienation is conducted on the alienated relationship between mother and children, between husband and wife, and among community residents. Through the interpretation of alienation in the trilogy, the author aims to raise the attention to female subjectivity,community,tradition and history,thus helping the contemporary people identify themselves, live in harmony and avoid alienation, and thereby helping construct a real harmonious society.