A Biblical Archetypal Reading Of Toni Morrison’s Novels: Beloved And Song Of Solomon

Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in1993, the first American writerwith African origin obtaining this glory. She creates many fictions among those the mostpopular are her masterpiece Beloved and her first novel with the male hero Song ofSolomon. Both of the two novels utilize and absorb the biblical elements in order to vividlydepict the characters and deepen the theme.This thesis aims to conduct a biblical archetypal reading of Beloved and Song ofSolomon based on the Northrop Frye’s theory of archetype. In addition to the introductorypart and the conclusion part, this thesis consists of three parts.The introduction part mainly introduces Toni Morrison’s life and her literaryachievements, the relevant study on her and her works both abroad and domestic and anintroduction of archetypal criticism with a focus on Northrop Frye’s theory of archetype.Chapter One mainly deals with the archetypal characters reflected in Beloved andSong of Solomon. Section A concentrates on the image of Jesus Christ embodied in the twonovels which can be divided into two categories: the “scapegoat” Jesus Christ and the“saver” Christ. Section B focuses on the mother prototype including Eve and Hagar:namely, the first one (Eve) is full of love and vitality for nature and life, but her offspringsuffer the misery due to Eve’s sin; another (Hagar) is a weak and timid mother who lossesher self-identity.Chapter Two makes a detailed analysis of the two novels in terms of archetypal theme.This is to be done from three aspects: the theme of degeneration, the theme of love and thetheme of death and rebirth. The themes expressed in Morrison’s novels are the subversionof the traditional idea in order to display the distorted identity of the African Americansunder the white culture hegemony.Chapter Three focuses on the study of archetypal imageries including the apocalypticimagery and demonic imagery. Through the analysis of apocalyptic images including thetree, river as well as demonic imageries including the red roses, number seven and thesnake, it is easy to understand Morrison’s wish and sympathy on those African Americanpeople. She intends to depict Africans who can face the past, the native culture and realize their self-value. Thus the theme of novels gets deepened through those symbolic imageries.The conclusion of the thesis is reached based upon the three chapters above. Duringthe creation of Beloved and Song of Solomon, Morrison applies some biblical prototypes.Her works are about African American people, describing the conflict between them andthe whites, the past and the environment. In order to well express such themes, Morrisonincorporates many biblical elements in her two novels. Through analyzing the relationshipbetween the works and the biblical prototype, we hope to make a better interpretation ofMorrison’s works.