An Interpretation Of The Male Protagonists’ Self-exploring In Song Of Solomon From The Perspective Of Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory

Toni Morrison is the first female African American writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and makes a profound impact on contemporary American literature. Morrison’s works have taken root in the American black history and reality. They reflect the black spiritual world and destiny, illustrating the confusion and dilemma of the black from different angles. Song of Solomon is Morrison’s third novel which won the National Book Critics Circle Awards in 1978. This novel is a very representative one among all her works in exploring the history, culture and spiritual world of the black, mainly telling the story of Afro-American’s self-exploring.Jacque Lacan is a famous western psychological analyst. He put forward the Mirror Stage theory in 1936. On the basis of Lacan’s concept, the human being’s inner world goes through three different stages:pre-mirror stage, mirror stage and post-mirror stage. The three main black male characters Macon, Guitar and Milkman in Song of Solomon all experience the three different stages of Mirror Stage theory. In the light of Lacan’s Mirror Stage and its viewpoint of "self" and "other", this thesis analyzes the three male black protagonists’ process of psychological development and identity quest to interpret their different results of self-exploring.This thesis consists of five chapters.The first chapter is a brief introduction to Toni Morrison, her writing Song of Solomon and literature review about this novel.The second chapter introduces the theoretical basis:Lacan’s Mirror Stage theory, the viewpoint of "self’ and "other" in it.The third chapter focuses on the analysis of the three male protagonists in pre-mirror stage. It describes the dislocated manifestations of "self’ under the influence of racial discrimination: the bleached black capitalist Macon, the radical Black Nationalist Guitar and the rootless black lad Milkman.The fourth chapter focuses on the identity quest of the three male protagonists in mirror stage. They are all in search for their "self" in the mirror image of the "other", but in the process of "self" quest they select different "other" and take different approaches. Macon chooses the way of chasing the material wealth, Guitar chooses the way of blind revenge, while Milkman draws support from the lifting force of introspection and the driving force of women.The fifth chapter describes the status of the three male protagonists’psychological development, summarizing the results of their self-constructing through the "other", revealing their different destines in the end. Macon and Guitar are both in search for their "self" in the inaccurate mirror image, thus their self-constructing fails and they are away from the cultural identity of the black. Milkman and only he has completed the reconstruction of self identity, attaining the rebirth of the black culture spirit.Analyzing the three male protagonists’ progress of psychological development from the perspective of Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory, this paper illustrates that the self-identifications are all established in Mirror Stage and the certainty of self identity is closely related to Mirror Stage and the "other". Only by combining the "self’ and the "other", accepting the culture and history of African Americans, along with identifying with black identity, can the black find their roots. African Americans thus will acquire their places in modern American society which considers the white culture as the mainstream, and gain the freedom and independence of spirit authentically.