A Study Of Morrison's Views On Black Women's Self Identity As Reflected In The Bluest Eye

The black American literary circle is decorated with many shining stars and the most typical example is the great achievement of the black women writers. Toni Morrison, the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is the first outstanding black women writer in the history of America. Her works show deep concern for her black sisters'life experience. Her works, contextualized with black, female and American, are deeply rooted in the reality of the blacks searching for living space, self-worth and identity under the influence of the white values. Morrison, therefore, has enjoyed high praise in the critic circle for her vivid portrayals of American black females'lives as well as her elaborate arrangements and writing techniques of her novels.In the 1960s, with the development of female liberation movement and the black civil rights movement, the literary criticism of black feminism flourished. The 1970s is a new period in the history of black feminist criticism. The female critics begin to concern the tradition of the black literary writing, rediscover the legitimate principles of the American and European literary criticism and put forward a series of new theories about identity, race, gender, narration and so on. Barbara Smith, in her 1977 Towards a Black Feminist Criticism, foresaw the future of the black feminist criticism and called on her black sister writers to be daring and innovative. Toni Morrison becomes kind of a forerunner due to her deep concern on the blacks and her inheritance of the black culture tradition. Her first novel The Bluest Eye published in 1970 plays an important role in presenting the plight and struggle of black females who have long been silenced in a white-and-male dominant society. The"Black is Beautiful"movement's result The Bluest Eye attracts the critics at home and abroad and the novel becomes the object of their research.In The Bluest Eye, Morrison renders a lot of black women characters gradually forming two distinct groups: one group of the characters lose their own identity as black females and cut off the connections with their families and their cultural heritage; while the other group embrace their blackness and make tight knits to their black families and community and promulgate their specific values and beliefs. Eventually, the black cultural defenders are the survivals, whereas, the pursuit of false self-identity ends in vain. Though most critics pay more attention to analyzing the black women characters'passive reactions to the standards of white beauty, the present paper also find the possibility of the hope in The Bluest Eye embodied in another group of black female characters'survival-oriented activities which are a form of resistance. This dissertation discusses Morrison's views on black women's self-identity reflected in her first novel on the basis of black feminist theory and white cultural values in relation to her narrative strategies and writing techniques.This dissertation consists of five chapters. Except the introduction and the conclusion, there are three chapters forming the body.The introduction part originates the whole dissertation in that it, referring to the heated response the novel has ever received from all critics since it was off the press, briefly introduces the development of the black feminist criticism with an emphasis on the important role played by Toni Morrison in such a development, makes an overview of the previous studies on The Bluest Eye, and then it straight-forwardly presents the perspectives adopted and issues approached in this dissertation in the study of Morison's first novel.One of Morrison's concerns is to expose the reasons why some black females survive while others do not. The body of the dissertation is devoted to figure out where the dangers are and where the safety might be about the two distinct groups of the black women rendered in the novel. Therefore, one chapter is to examine the impact of the dominant white culture on the individuals, such as the light-skinned follower of white myth Maureen Peal, the Sugar-brown escaper from blackness Geraldine, the failure mother Pauline Breedlove, and especially the typical dark-skinned victim Pecola. Through the detailed analysis of the crushed group of people who live in the dream world and lose their blackness, it is attempted to argue that denying one's own identity and cultural heritage is tragic and dangerous. Then another chapter attempts to discuss the survivals or the resistant black women, such as the southern grandmothers, the three whores, the successful mother Mrs. MacTeer, and especially the fighter Claudia, under the strong influence of white dominated values and the false myth of white superiority, and argues that one possible way to solve the black women's identity crisis is to love one's black self and culture and fight against the gender and racial ideas which ignore the black women's existence. The third chapter of the body thoroughly explores Morrison's way of identifying the black women as reflected in The Bluest Eye concerning Morrison's narrative strategies. The intention of writing the Dick-and-Jane primer is exposed. The disintegration and the interpretation of black women's self-identity are further scrutinized.The final chapter, presenting the practical and theoretical significance of Morrison's black women's self identity, draws a conclusion that characters who lose their own identities are unable to survive under the racist value systems, and characters who embrace their blackness can survive, avoid tragedy and find their worth and authentic existence. It points out that the black sisters'dangers lie in the crisis of their self-identity, and their safety might be to struggle and value their blackness.This dissertation, therefore, is a black feminist exploration of Morrison's views on black women's self-identity in relation to some cultural elements as well as Morrison's narrative strategies. By depicting the two completely different black female characters and focusing on the reasons or the dangers, this dissertation attempts to reveal the importance of the black women's self-identity, rediscover African-Americans'rich culture values, break the silence and help the black females with survival in the white-and-male dominated society. Moreover, at a deeper level, it seeks equality among the women of color in the whole world, a field which remains relatively marginal in the literary study.