The Return Of The Exile

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is known for epic novels about African Americans.She writes about their troubled history in which black slaves struggle against ruthlessphysical as well as spiritual control and abuse in order to reveal the cruelty of slavery.In her tenth novel Home, Morrison not only expresses her sympathy for theirsufferings and concerns their destiny, but more importantly, she conveys that to gainfull citizenship and end being exiles, one possible solution for African Americans is toshow recognition to their own cultural identity.Since its publication, Home has attracted critics from some well known journalincluding Time magazine and literary journals. In terms of the writing skills, it isacknowledged that Home is a continuation of Morrison’s previous novels. Somecritics point out that Home shows Morrison’s concern for African Americans’ livingcondition while others focus on the new theme of this novel. Based on theseinspirational research accomplishments and supported by Symbolism, the presentthesis will analyze the symbolic figures and events used by Morrison in Home andreveal the theme of return, which indicates that one possible option for AfricanAmericans to end being exiles in their own country is to unite and form their owncultural identity.The present thesis is composed of three parts, the introduction, the main body andthe conclusion.The first part of the present thesis is an introduction which includes a briefintroduction to Toni Morrison and Home, literature review, a brief introduction to theorigin, development, and main principle of Symbolism. Part two is the main body ofthe thesis and is further divided into Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three.Chapter one and two analyze the major African American characters and main eventsin the novel, investigating their present life and mentality that are seriously damaged in a post-war and meanwhile extremely racists society, revealing their pursuit andtheir longing for return. Chapter Three mainly discusses when the siblings go back totheir hometown, where they find their lost identity to reveal the theme of return. In theend, the thesis reveals how Morrison could African Americans find their own identity,which are to move on from their traumatic history, find their own cultural identity andAfrican Americans unite together. The conclusion part is a summary of the presentthesis explaining the possibility of digging out the theme of return supported bysymbolism.