Women’s Survival Truth

The Afro-American novelist Toni Morrison and the Chinese contemporary male writer Mo Yan occupy important places in American and Chinese literature. Both of them are the Noble Prize winners. Their masterpieces Beloved and Big Breasts and Wide Hips bring them huge success. The present study conducts a comparative of two works, interpreting and exploring their similarities and dissimilarities.The similarities include the employment of magical realism and the similar feminist motif. The features of magical realism are embodied in the adoption of Biblical allusions and juxtaposition of magic and reality, in which Biblical allusion is mainly embodied in Christian redemption. The similarities not only reflect its writing features, but express the similar themes of oppression and sufferings of black women and Chinese women. As a black female writer, Toni Morrison shows much solicitude for the destiny of black women. Mo Yan feels a great affection and sympathy for his mother. His main purpose in delineating the weak men is to accentuate the strong but oppressive Chinese women.Magical realism employs the writing techniques of Western modernism and postmodernism, such as:symbol and Gothic and grotesque creation. The differences are expressed in the usage of these techniques for different impacts. Beloved is influenced by postcolonialism and it incorporates African belief and cultures, but Big Breasts and Wide Hips is influenced by postmodernist pastoralism and it encompasses Chinese folk-lore and cultures. Besides, the heartbreaking mother-and-daughter and mother-and-son relationships are shown in Beloved’s pre-Oedipus complex and Shangguan Jintong’s Oedipus complex respectively. These tactics of magical realism express their unique and rich cultures. Respectively, Toni Morrison and Mo Yan probe broad aspects of society and humanity. Morrison recaptures the silenced black history and exposes that the love of mother and daughter is deformed under the slavery. Mo Yan reveals violence and turbulence lasting nearly one century in China. The absence of father and the distorted growing process of men (Shangguan Jintong) result in the failed patriarch.Through the comparison of the masterpieces of Toni Morrison and Mo Yan, the thesis finds that they both inherit the Latin American magical realism while the developments of magical realism in America and China are very different from each other for two writers’ distinct personal experiences, cultural backgrounds and social surroundings. Thus it further enriches magical realism. They both show the deep concerns for the fate of the black women and the Chinese women respectively. Morrison re-visions the forgotten history of black people and brutality and inhumanity of slavery. Mo Yan reveals the retrogression of masculinity of males and the decay of patriarchy.