A Study Of Bride’s Dilemma And Identity Reconstruction In God Help The Child From The Perspective Of Space Theory

Toni Morrison is one of the outstanding representatives of contemporary American women literature and black literature writers.Her work God Help the Child focuses on the current difficult situation of African Americans in contemporary society and it earns a high reputation around the world.Edward Soja is a famous contemporary postmodern geographer and Neo-Marxism urban scholar.Traditional spatial research mainly analyzes space from the physical and spiritual dimensions,while Soja proposes the third space beyond the dual spaces.The third space is a completely open space that encourages people to innovate their thinking and seek solutions to social problems.His space theory is an innovation in the spatial thinking mode,and also promotes the combination of spatial thinking and literary study.Scholars have conducted research on God Help the Child mostly from trauma theory,feminism,racism,and writing techniques’ exploring,but few from a spatial perspective.Based on Soja’s space theory,this thesis explores the protagonist Bride’s identity loss,struggle and identity reconstruction process.The thesis aims to answer three research questions:(1)How does Bride lose her identity in the physical space?(2)What are the spiritual persecutions of Bride and how does she deal with them?(3)Does Bride successfully reconstruct her identity in the third space?Through investigation,the study draws three conclusions:(1)In physical space,the long-term segregation policy in American history affected Bride’s identity recognition.During her childhood and adulthood,she lived in different houses,and the different life experiences also exacerbated her identity confusion as an African American.(2)In the spiritual space,Bride suffered from spiritual persecutions,including psychological violence from parents,color discrimination and being the slave of consumerism.When she grew up,Bride tried to get rid of her black mark and pursue her identity in the metropolis,but failed.(3)Bride embarked on the journey of rebuilding her identity to escape from confusion and pain.In the third space,Bride reexamined her African-American identity:she eliminated the irrational preference for white things and made friends with white families equally;she also embraced the traditional black culture and integrated into a black family.Bride receives help from people of different colors,gender and classes,and she bravely faces up to her mistake.So finally,she realized self-salvation and rebuilt her identity.Through text analysis,this article explores the possibility of constructing a third space,hoping to provide a new perspective for people to study God Help the Child and better understand the character’s destiny of the new era.