Deleuze And Guattari’s Concept Of Flow In Toni Morrison’s Paradise

Toni Morrison is a woman writer who attracts much attention in American literary field. It is not merely because that she is the first black writer who is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. More importantly, every single of her works focuses on the blacks’living conditions and gives powerful attack to the white society. Therefore, they arouse people’s awareness of racial problems and encourage them to re-examine social practices. Paradise is one of these representatives. It, as the first novel since Morrison won the Nobel Prize, continues to explore the possible ways of developing black race. Situated in post-Vietnam War, It narrates stories of two communities-the all-black town and the Convent. To avoid the persecution of racism or sexism, the characters in the novel escape from the society and family and set free the code of flow of desire. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s space theory point out flow is desire. the characters in the novel struggle for fulfilling their flow of desire. the thesis decides to explore Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of flow in Toni Morrison’s Paradise.The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter inquires into the flow in the all-black Ruby town. According to Deleuze and Guattari’s space theory, flow generates deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Deterritorialization breaks traditional social codification while reterritorialization sets up new institutions to recode. Unable to tolerate racial discrimination, pure blacks migrate and construct their town twice. Their Exodus claims the deterritorialization of white supremacism. When the town is built, they reterritorialize the disordered racial space by sanctifying past history and observing rigid patriarchy. In such a way, pure blacks are labeled as the superior race.Chapter Two analyzes the flow in the Convent. Line of flight is absolute deterritorialization. Beyond deterritorialization, it brings powerful life force. Five women dare to escape from family and society, which claim their deterritorialization of racism and sexism. However, different from the Rubyites, the women do not hurry to set rules. Instead they release themselves and enjoy bodily and spiritual freedom. They become lines of flight during the realization of self-value, which instills vitality to their community.Chapter Three discusses how to become a true earthly paradise by comparing the conditions of Ruby and the Convent. Fulfilling the flow of desire can bring energy and thus promote prosperity. Fear of outer persecution, Ruby conforms to absolute exclusivity and represses its residents’flow of desire. Its close-door policy leads to social stagnation, moral corruption and even depopulation. Their protective paradise is collapsing. The Convent, on the contrary, positively embraces changes outside. It welcomes people from different racial and social background. Its open policy stimulates development and makes the community an ideal paradise for its refugees. However, the Ruby fathers blame the retrogression to the innocent women in the Convent and violently expel them. Fortunately, the tragedy triggers the Rubyites’reconsideration of their policy. They begin to accept new ideas and liberate the flow of desire. A vigorous Ruby comes into being.By the study and analysis proposed above, the thesis strives to probe into the importance of the fulfillment of flow of desire to development. As what Toni Morrison manages to express in Paradise, instead of repressing the flow of desire, actively encouraging the pursuit of flow can bring development and prosperity.