An Analysis Of Beloved From The Perspective Of Registry Theory

With her great creative genius,Toni Morrison,the prominent African American female writer,has brought African American works to the forefront of classical literature.Her works consistently focus on the history and future of black people,exposing the effects of slavery and racial discrimination on black people,and expressing her concern and sympathy for her fellow citizens.In her exploration into the black subjects’ spiritual world,the path of their heart,their trauma,along with their agitation,desire,the search for self,Morrison expresses her hope that her black compatriots will recognize their own value of survival,seek dignity and self-sufficiency,and maintain their own values and cultural traditions.Morrison’s masterwork Beloved tells the tale of a slave called Sethe,who fled from the Sweet Home to Cincinnati with her kid while she was pregnant.The slave owner followed up and,in order to prevent the child from fallen into the hands of the slave master,she ruthlessly murdered the baby.Beloved has been vastly explored from the myriad perspectives of literary theories,both in and outside China,and only a handful of approaches to this novel is from the standpoint of linguistic theories.This research seeks to reinterpret the text using Halliday’s register theory and is therefore an attempt to add to approaches to Morrison’s text from the linguistic perspectives.The term “register” refers to the differences in language that arise as a result of the diverse contexts in which language is employed.According to Halliday,the register can includes three types: field,tenor,and mode.The theme and content of communication is referred to as the field,and it has a significant impact on the choice of speech,language,and grammar used in the communication process.Tenor reflects the defining features of the characters and reveals the relationship between the two sides of communication.Mode relates to the manner in which information is sent,or what type of communication is used to transmit different types of information.This dissertation argues that the three variations of register theory correspond to the text analysis of Beloved.From the perspective of field,this paper reveals the theme of Beloved,and through an analysis of the phonetic,syntactic,and lexical features of the language variants used in the conversation of the main characters,the paper discovers that the author prefers to use black English when expressing the text’s theme,and standard English when involving objective textual narration,which reproduces the language varieties of African American literature.From the perspective of tenor,this study examines the relationship and personalities of the key characters,and finds that,against the backdrop of slavery,the relationship between the main characters is exceedingly complex,and the main characters’ personalities is also extremely conflicting.Each character is thoroughly depicted by the author during this procedure and these characters in Morrison’s books are no longer marginalized groupings,but individuals with flesh and blood and sentiments.From the perspective of mode,this study examines Morrison’s narrative skills,including monologue,multi-angle narration,and African music,demonstrating the reconstruction of black characters’ self-identity and the author’s inheritance of African cultureBeloved depicts the survival plight of black slaves during slavery and the spiritual anguish that black slaves experienced after slavery was abolished.As our analysis indicates,the theme and character of the text can be revealed through communication methods and content,and by analyzing the discourse of the key characters,we may highlight the misery and helplessness of black slaves in the framework of slavery,and finally the realization of self identification.This study demonstrates how linguistic theory can be used to analyze literary texts that might hopefully broadens the scope of the application of linguistic theory in literary analysis.