A Study On The Alienation In Jazz From Fromm's Psychoanalytic Perspective

Toni Morrison is one of the most famous contemporary African-American writers,and her representative works include The Bluest Eye,Sula,Song of Solomon,Jazz,Beloved and Paradise.Of these works,Jazz published in 1992 is a part of her trilogy of history.The background of this novel is set in a north City of America in the year of 1926.In this novel Toni Morrison tells a distorted triangle love,records the main characters' isolated and insecure living condition,and reveals the inner trauma of the black.The main characters in this novel have lost their parents since their childhood,which causes their unsatisfied basic needs for preservation and inner trauma.Therefore,they eventually cannot escape from the destiny of being alienated.Based on close reading of this novel,this thesis attempts to systematically analyze the reflections of the alienation on the main characters,the external and internal causes of their alienation and their ways to return to sanity from the perspective of Fromm's psychoanalysis.This thesis consists of five parts: Introduction,Chapter One,Chapter Two,Chapter Three and Conclusion.Introduction mainly introduces Toni Morrison and her works,discusses the themes of Jazz,and reviews the studies of Jazz both abroad and at home,elaborates Erich Fromm's concept of alienation,and talks about the perspective of the study and the significance of this thesis.Chapter One summarizes the alienated forms of the main characters Violet Trace,Joe Trace and Dorcas Manfred in Jazz basing on the alienation theory of Erich Fromm.They are the poor people who marginalize their own subjects,and they can feel their own existence only bydepending on the outside power.Violet loves a phantom golden boy and internalizes his perfect image.She can feel her own potential power by relying on the imaginary boy.Joe is a male character,but he is willing to give up his own thoughts and values and submits to his lover when he is in the process of building his identity.While Dorcas yearns for the controlling of the external authoritative power in which she can achieve her self-realization.Eventually,all of them satisfy themselves from their submission to their lovers,so they are alienated in the relationship with themselves as well as with others.Chapter Two analyzes the external and internal reasons for the alienation of the main characters.As for the external reasons,the main characters of this novel move into the north from the south for pursuing a better life,but they encounter the terrible racist violence and feel the overwhelming loneliness when they live in the white-dominated City.Finally,they survive themselves from insecurity and loneliness through alienation.The outside danger makes their alienation exposed,but their inner loss has ever planted the seeds of alienation for a long time.Their desire for the primary mother-child bond is clamoring,and for getting a temporary satisfaction,they are forced to find a substitute.For relating with the substitute and feeling their own self,they eventually give up their own subjects,and alien from themselves as well as others.Chapter Three analyzes the ways the three main characters employ to get rid of alienation.After Violet is betrayed by her husband,she regards her rival in love as her lost daughter.Because of her love to Dorcas,she regains the lost mother-daughter bond,and she eventually returns to a happy life through her love to her husband and her family.Joe kills his lover Dorcas,a violent act that helps him overcome his alienation and return to peace.However,Dorcas achieves her self-realization and escapes from the abyss of loneliness and insecurity through her act of self-destructiveness.Conclusion points out that the alienation of the main characters in Jazz is an unavoidable destiny in the society controlled by the white mainstream consciousness.On the one hand,the problems left over by history in America cause the loss of their primary ties,and on the other hand,they have suffered much from the violence and bias in the white-dominated society.Therefore,their inner heart is always filled with loneliness and insecurity.For getting rid of these feelings,they are forced to abandon their own subjects and alienate to themselves and toothers.When they want to rebuild themselves and overcome alienation,there are only two ways.The first is to destroy,and the other is to achieve the individual integrity through the love in family and the love in community.Therefore,it is clear from the experiences of the characters in this novel that the best way to overcome alienation is to achieve the individual integrity in love if they desire to return to peace and happiness.