From The Ethical Perspective:a Mercy And Beloved

Toni Morrison is one of the most distinguished writers both in the USA and the whole world. Not only because she is the first African American female writer in the history who won the Nobel Prize, but also for her unique angles and glamorous texts which are highly evaluated by the readers and critics. Morrison tries to go into the race and gender identity and takes black culture back to modern critics. Morrison has written for over40years, and she never stops thinking about black women, black culture and their relationship with American social condition. The backgrounds of A Mercy and Beloved are different, but both of them show readers the same ethical conception of the writer. The black women in Morrison’s novels are suffering the pains, and their actions reflect the deviation and abdication of ethics. Morrison tries to ask her readers what on earth love, sacrifice and responsibility mean to the growth of black women. This thesis will discuss Morrison’s A Mercy and Beloved from the three aspects of ethics:survival ethics, family ethics and interpersonal ethics.This thesis is divided into six parts:Chapter1gives a brief introduction to the life experiences, writing history, and literary achievements of Toni Morrison; the researches on A Mercy and Beloved at home and abroad are also mentioned here. Chapter2introduces the relationship between ethics and literature, and the differences between ethics and moral and the three main branches of ethics:survival ethics, family ethics and interpersonal ethics reflected in African-American society and family. From Chapter3to chapter5, the three aspects of ethics are discussed in details. Both of the mothers in A Mercy and Beloved have hurt their babies, and the motherhood and sisterhood in Bluestone and Jacob’s farm are discussed here. The third part of this chapter puts emphasis on the influences of black society and culture, which are very important to the growth and development of black women.The last part is the conclusion. It concludes the analysis on ethical concepts of two novels, and Morrison’s deep concern for the marginalized black women which shows her insight into history, society and the human heart. In addition, it figures out a direction for the existence and development of black women under the double-pressure social circumstance.