刘悦论文.docx

1、刘悦论文天津农学院毕 业 论 文中文题目:浅析最蓝的眼睛中的黑人精神世界英文题目: An Analysis of the Spiritual World of the Blacks in The Bluest Eye 学生姓名 刘 悦 系 别 人文社会科学系 专业班级 2006级英语专业3班 指导教师 张 霞 成绩评定 2010年6月An Analysis of the Spiritual World of the Blacks in The Bluest EyeA Thesis Presented to theFaculty of HumanitiesTianjin Agricultural

2、 UniversityIn Partial Fulfillmentof the Requirements for the DegreeBachelor of ArtsbyLiu YueJune, 2010ContentsAbstract(in Chinese) IAbstract(in English) III. Introduction 1II. Toni Morrison and The Bluest Eye 42.1 Toni Morrison 42.2 Toni Morrisons literary achievements and influences 52.3 Toni Morri

3、son and black culture 6III. Characterization in The Bluest Eye 83.1 The Breedloves family 83.1.1 Pecolas spiritual world 93.1.2 The source of tragedy 103.2 The Geraldine family 123.2.1 Geraldines spiritual worldwhite complex 123.2.2 Victim of indifference 133.3 The Macteer family Claudias self-confi

4、dence and self-appreciation 14IV. Multiple Consciousnesses in Identity Confirmation 184.1 The love for black self 184.2 The love for black family 204.3 The love for black culture 21V. Conclusion 25Works Cited 27Acknowledgements 28摘 要本文以托尼莫里森的经典作品最蓝的眼睛为研究对象，从文化的角度，对黑人被扭曲的精神世界进行研究。此作品中并没有直接描写种族压迫，种族冲突

5、，但是种族主义却以一种非常微妙的形式即占社会主导地位的白人审美观念支配整个世界。本文通过对最蓝的眼睛中三个家庭的分析，揭示白人强势文化下扭曲的黑人心灵的主题。本文的目的在于揭示了一个事实，美国黑人只有尊重和继承民族文化价值和审美观，才能在以白人文化为主流的美国社会健康生存。莫里森注意到把黑人寻求自我的历程与黑人在当代发展自我的历程紧密相连，启发整个民族寻找生存与发展的道路。关键词：最蓝的眼睛； 黑人的精神世界；白人文化；AbstractThe essay makes detailed analysis of Tony Morrisons work The Bluest Eye to study

6、 the distorted spiritual world of blacks from the cultural level. In the novel the racial oppression and racial conflict are not directly portrayed. This essay is to reveal how racism affects the black peoples life in a subtle yet profound waythe standard of white beauty controls the whole world. Th

7、e analysis of three families in The Bluest Eye reveals the theme of distorted mentality of black people in the dominant master culture. This paper presents that the practical and sensible way for the black people to survive in the white culture is to value and maintain the ethical heritage. Toni Mor

8、rison realized that it is necessary to develop black culture for holding it ground. Only by combining seeking for themselves with the developing of the black in modern society, the Blacks can master its future.Key words: The Bluest Eye; The spiritual world of blacks; White cultureAn Analysis of the

9、Spiritual World of the Blacks in The Bluest EyeLiu Yue (Faculty of Humanities, Tianjin Agricultural University). IntroductionToni Morrison，the1993 Nobel Prize winner, is an African American woman writing in the latter part of the twentieth century. As a woman of many talents and major voice in black

10、 writing，she comes from a hardworking，industrious black people who actively fight racial oppression and inferior social and economic status. In a 1974 interview，Toni Morrison asserted: “I want to participate in developing a cannon of Black work” (Wang Xiaohuan 66). Indeed, Morrison has not only part

11、icipated in the evolving cannon of Black American literature but has done much to influence, expand, and solidify the place created by its vanguard, including Phyllis Wheatey, Frederick Douglass and so on.The African American literature has been placed outside the white-centered literature for a lon

12、g time. It thrived in the 1920s (the Harlem Renaissance). Many excellent writers appeared, such as Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. In their works, they just mainly described the life and struggle of the black male characters, and mainly talked about how the black male characters were tortured in t

13、he white society and explored how they could survive wholly. The black women were only arranged as marginal characters.Not until the 1970s, along with the achievements the African American women writers got, did more and more people pay attention to their creative activities. Even many critics shift

14、ed their focus on them. Unlike their predecessors, African American women writers have paid more attention to the inner world of the black female characters. They depict the life and thoughts of the black women vividly. All these African American women writers achieve greatly and express their ideas

15、 and thoughts through their works. They are the representatives of the black women and call for the rights for the voiceless black women. Among them, Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent African American woman writers.Morrison became the first African American woman to have seven novels to cre

16、dit. It is an achievement gained by only a few black male writers. Her commitment to representing and preserving the qualities of African American cultural life in her novel and to voicing self and identity for all blacks may be traced to her early life.In 1993, Toni Morrison was the first black wom

17、an to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The Swedish Academy praised her as “who, in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality” (Wang Xiaohuan 98). While giving a lecture at Princeton, Morrison was asked by a student “who

18、 she wrote for”. She swiftly replied “I want to write for people like me, which is to say, black people, curious people, demanding people people who cant be faked, people who dont need to be patronized, people who have very, very high criteria” (Mckay 86). To this day, Morrison continues to employ h

19、er “very, very high criteria” to challenge herself as both an educator and a writer.Toni Morrisons first novel encourages many blacks to speak for the first time about the enormous damage to the psyche which results from trying to adopt an alien standard of beauty (Mckay 88). In writing the novel, M

20、orrison hopes to fill void in western literature: to reflect the strong, proud world from which she and other African Americans emerge. In so doing, she gives voice to black girls whose self-images are negatively influenced by the large society. Morrison has crafted a critical work that even after 3

21、0 years is of great significance in American life. The Bluest Eye is a must read for people who wish to understand the complexities of racial identity formation for people of color, and it is particularly important in coming to terms with the spiritual and emotional contradictions that often result

22、from internalized oppression.Toni Morrison in the novel The Bluest Eye, discusses how the African American should treat their black self-existence and self-identity in American society, and puts this problem as the theme of this novel, which is also the theme of her later fictions. In this novel, di

23、fferent people from different ways, and different people from different perspectives treat this problem in different ways, and different ways produce different results. At last the protagonist Pecola and her family lose their self-identity in the process, while Claudia, the three whores and people l

24、ike them survive as a whole. Through the different experiences of the characters, Morrison also explores the reasons why it is so difficult for black women to achieve the definition of womanhood ascribed to by American society and still “remain true to their racial identity”. At the same time, the w

25、riting techniques Morrison uses in this novel help to express its theme successfully, which also makes the novel more attractive to the public reading. This paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter One is an review of Toni Morrison and her first novel The Bluest Eye. Chapter Two gives a brief ac

26、count of Tone Morrisons life, and recalls her literary achievements and influences. Chapter Three will analyze the source of the Breedloves tragedy, Geraldine familys indifference and Geraldines “white complex” through the portrayal of these three different black families. The portrayal of the MacTe

27、ers, reveals that the black people are possible to live a happy life. The MacTeers successfully resist the white culture by remaining the traditional ethnic culture. Chapter Four demonstrates multiple consciousnesses in identity confirmation. That is to say, loving ones black self, loving ones famil

28、y and culture are the three important solutions concerning the significance of preserving black womens identities. Toni Morrison and The Bluest EyeThe Bluest Eye is Toni Morrisons first novel establishing her literary reputation as a renowned black woman writer. The novel is a vivid description of t

29、he tragedy life of a little black girl Pecola living in a white dominated world, who has an obsession of having a pair of bluest eyes which ultimately drives her into the madness (Wang Xiaohuan 86).2.1 Toni MorrisonToni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 1931 when she was named Chloe Anth

30、ony Wofford by her parents in the Depression years. Her nickname was Toni Wofford and she acquired “Toni Morrison” from her husband Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect in 1958. She graduated from high school in 1949, earned her B.A. from Howard University in 1953 and M.A. from Cornell University i

31、n 1955; and she afterwards worked as a senior editor at the Random House while writing from 1965 to 1985, during which she nourished the career of several writers, including Toni Cade Bambara, Gayle Jones, Angela Davis, and Henry Dumas. She also took up English teaching in Texas Southern University

32、from 1955 to 1957 and in Howard University from 1957 to 1964. Until 1998 she has already seven novels published: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solmn (1977)，Tar Baby(1981), Beloved(1987) and Paradise(1998). In 1992 she edited an anthology: The Black Book, and had a collection of her lectures on literaturePlaying in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.Morrisons literary honors cover both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and In