| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 91 === Abstract
Toni Morrison (1931~) is a significant contemporary Afro-American woman writer in the U. S. Her first two works, The Bluest Eye and Sula, focus on the Afro-American communities in the Ohio state during the forties, a time when the life within the black communities was faceted by race, class, and gender hardships.
The purposes of this thesis are two-ford: first to investigate how the sense of community becomes a unifying power to strengthen the Afro-American people against the dominant white culture; second to evaluate how the sense of community, in its old fashion, could be possibly contradict to the new generations. Morrison is inventive enough to create eccentric protagonists in the two works, Pecola Breedlove in The Bluest Eye and Sula Peace in Sula. Through the tracing the two girl protagonists’ growth, Morrison illustrates the dilemma of the Afro-American people in front of white hegemonic ideology, their anxiety and powerlessness on the economical inferiority, and the black women under double oppressions of race and gender. Through the two girl protagonists, moreover, Morrison explores the interacting forces between individuals and communities.
The first chapter focuses on the Afro-American communities, Lorain in The Bluest Eye and the Bottom in Sula. This chapter tries to give a geographical presentation of the black communities, the streets, schools, shops, and neighbors. By bringing forth the interplay of place and people, this chapter attempts to illustrate the diverse Afro-American life distinguished by the northward-migrating experience during the forties.
The second chapter extends the focus onto the Afro-American families. This chapter emphasizes the black families’ racial and economical hardships in the dominant white society. To probe the hardships, this chapter examines the various Afro-American family types, the interrelations between parents and children. This chapter also presents how Morrison sees through the social injustices and how she redefine black motherhood and fatherhood.
The third chapter attempts to explore the eccentricity of Morrison’s black female protagonists, Pecola and Sula. By tracing backward the growing of these two girls, this chapter intends to bring lights upon the social realities circumscribing black women’s lives. This chapter also traces how black women could possibly come to appreciation of being black and being female.
Finally, the concluding chapter looks at the impacts of Morrison’s eccentric protagonists on their black communities. By discussing how Morrison ends the two novels, this chapter stresses on the wrestles between black individuals and black communities. In addition, as the sense of diversity pervades through Morrison’s portrayals of Afro-American communities, families, and individuals, this chapter brings forth an investigation of how Morrison possibly simplifies the white society in her presentation.
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