Abstract
Toni Morrison is the only Afro-American woman writer who wins the Nobel Prize for literature, and her works are well-known for vivid images, copious emotions and profound thoughts. Her works are always presented on behalf of the black women and full of tragedies. A general theme goes through all her fictions: the tragic life of the black people and the conflict between the white culture and the black culture.
In Beloved, Morrison tells people a story about a black slave woman who has a tragic life but never gives up her faith in self-growth. Through the different growing experiences of three generations, the fiction reveals the humble position of the black women and their difficult process of growth under the oppression of racism and sexism. On the one hand Morrison shows the real situation of the black women from a distinct point of view, and demonstrates their pains and sufferings. On the other hand, through the tragic story of Beloved, Morrison also shows people the great strength and self-growth of the black women. Although the growing process is full of difficulties, the black women, through the efforts of generations, finally build themselves up, and bravely face the present and the future.
Key Words
Black women; discrimination and oppression; tragedy; strength; growth
摘 要
托尼•莫里森是美国唯一一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的黑人女性作家，其小说以鲜明的形象,丰富的感情和深刻的思想而著名, 她的作品总是代表着黑人女性并充满了悲剧色彩。在她的小说中始终可以感受到一个主题：“美国黑人命运的残酷，以及白人文化和黑人传统文化之间的冲突和对峙。”
在《宠儿》中， 莫瑞森就讲述了一个生活在悲剧中但却始终不放弃信念的黑人女奴的悲惨故事；通过三代人不同的成长经历展现了处于弱势地位的黑人妇女在种族主义和性别主义的双重压迫下艰难的心路历程。一方面，莫里森用她独特的视角讲述黑人妇女真实的处境，使人们可以强烈深刻地感受到黑人妇女的痛苦经历。另一方面，通过《宠儿》的悲剧故事，莫里森向人们展示了黑人妇女的力量与自我成长。尽管成长的过程充满荆棘，但通过一代又一代的努力，黑人女性最终成长起来，开始勇敢地面对现在和未来。
关键词
黑人妇女；歧视和压迫；悲剧；力量；成长
Introduction
Toni Morrison is the only Afro-American woman writer who wins the Nobel Prize for literature. It confirms her renown and makes her one of the most influential writers in America history. From The Bluest Eye to Love, each of her fictions has exerted vibrating influence upon the literary world. In the fictions of Toni Morrison, there is a distinct and eternal theme which can be felt and touched clearly: the tragic life of the black people and the conflict between the white culture and the black culture.
Beloved, a famous fiction by Toni Morrison in 1987 which wins the 1988 Pulitzer Prize, best exemplifies the theme and her thoughts about the blacks, especially the black women. The story of Beloved comes from a true event: In 1850, Margaret Garner, a Kentucky fugitive slave woman, would rather choose death for herself and her children than being returned to slavery. But she only killed one and the rest were recaptured and sold (Zhu 144). When Toni Morrison heard this story, she was deeply moved and decided to write down it. After 10 years of gestating and 3 years of writing, she finally finished this great work. Once it was published, it shook the whole American literary circle and cultural circle, and was considered a milestone in the history of Afro-Americans.
People always think that the black women are coquettish, crude, strong and humble, and they can bear more pressure than the white women. However, Morrison argues that they are wrong. Through her fictions Morrison reveals that the black women have the same emotion just as other people do. Morrison is always proud of her black status. In fact, the black women contribute a lot to America, and even to the whole world, but they still can’t be accepted by the society.
Actually, people know very little about the black women, and about the troubles they met and the respect they should get in their work, in their marriage, in their character as a mother, in their spiritual life and their belief. Morrison always tries to express to other people that though the black women have a tragic life they never give up their faith in self-growth, and though their growing process is full of difficulties, they finally build themselves up, and bravely face the present and the future.
I. The Tragedy and Growth of the Black Women
A. The Tragedy of the Black Women
White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. The more colored people spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own. (Morrison 198)
In Beloved, the schoolteacher is a typical white man; he seems to be impartial and objective. But what he and his nephews did was really brutal: in order to do so-called research, he used to gauge the black slaves, like the draught animals. One of the nephews had nursed Sethe while his brother held her down. The white people do good or evil things just as they like, and the black people have no choices, but receive all. With the coming of the modern society, the scientific and democratic spirit has been put around the United States, but never the Africa-Americans. The ghosts of the black slaves are the irrefutable evidence. Morrison once said, her works are for the black people themselves. The black people should love themselves; especially the black women need do so.
In Beloved, Sethe has to kill her daughter, and undoubtedly that’s a big tragedy. Besides, Beloved herself is a tragedy too. She comes to this world at a wrong time, and is killed by her mother. When she comes back, she is treated as an evil. At the end of the Beloved, Morrison writes:
Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name. Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they know her name? Although she has claim, she id not claimed. In the place where long grass opens, the girl who waited to be loved and cry shame erupts into her separate parts, to make it easy for the chewing laughter to swallow her all away. (Morrison 274)
Although the daughter’s name is Beloved, she never gets love. Nobody loves her, she is just considered a ghost, and everybody expels her. In fact, the black women are born to be looked down upon. They are looked down upon by the white people, and even by some black male. So actually, they are the most tragic people in the world. They always have to bear the pains and sufferings both from race and sex discrimination which is heavily imposed on them.
The black women are looked down upon for the color of their skin all the time. Although the American Constitution says that everyone is equal in the society. But in reality, colored people, especially the black women, never have equal rights and respect. They usually stay at the bottom of the society.
In American society, generally, people hold the idea that only the white people are in the main stream. They would like to spanide Americans into several classes. Of course the white people are the first class people, and they are the center of the social life. There are no blacks or other colored people who can be the president, or even the leading officers. For the white people, they believe they are, undoubtedly, superior to the black people; the black people were born to be slaves, or the lowest class people. At the late of the 19th century, the black people’s human rights and civil rights had been accepted in law, but in practice they were still oppressed physiologically and intelligently. For law, it prescribes that everyone is equal, but it does not prescribe that the white and black people can sit together, share the public equipment together, or work together. Therefore, in many places, the whites and the blacks are segregated. In restaurant, there are the Whites’ Zone and the Blacks’ Zone; in the train, there are different carriages for the whites and the blacks.
In the past, the black people were told that the reason why they were black was because their blood was black, and they were dyed with the black blood. So many black women tried to find husbands which were whiter to mix because they believed that the blackness would disappear in that way. In Beloved, grandma Baby Suggs pondered color during her lost years. “Took her a long time to finish with blue, the yellow, then green. She was well into pink when she died.” (Morrison 201) She used the little energy left her for pondering all kinds of colors, except red and black which refers to the blood and the black people. She said, the colors wouldn’t hurt people. However, it’s the color that really hurts people, even kills people – the Blacks. In the whites’ opinion, being dark is ugly, and black is equal to evil, while being white is beautiful. Then the black women were faced with even more problems. Their figures were usually abused, disparaged, distorted and even used as weapons to attack themselves. Many black women couldn’t bear such miseries, they had to abandon their own figures, and turn to masks.
In the society, men are considered to be independent, offensive, competitive, rational, and intrepid, while women are such a group that most of them are oppressed by sex discrimination. Many black women feel that they always see themselves through others’ eyes, treasure their own souls by the whites’ rule, and the world always looks down upon them and shows no mercy to them. They really feel horror in their inner heart. They suffer not only in their souls, but also in their bodies.
Although “Everybody has his liberty and right.” (詹妮特 412), female is unequal to male everywhere, for example, in the family female usually takes on all the housework, and take care of the children. It is considered that women are born to be housewives. They are born to look after their husbands and their duty is to give birth to children. In those days, women didn’t have their rights and wasn’t respected. They were just like men’s accessories. The black women made contributions to the United States, and the society had never stopped enjoying the benefits made by them. But as a black woman, no matter how smart she is, how much ability she has, and how beautiful she is, she also can’t be accepted easily by the white society. They are still discriminated and crashed by people’s old prejudicial ideas, and are ruled by the world of the white people. The old idea holds that if a black woman is strong, she is not beautiful, and even can not be regarded as a woman; but if she does a servant work, preparing food and setting a kid to go to school, she must be stupid. Therefore, the black people are looked through glasses with color. No matter what they do, they always suffer from discrimination; no matter how successful they get, they are still looked down upon for their black skins. That is a big injury in their inner heart, and the public opinion and pressure give them the allusion that they can not do anything. They have to wait for the definition and evaluation by the white people.
With the rise of feminist movement, some women began to realize that they should have their rights. Then, women began to fight for their own rights. But most of them are white women; they just fight for the White. However, they excluded the black women from getting into them. So, when the white women gradually win their rights in political or economic realm. The black women are still oppressed and have to live tragic lives. Because the oppression is doubled, they have to bear the oppression both from the men and the white women. Some white women said that they call for the sisterhood without racialism, and they want to let the black women join them together for this movement. It seems that they just want to invite “the guest—the black women” as a host. So, many black women believed that it is not good for them and it is useless for them to take part in the movement to fight for the white women.
Therefore, it can be said that the racial discrimination will exist for a long time because of the social system, and the black women will still live in their tragic lives for a long time.
B. The Growth of the Black Women
There is a motto of Irish Revolution – “You should sally out by yourself if you want liberty” (詹妮特 467)—that’s fit for the black women absolutely. The black women must fight by themselves to win the liberty and rights. And also, people always say that where there is oppression, there is resistance. The black women’s situation is bad, but they never lose their faith. They are making unremitting efforts to find their ways to a better future. That’s their strength and growth.
Because of the slavery, grandma Baby Suggs was deprived of rights to be the others’ friend, daughter, wife, mother and so on, and she had seven children, but was allowed only to leave her little son Halle by her side. This is her only chance to be a mother. But at that time, the children of the slave mothers don’t belong to them; all of them are the private property of the slave owner, and like the tools of workers, they are treated equal to the livestock. Baby Suggs hates the Whites very much and she hopes there is a clear place left for her. But when the Whites break into the yard, she can do nothing, but just accept it, pondering color and waiting for death. Before she has been ransomed, she has no ideas about herself. After she gets freedom, she realizes that if the Blacks want to get liberty, they should know their own value, and learn to love themselves. So, in the woods, she appeals her compatriots for loving themselves:
Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on yours face’ cause they don’t love that either. You got to love it, you! And all your inside parts that they’d just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark—love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize. (Morrison 89)
Obviously, loving themselves is the first step that the black begin to find their own identity and grow up.
In fact, the black women are never yield to the outside. When Sethe gets to know that the schoolteacher and his nephews are doing research about black slaves and put Sethe’s “human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right,” (Morrison 193) She is shocked and swears that she would never allow her child’s characteristics to be put on the animal’s side. So, when her husband Halle and Sixo’s first escape plan fails, she resolutely decides to escape alone and then she does it. In this sense, Sethe’s escape is the demonstration of her strength and self-growth. When she kills her daughter, her intense maternal love is driven to extremes. That means that a slave firstly dominates her own life. Undoubtedly, she uses her courage and strength to challenge the society.
When Paul D, her boyfriend, knows the truth of the facts about Sethe’s killing matter, he accuses her “Your love is too thick”. But she answers, “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” (Morrison 164) Here, a nationality which has lost their words for a long time find its own sounds and characters from a woman. Morrison chooses the women who are oppressed by race and sex to be the leading actors of her national hero epic, and to find a way out for the nationality. That does not disobey the national history, the actual actualities, and the strength of black women, but embodies her consistent thinking about the black women.
When the schoolteacher is coming, Sethe decides to kill her children to exchange their lasting freedom. When she cuts the baby’s throat, she believes that she has the right to exchange her life for freedom. At that moment, Sethe has already begun to find some ways to get liberty and determine her children’s destiny herself.
And for Denver, at the end of the Beloved, she finally realizes the only way to protect her mother is “She would have to leave the yard, step off the edge of the world, leave the two behind and go ask somebody for help” (Morrison 243) “Know it, and go on out the yard. Go on.”(Morrison 244) With the encouragement of her passed grandma, Denver finally has the courage to go out the yard, and found her first job, then the second, and the third. When Paul D wants to express his opinion about Beloved, she stops him, “I have my own.”(Morrison 267) Denver goes out of the yard with self-confidence, she knows who she is, and finally she has found her identity.
The three women’s changes demonstrate the growing process of the black women. No matter how hard the situation is, they insist on their faith all the time. In the past, people always think that they are the weak group. But they don’t accept it; they prove their strength in their own ways. And for Morrison, she also has her own ways to show her spirit of resistance. When she is not a famous author at the very beginning, her work is refused to be published for several times. But she does give up. Finally, she makes it. She becomes a very famous person and wins the Nobel Prize. In face, she always writes stories for the black women, and she is very proud of her status. She once said that, she is not only a black writer, but more importantly, a black female writer. She just uses her works to prove that the black women will not always be silent and passive. The black women will gradually break the prejudice against them and grow up psychologically and intellectually.
There is a famous case of Brown VS Board of Education in the history of their struggles and growth. Brown is a black girl, and thus is refused to go into the whites’ school because of racial segregation, but she does not accept it. She rejects it and accuses the Board of Education. At last, the high court judges she wins the case and she finally can go into this school equally with the white students.
Undoubtedly, the black women now will not just wait for oppression. Their common aim is to overthrow the idea that they should be obedient. They call for respect and demand to share education, chances, duties and rights. They are not willing to stay at home, and subordinate to their husbands any longer. In fact, there are more and more outstanding black women who come out, and build up many associations to call for their rights which they ought to have. Gradually the black women go into schools and have the same chances for education, and come into the society and have the same chances for voting. They know though the road for them is very difficult to go, they still believe that they can make it. They will not stop their fighting until they get their rights.
In fact, through their efforts, the situation of the black women is getting better. Of course, they still have many hindrances, but more people are changing their ideas about the black women. Gradually, the black women are not treated as machines which are always doing the washing, cooking or even just giving birth to children any more.
Nowadays, the black women have their unions or associations, and more and more black women begin to join them. They can express their voices through these unions. More importantly, they begin to demonstrate their growth and strength in many fields. There are the black women’s figures in many companies, and some of them are even in the management. There are even some black women who take part in politics. In this sense, the black women have already proved their value and importance. They are never lack of power and strength.
II. Black Women Nowadays
Today, more and more people realize, thought some improvement of the black women’s social position, that it is a problem that the black women are still treated improperly. They have found the black women’s advantages and know they are as the same as other peoples. After constant struggles, the situation is getting better, and more and more black women are gradually accepted by the society.
After they are oppressed by racial discrimination and sex discrimination for several centuries, the black women not only begin to feed their family, but also become leaders of companies or stars in media. And some of them are even in the army or the government. There are also many black women in the national or world’s athletics competitions who continuously win the first place, and break the record. They do a very good job in many areas. For example, in literature, news, music, dance, drama, and science, they make very great contributions to both America and the world, and among them are the Talk Show Queen Oprah Winfrey, the Poet Maya Angelou, the first Africa-American female pilot Doctor May Jamison, the tennis athlete Venus Williams, the movie star Alfred Woodard, the dancer Judith Jamison, the painter Faith, and of course the novelist Toni Morrison…… All of them are talented, beautiful and thoughtful. They show their own strength and power to the whole world. For example, the Talk Show Queen Oprah Winfrey is a black, and also a woman. She grows up in a poor family, but never gives up her study. When she first takes a job as the host of a TV program, many people detests her because she is a black. She uses her amiable charm to win the confirmation and agreement. At that time, the talk show is dominated by man, but after Oprah’s appearance, the situation is changed. She shares her painful experiences and frustration with people. People love her program, and make an idol of her. Now, she is one of the most influential and richest women, and becomes a symbol of America. She says that she believes she can prove to the whole world with her struggle that there is a way to the truth.
And there is another model in American politics, Condoleezza Rice. Her legend is widely acknowledged; she has a good educational background; she is very sharp in political problems, and is also good at piano. Her success proves that black women can be as the same as the whites. Undoubtedly, she is influenced by two worlds: one is the past experiences of the blacks oppressed by the whites, and the other is the present and the future which cooperates with the white. It’s hard to imagine that how she can handle the conflicts between the two worlds. There is never a black woman who can possess so great power in American politics before. But actually she makes it. Obviously, all the models mentioned above are good models to encourage the black women that they can do anything which other peoples can do.
Conclusion
Through Beloved, Toni Morrison shows the process of growth of three generations of the black women. The old generation realized their miseries, but they do not know how to change the situation, so they just accept them; the second generation is unwilling to be oppressed, so they try to find a way out. At the end of the fiction, the third generation finally finds their own identity, and then begins to build up a better future.
In American history, there are many women movements, and there are more and more people who come out to be against racial discrimination. The black women have been crying for equal treatment and they have done a lot for it. They account for 7 per cent of population of whole America, but they don’t have the real understanding and acceptance from other peoples, especially the Whites, and the society. Nowadays, there are still more than 60 per cent of the black women who are not satisfied with the situation of the blacks in the society. And nearly 50 per cent of the black women are not satisfied with their own situation in the society.
In fact, they are still influenced and controlled by the whites, but fortunately, the black women now have more and more chances to show their values and strength. They are not just tools to give birth to babies or just do the housework, or the farm work. They now have chances to stand on an upper stage to prove that they are as capable as others. The black women are more and more self-confident, and they began to believe in their own strength and beauty. Thus, people can always see beautiful black women walking on the T-stage or joining some competitions. They even join the political stage and do an excellent work.
However, they do not and will not stop their resistance if there is still unequal treatment or discrimination. It is safe to say that the revolution of the black women is like a “glass ceiling”. They can see their prospect clearly but they still have a long-time fight and need to make great efforts. Fortunately, they gradually grow up and build very strong strength to make themselves accepted by others. In fact, the black women have great strength and are full of hope, and they are following the way of Baby Suggs, Sethe, and Denver, and making their future more wonderful.
When Martin Luther King Jr. said that he had a dream that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character, it was understood that equal rights for African-Americans would be good for all Americans. Likewise, when the black women have equal rights with others and when laws support the practice of that equality, people will live in a better America, and also in a better world. That is, undoubtedly, the reason why Toni Morrison deliberately demonstrates the tragedy and growth of the black women through the story of Beloved.
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