On The Influence Of The Bible In The Work Of Black Writers

Toni Morrison is a famous American black writer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993. Critics have done a lot of research on her works since their publication. The mythical and archetypal elements in her novels have attracted the critical attention, but the comprehensive studies on them aren't still enough.This thesis analyzes the four aspects including quotations from the Bible, characters, plots and narrative patterns according to Northrop Fry's archetypal criticism. It aims to discuss the in-depth significance and then is connected with the future of the black culture to show Toni Morrison's opinions. My employment of archetypal criticism will be illustrative rather than theoretical and it will be subordinate to the textual analysis. And what I will expound is more social or political than aesthetic.The body is composed of four chapters. Chapter one is a brief introduction to Fry's archetypal criticism. Chapter two is about The Bible as literature and its influence. Chapter three is an analysis of texts on basis of classifying the biblical archetype. Firstly, quotations from the Bible include names of characters, books and places, which create a Biblical atmosphere. Images such as cross, Eden, alter, etc appear in the novels. Secondly, I will analyze the archetypal characters in Sula, The Song of Solomon, Beloved and Paradise. Sula's image bears some resemblance to God, Eva's image to Satan and Shadrack's image to the biblical Shadrach. There're so many images in the other three novels. Thirdly, Paul D escaping from slavery can be compared with the biblical flood, and Zechariah with Moses who led Israelis out of Egypt. Finally, I will discuss archetypal narrative pattern of the novels: the U-shaped pattern. One example is the friendship between Sula and Nel in Sula, the other is about Sethe's experience. Their friendship starts when Sula meets Nel, breaks because of Sula's adultery with Jude, Nel's husband, and at last is regained. In chapter four, I will discuss reason and significance of the archetypal analyze. Toni Morrison's works have a double text from the archetypal angel. Her works are a combination of the present with the past black history. The black in America have accepted it after their awkward and helpless relation with the Bible, because the Bible as myth expresses something that is shared by the black. Toni Morrison maintains that the black should learn forgetting the miserable history and reconstruct their own culture and co-exist with the white in harmony. The comic U-shaped pattern also conveys Toni Morrison's confidence in her own culture.The conclusion summarizes the thesis and stresses the significance of Morrison employment of archetypes in her novels, which not only adds to the readability and profundity of her novels, but also intensifies Morrison's opinion about the black culture and its relation with the white culture.