Subversion And Reconstruction:Toni Morrison’s Delicate Characterization Of African Americans

Though Toni Morrison,the outstanding African American woman writer,has been widely studied,her innovation in the characterization of the African American remains latent.Focusing on the African American history,traditional culture and its future,Morrison demonstrates in her fictions African Americans’ bewilderment and their exploration.The present author argues that Morrison creates novel and “round” African American characters,subverting various stereotypical “flat” characters who are rigidly docile,imbecile,bellicose…by previous white and black writers.Having studied and compared Morrison’s African American characters with those in pre-Morrison era,such as Mammy in Gone with the Wind,Bigger in Native Son,and the heroes in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn respectively,and so on,the present author tries to explore and expound covert messages or innuendos embodied in those luminous images of rebellious and sapient characters seeking identity and striving for freedom in some of Morrison’s representative works.