Some Characteristics Of Beloved As Black Womanist Writing

Some Characteristics of Beloved as Black Womanist Writing Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel Prize Winner of Literature, is one of the most distinguished black woman writers in American literary canon. Beloved, one of her finest fiction, is based on a true historical occurrence. According to historical documents, a slave mother, Margaret Garner, killed her daughter and tried to kill herself when slave owners came to capture her and her children. Morrison is stimulated by the reporting and determines to find what is the essence that a loving mother had to use a handsaw to her own child while claiming it was salvation and love. As one of the former slave's descendent, Morrison thinks there is a vacant in the traditional slave narrative, and she is compelled to restore their authentic voice, to "rip the veil" in this modern slave narrative-Beloved. Morrison centers on exploring the psychology of the female protagonist, Sethe, to tell a slave mother's painful experience under slavery system. Morrison resolves around exploring maternal love and to what extent it was damaged under the specific circumstance-slavery. Due to her black and woman identity, the novel is deeply grounded in Afro-American culture and womanist experience and feeling. Besides these elements, Morrison is also very sensitive to color, so it is used as an important imagery and symbolism in Beloved to present the characters' authentic psychological process. This thesis is divided into five parts. Introduction gives an overview of the background of the production and reception of Beloved to illustrate that it is one of Morrison's finest fictions. It also presents the chief points of the thesis. Chapter I explores Morrison's poetic language in Beloved, discussing three aspects, the black folk music, the Blues and the lyrical language. Chapter II concerns itself with the womanist elements in Beloved and discusses women's experience: monthly flow, pregnancy and nursing. This chapter talks about the damage to maternal love caused by slavery. Chapter III probes that color is used as important imagery and symbolism in Beloved. The last part gives the conclusion of the whole thesis.