The Ethical Connotations In The Context Of Multi-racial Symbiosis

As one of the peaks in Afro-American literature history,Toni Morrison created many literary works about the history and destiny of the black race.She was concerned about the unequal relationship between the black race and the white race,and the survival and ethical predicaments of the blacks in her important works.With these recurrent themes,Morrison criticized the white-dominating value system and moral orders of American society,showing her own value judgments through the ethical selections of the characters in her novels.A Mercy was her ninth novel that was published in 2008,which not only inherited the consistent themes of her previous literary works,but also had new cultural and ethical connotations: Firstly,Morrison returned to the historic and ethical scene of the 17 th century to paint a multi-racial symbiosis picture,exploring the status quo of multiple races,the relationships between the blacks and the whites,and the spiritual and living conditions of the black race before the emergence of slavery.Secondly,she presented the ethical predicaments of the black and white races to break the inherent cognition that the blacks were born as slaves and the ethical concept of white supremacy.Finally,Morrison embraced the past to confront the present in A Mercy,pointing out the feasibility of the harmonious multi-racial symbiosis in American society.The research questions of this thesis are: why does Morrison trace the history of the American continent in the 17th-century at the beginning of the 21 st century? What is Morrison’s intention in presenting a picture of multi-racial symbiosis in the17th-century American continent? How has Morrison’s ethical stance changed in A Mercy? This thesis argues that Morrison sets foot on the present,looks back to the past,and looks forward to the future.She sets the background of this novel in the late17th-century North America,and slavery doesn’t come into being at that time: the whites,the blacks,Indians,and mixed races coexist in the American land where some white people are deeply enslaved,and other black people are completely free in bodies and spirits.In A Mercy,Morrison explores the history of the black enslavement by tracing the historical past and concludes that the slavery is not inherent,but constructed and legalized step by step by the whites.Through depicting the ethical predicament of the black girl Florens and her ethical selections,Morrison shows the problem of black people’s inner slavery,and then questions whether the spirits of the black race are “healthy”.Morrison aims to break the cognitive shackles associated with slavery and skin colors by returning to the historical site and writing about the ethical predicaments of people from different races.This thesis employs some core concepts of ethical literary criticism,such as ethical predicament,ethical confusion,ethical identity,ethical selection,and ethical stance etc.,to interpret the ethical issues in A Mercy.By returning to the special ethical environment and ethical scene of the 17th-century American continent that the novel is set against,this thesis focuses on the ethical connotations of the novel to dwell on Morrison’s new ethical stance on racial issues: liberating the soul and getting rid of internal slavery are essential for the development of the black race.The black people must adhere to their national culture,changing the cognitive shackles about skin colors,and reestablishing cultural confidence.There are five parts in this thesis:the first part includes the introductions on Morrison’s literary achievement,A Mercy and its literature review,the core concepts of ethical literary criticism,and the structure of the thesis;the second part explores the body ethics and spiritual dilemma of the characters’ in Morrison’s major works and analyzes the ethical discussions systematically;the third part discusses the ethical connotations,ethical environment and the ethical issues of the main characters in A Mercy: the ethical dilemma of black mother minha m(?)e’s abandoning daughter for love presents the the blacks’ ethical predicaments in the 17th-century North American;the ethical selections of the white woman Rebekka’s rejecting the mainstream religion and turning to the black blacksmith after encountering the destroyed ethical identities show Morrison’s questioning to the ethical concept of white supremacy;the beauty of the Indian woman Lina’s body and her ethical selection of self-salvation enlighten the importance of inner liberation for the black race;the ethical confusion and growth experiences of the black girl Florens show Morrison’s writing the blacks’ cognitive turn on ethical stance and the internal slavery of the blacks;the fourth part probes into the didactic function of the ethical issues in A Mercy.She shows her questioning for the white ethical concepts.Therefore,based on this questioning,she puts forward the strategies of inner liberation for the blacks: rebuilding the body and cultural confidence;and she embraces the past to confront the present in A Mercy,signifying the feasibility of harmonious multi-racial symbiosis in American society by painting a picture of the multi-racial symbiosis in the 17th-century American continent.Significantly,this thesis can provide some new perspectives for studying the issues of multi-racial symbiosis in America: Morrison traced back the 17th-century“North America” in the 21 st century,presenting its original appearance and development of racial history.She connected the present with the past,revised the cognition that the blacks were born as slaves by excavating the roots of historical development,and explored the possibility of multi-racial symbiosis.This multi-racial symbiosis history in A Mercy also has certain didactic meanings for the black race.With the accumulation of painful historical past,the blacks should remember the historical past,shoulder responsibilities for reconstructing the national identity and culture,thus building up body politics and cultural confidence.