Others,singularity,and Ethics

Toni Morrison is one of the greatest contemporary American novelists,who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.Her works are intensely emotional,brief and poetic,and known for their acute observations of African American life.God Help the Child(2015)is Morrison's 11~thh novel,which is her first novel concerning contemporary American social life.Based on the event theory of Derek Attridge,this thesis aims at interpreting events of the novel from the perspectives of others,singularity,and ethics,analyzing the skin color's effect on personal development,and displaying the role of the author and the reader,to obtain the deep meaning of the work.This paper is divided into five chapters:Chapter One introduces the author and her works,the overseas and domestic study of God Help the Child,the introduction and interpretation of the event theory of Derek Attridge,the significance and the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two makes a clear introduction to the others in the novel,including black people's situation and Bride's situation in society.First of all,compared with white people,black people are the others and suffer from racial discrimination and unfair treatment in many ways.Secondly,the protagonist Bride,a black girl,also becomes the other in the black community and is subjected to injuries from the people with the same color.From being isolated to being accepted,the awakening of self-consciousness plays a crucial role in the improvement of status.Chapter Three expounds the singularity of the event theory:repeatability and causality.With the analysis of the relationship between Bride and Sweetness and the brotherhood between Booker and Adam,the repeatability of emotions is showed.In addition,through describing the connection between Bride and Sofia,Rain and Mr.and Mrs.Steve,the causality between trauma and growth is showed.Chapter Four uses ethics to interpret events in terms of the hospitality of the reader and the inventiveness of the author.The participation of the reader and the author makes the work more complete.Readers realize hospitality through literary language and background while Morrison exerts black culture,especially black music and multiple narrative techniques to realize inventiveness.The combination of hospitality and inventiveness increases the depth of thinking between literary problems and practical concerns and expands the connotation and extension of the work.Chapter Five draws a conclusion that the event theory of Derek Attridge interprets the events of the novel from others,singularity,and ethics.Through the description of the events,Morrison discloses the unspeakable pain of the black people,women,and children in the society,and uses events to speak for their own experiences and trauma.Toni Morrison pays great attention to the difficult spiritual transformation process of children,and their self-construction and inner liberation.