《最蓝的眼睛》主题分析

《最蓝的眼睛》主题分析 The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye Contents Contents„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„? ? 摘要„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„.. Abstract„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„.„i ?.Introduction„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„..1 ?.The Introduction of the Author and the Novel„„„„„„„.„1 2.1General Introduction of Toni Morrison„„„„„„„„„„1 2.2The Bluest Eye„„„„„„. „„„„„„„„„„„„„5 ?. The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye„„„„„„„„„...7 3.1The Theme of The Bluest Eye„„„„„„„„„„„„„...7 3.2The Beauty and the Racial Discrimination„„„„„„„„...7 3.3The White Culture Hegemony and the Self-discrimination„„..9 3.4Writing Strategy and the Theme „„„„.. „„„„„„„„10 3.5The Symbolism of the Theme„„„„„„„„„„„„„„11 ?. Conclusion„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„.12 References„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„...13 Acknowledgements„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„..15 摘 要 本篇 论文 政研论文下载论文大学下载论文大学下载关于长拳的论文浙大论文封面下载 分析的文本是1993年诺贝尔文学奖得主，美国著名黑人女作家托尼?莫 里森的第一部小说《最蓝的眼睛》。文章讲述的是一个黑人小女孩一直生活在父 母的粗暴，同学的奚落和成年人的冷漠之中，渴望着改变自身而取得众人的欢心， 于是她向上帝祈祷盼望能生出一双最蓝的眼睛，只要有了蓝色的眼睛一切将会变 得不一样。然而，当有人注意她时，悲剧降临了，遭生父奸污后她早产了一个死 婴，无人关心帮助的佩科拉最后堕入了疯狂状态而觉得自己得到了一双无与伦比 的最蓝的眼睛，日日与它喁喁私语。本文通过对小说主题的分析，探究了白人统 治下的黑人所受的压迫以及黑人悲剧产生的原因，从而使人们有一个新的认识。 关键词:主题 白人文化 歧视 Abstract This thesis is intended to analyze The Bluest Eye, the first novel by Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel laureate in the United States. The passage tells us that a little black girl still lives in the rudeness of the parents, the irony of the classmates and the coolness of the adults. She hopes to change herself to get attention from others, so she prays for her eyes to turn blue. She thinks that all will be changed if she has the bluest eyes. However, when someone really takes notice of her, tragedy fell. She was raped by her father, and gives birth to a dead baby. Without any help, Pecola descends into madness. She feels that she has got the bluest eyes, and talks with them all the time. By analyzing the theme, this thesis explores the discrimination of the black that under the control of the white and the reasons of the tragedy. 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 i The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye Key Word: theme the white culture discrimination The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye ?. Introduction Toni Morrison (1931- ) is the most prominent and successful African American woman writer of the 20th century. She received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993 for her excellent achievements in writing, and becomes the first African American woman to win this award. She is clearly aware that the dignity and identity of the black, so Most of her stories happen in the black community, where the daily life of the ordinary black people is mixed up with the myth of Africa. Deeply rooted in African history and mythology, her stories resonate with mixtures of their pleasure and pain, wonder and horror. Morrison pays much attention to the writing crafts during the process of her creation. Her language is humorous and quick-witted, and her narration is full of changes, which helps to make her writings more powerful. In fact, Morrison uses a specific community as a metaphor for human community and the experience of the black in America for the human conditions. This paper announces that the culture hegemony and the double discrimination by analyzing the theme. In The , she shows readers the importance of the black traditions such Bluest Eye as stories, black music and the society responsibility in their life and work, to express her deep love for the black traditional culture and her deep consideration. And tries to convey black the importance of inheriting their own civilization; they can keep confidence, self-respect and achieve their self-value. ?.The Introduction of the Author and the Novel Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. 2.1 General Introduction of Toni Morrison Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, where her parents had moved to escape the problems of southern racism. As a child, Morrison read constantly; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. Morrison's father told her numerous folktales of the black community (a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings). In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University, where she received a B.A. in English in 1953. She then earned a Master of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1955, for which she wrote a thesis on suicide in the works of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 ii The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye After graduation, Morrison became an English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas (1955–57), and then returned to Howard to teach English. She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In 1958 she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect and fellow faculty member at Howard University. They had two children, Harold and Slade, and divorced in 1964. After the divorce she moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked as a textbook editor. A year and a half later she went to work as an editor at the New York City headquarters of Random House. As an editor Morrison played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones. Morrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She went to one meeting with a short story about a black girl who longed to have blue eyes. The story later evolved into her first novel, The Bluest (1970), which she wrote while raising two children and teaching at Eye Howard. In 2000 it was chosen as a selection for Oprah's Book Club. In 1975 her novel Sula (1973) was nominated for the National Book Award. Her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), brought her national attention. The book was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the first novel by a black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1940. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1993 Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her citation reads: Toni Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." Shortly afterwards, a fire destroyed her Rockland County, New York home. In 1996 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Morrison was honored with the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which is awarded to a writer "who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work." In her later life, Morrison taught English at two branches of the State University of New York. In 1984 she was appointed to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the University at Albany, The State University of New York. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University. She written lots of works, novels include The Bluest Eye, Sula, ; Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, Love, A Mercychildren’s literatures are The Big Box and The Book of Mean People; short fiction is Recitatif; a plays Dreaming Emmett and libretti Margaret Gamer and some non-fiction books. 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 iii The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye 2.2 The Bluest Eye The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by American author Toni Morrison. It is Morrison's first novel, written while Morrison was teaching at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own. The story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio, named Pecola. It takes place against the backdrop of America's Midwest as well as in the years following the Great Depression. The Bluest Eye is told from the perspective of Claudia MacTeer as a child and an adult, as well as from a third-person, omniscient viewpoint. Because of the controversial nature of the book, which deals with racism, incest, and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to ban it from schools and libraries. The story tells about that Claudia and Frieda MacTeer live in Ohio with their parents. The MacTeer family takes two other people into their home, Mr. Henry and Pecola. Pecola is a troubled young girl with a hard life. Her parents are constantly fighting, both physically and verbally. Pecola is continually being told and reminded of what an “ugly” girl she is, thus fueling her desire to be Caucasian with blue eyes. Throughout the novel, it is revealed that not only has Pecola had a life full of hatred and hardships, but her parents have as well. Pecola’s mother, Pauline, only feels alive and happy when she is working for a rich, white family. Her father, Cholly, is a drunk who was left with his aunt when he was young and ran away to find his father, who wanted nothing to do with him. Both Pauline and Cholly eventually lost the love they once had for one another. While Pecola is doing dishes, her intoxicated father rapes her. His motives are unclear and confusing, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. Cholly flees after the second time he rapes Pecola, leaving her pregnant. The entire town of Lorain turns against her, except Claudia and Frieda. In the end, Pecola’s child is born prematurely and dies. Claudia and Frieda give up the money they had been saving and plant flower seeds in hopes that if the flowers bloom, Pecola's baby will live; the marigolds never bloom. In the afterword, Morrison explains that she had met a man named Terry Owens from a down south area. Morrison knew this man while he had children of his own. He was a very nice but harmful man and didn't take nonsense from anyone. Morrison explains in a later book that Terry Owens was a veteran from the Vietnam War. "I was a very strong minded man coming from a home where I hadn't learned to read or working for a man that paid nothing much than a dollar." Ideas of beauty, particularly those that relate to racial characteristics, are a major theme in this book. The title refers to Pecola's wish that her eyes would turn blue. Claudia is given a white baby 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 iv The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye doll to play with and is constantly told how lovely it is. Insults to physical appearance are often given in racial terms; a light-skinned student named Maureen is shown favoritism at school. There is a contrast between the world shown in the cinema and the one in which Pauline is a society and the existence the main characters servant, as well as the WASP live in. Most chapters' titles are extracts from a Dick and Jane reading book, presenting a happy, white family. This family is contrasted with Pecola's existence. ?. The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye 3.1 The Theme of The Bluest Eye This thesis tries, through the theme, to find the reasons that the protagonist of the novel, the poor black girl Pecola Breedlove has the desire to have a pair of blue eyes and becomes insane at last. In this novel, as one of the most vulnerable members of the black community, the protagonist Pecola Breedlove suffers more from this impact. The tragic experience of Pecola indicates that the negative impacts that racism produces influence African American value system and bring severe harm to the psyche of the black. Pecola’s tragedy is the epitome of the victims of the racial discrimination in American society. The personality of her parents is distorted and twisted severely due to the racial discrimination in American society. She cannot get any emotional consolation from her indifferent mother Pauline and her cruel father Cholly. From her parents, what Pecola learns is the self-hatred. Within the society Pecola confronts both the inner racial conflicts from the black and the racial prejudice from the white. Under the influence of the racism, the black culture begins to shake its foundation in the black community. All of these make Pecola feel confused about the life. She loses her self-identity in the pursuit of a pair of blue eyes. The white culture and the racial discrimination is the theme of the whole book. 3.2 The Beauty and the Racial Discrimination In this book whiteness stands for beauty. This is a standard that the black girls can not meet, especially Pecola, who has darker skin than the rest. Pecola connects beauty with being loved and believes that if she would just have blue eyes all the bad things in her life would be replaced with love and affection. This desire that is obviously hopeless leads her to madness by the end of the novel. The bluest eye provides an extended direction Pecola’s story is essentially her quest to find beauty. While she believes that the blue eyes of a white girl will make her beautiful, this view of beauty is not Pecola’s. Her society has revered whiteness, so 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 v The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye she begins to see that as the essence of beauty. At the end of the book, Pecola believes that she got her wish. She has an eerie conversation with herself, which seems to reveal that Pecola has traded her sanity for the blue eyes she has always dreamed of. However, Claudia clarifies that “A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment”. By trying to conform to everyone else's ideas of beauty instead of her own, Pecola never actually obtains what she wants. She thinks blue eyes are beautiful simply because society thinks that blue eyes are beautiful, which is what fuels her desire for them. The conformity in the end does not lead to Pecola’s true satisfaction, as what she is satisfied with she cannot have. Although she believes that she has the blue eyes, it is clear to everyone except Pecola that the pleasures of being white, and blue eyed is not attainable. Although the goal is unattainable physically, Morrison makes the point that it is unattainable metaphorically as well. We cannot achieve beauty unless we achieve our own idea of beauty, not just what others have led us to believe is beautiful. In 1950’s America, racial discrimination is implied by different skin colors. It is not just Pecola who brings about this reaction, for each time white people come into contact with "the blackness." This is not an isolated situation, but a constant and recognizably unchanging event that was part of life for a black person during the 1950's. This kind of racism became such a common occurrence that soon the victims began to believe that the insults were true. Geraldine's family is an example of such hatred, as she shapes her life, family, and son to reject their heritage; the color of their skin and accept inferiority. Geraldine molds her son's views by telling him only to play with "White kids; his mother did not like him to play with niggers. She had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud" (87.) The family has abandoned their race because of the abuse and shame imposed upon them by the white people and because of this they have come to believe that the white people are superior because of their color, and the shame and hate they feel for themselves is displayed by their emulation of ideal white lifestyle. Although it is well hidden, the misery that Geraldine and her family feel is still present in their lives. The abuse from racism is never forgotten, it leaves a scar; the pain may recede after time, but the scar remains. Pecola Breedlove's story should serve as a reminder of what racism can do to a person; that the deepest scars never really heal. Her story took place one hundred years after the slaves were released; not much had changed in that time. Pecola's 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 vi The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye life serves as a reminder that people accept themselves and others for what they are. Although some people still hold beliefs against certain races, it is important to be reminded of the damage racism can cause. 3.3The White Culture Hegemony and the Self-discrimination The whole novel exposes the impact and damages done to the blacks by American white value, particularly the standards of beauty pervading in the dominant society. In such a society the prejudice that the black is ugly is saturated in every corner of life, including the children’ s education. Placed under this circumstance, the black youth failed to see their own cultural value. The black as the other, gazed by the white subject, attempt to quest for an authentic self. Their existence and self can only be reduced to the other and loses the self, to be more exact, the black are reduced to an Object under the look of the white. Morrison employs the grammatical deviation by deliberate violating the norm in writing and by combining the black standard and non-standard English; reverses the normal cycle of seasons. By doing so, Morrison intends to imply that under the dominant white cultural context, the white considers the black culture to be chaotic and intangible. Thus they turn a blind eye to the blackbeing, whereas the white culture is unattainable to the black, who can do nothing but become "an invisible man". However the racial oppression and racial conflict are not directly portrayed. In this novel, racism affects the black people’s life in a subtle yet profound way—the standard of white beauty, which intends to destroy the black culture and distorts their soul. It is in the tragedy of the Breedloves that historical, environmental and personal lose come together. They reject not only their own history, but also culture. They live in a society dominated by racism and white culture. In addition, the black community, which has accepted the standard of white beauty, is not willing to show their sympathy to the ugly Breedloves. It is noteworthy that as a black Morrison is devoted to retaining and carrying forward the black cultural tradition. In her first novel she, from the start to finish, presents the reader the indispensably important role that such black traditions as storytelling, music and sense of community play in black’s work and life. It is obvious that Morrison expresses her intense emotion and deep concern for the black traditions, and illustrates the truth that only when the blacks retain their traditions can they achieve their self-value. 3.4 Writing Strategy and the Theme The plot seems uncomplicated, but Morrison adopts unique writing 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 vii The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye strategies, which make full of deep cultural meanings: facing with the supreme white culture intrusion, the black people are confused with thinking and value. The book is divided into the seasons of the year, reflecting on the tragedy of Pecola. Spring, summer, autumn and winter are irresistible natural law. This kind of organization suggests that events described in the novel will occur inevitably just like the circulation of the four seasons in a year. But the novel does not begin its chapters from the spring just as the natural law does. It begins its development from the autumn, which implies the story will not develop as the natural process of growth from sowing to harvest, meanwhile implying that Pecola’s story is doomed to be a tragic one. The other uniqueness is the primer of Dick and Jane. This excerpt is repeated three times in the prelude: the opening paragraph is simple, clear and orderly. The second is a repetition of the first but without punctuation marks. The third is also a repetition but without punctuation and without division. Dick and Jane deals with a white American ideal of the family unit --- cohesive, happy, with love enough to spare to pets, but it is quite different from the poor life of the black people. In the Bluest Eye, the characters either keep their own cultural tradition or are assimilated by the supreme culture, either locate on the edge or become the sacrifice or scapegoat. Mrs. McTeer and Claudia belong to the accepted characters by their community; Pauline and Geraldine are assimilated characters; Soaphead Church is edged people; Pecola Breedlove is a scapegoat. Music is the effective art, which can sublimate the painful experiences of the black people. The Blues is the slow jazz music, which expresses the feelings of deep sadness and depression. In the Bluest Eye, Claudia uses the Blues tradition to narrate the Pecola"s tragedy. As Pecola loses the ability of telling her tragic fate, and she can’t express her bitterness through the Blues, Claudia becomes the right person to fulfill this task. Claudia sings the Blues for Pecola to tell Pecola’ s tragedy. 3.5 The Symbolism of the Theme In order to explore the theme, Morrison uses symbols to depict the setting, the structure, and the characters. This thesis is focused on analyzing the symbols used in the work and how these symbols help to express the theme. Symbols are ubiquitous in the work. First, the novel begins with a sentence from a Dick-and-Jane narrative: “Here is the house.” Homes not only indicate socioeconomic status in this novel, but they also symbolize the emotional situations and values of the characters that inhabit them. The Breedlove -apartment is miserable and decrepit, suffering from Mrs. Breedlove’s preference for her employer’s home over her own and symbolizing the misery of the Breedlove family. The MacTeer 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 viii The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye house is drafty and dark, but it is carefully tended by Mrs. MacTeer and, according to Claudia, filled with love, symbolizing that family’s comparative cohesion. Second, the marigolds, Claudia and Frieda associate marigolds with the safety and well-being of Pecola’s baby. Their ceremonial offering of money and the remaining unsold marigold seeds represents an honest sacrifice on their part. They believe that if the marigolds they have planted grow, then Pecola’s baby will be all right. More generally, marigolds represent the constant renewal of nature. In Pecola’s case, this cycle of renewal is perverted by her father’s rape of her. Finally, above all, the most paramount symbol is the very name of the novel: "the bluest eye." To Claudia, the bluest eye does not have the same symbolic meaning as it does to Pecola. To Pecola, "the bluest eye" varies from a symbol of beautiful things, a symbol of the white beauty standard to a symbol of a destructive force. To Claudia, the symbolic meaning of "the bluest eye" does not rest on "the eye" but on "the blues". The blues acts as a symbol of Mother’s catharsis of life, and then the bluessymbolizes the traditional culture and history of the blacks and finally it represents a sustaining strength for Claudia in an adverse environment to find a way out. For Toni Morrison, to adopt symbolism in The Bluest Eye is a necessity. The context of the novel requires symbolism to get itself across to readers. The elements involved in the novel are very complicated. All the information needs to be organized to reveal the theme of the novel. So it is not a surprise that Morrison puts symbolic meaning on each element and thus uses symbolism to cover the whole story.nclude the setting, the natural and social environment, the characters with different class backgrounds, representing different mentality and ideas, Claudia’s first-person narrative and omniscient narrative, and the ?. Conclusion Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye tells us a story of a poor black girl Pecola Breedlove who has a desire to have a pair of blue eyes but becomes insane at last. The theme includes the damaging effect of the standard of beauty of the white value in the dominant culture, the black’ s double consciousness, the double oppression on the black women. Morrison organically merges the first person narration with the omniscient narration; employs the grammatical deviation by deliberate violating the norm in writing and by combining the black standard and non-standard English; reverses the normal cycle of seasons. By doing so, Morrison intends to imply that under the dominant white cultural context, the white considers the black culture to be chaotic and intangible. By analyzing the theme this paper explored the double discrimination of the black that under the control of the white and the reason of the tragedy. 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 ix The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye References Alice Childress.Conversation with Toni Morrison [J].Black Creation Annual, 1994 Bryan D Bourn. The Bluest Eye and Sula [EB /OL], 1997(7) John Leonard. “Books of the Times” [N].New York Times, 1993(8) Samuels, Wilfred, Clenora Hudson-Weems. Toni Morrison [M]. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989 Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye [M].New York: Washing Square Press, 1970 Toni Morrison. The Black Book [M].New York: Random House, 1974 杜小惠. 《托尼 莫里森小说<最蓝的眼睛>的布鲁斯美学》[J]. 电影文学，2007 寒风. “蓝色眼眸的诱惑”[N], 中华读书报, 2000(8) 王守仁, 吴新云. 《性别 种族 文化—托尼 莫里森与二十世纪美国黑人文学》[M].北京:北京大学出版社, 1997 威尔弗雷德D塞缪尔. 《托尼莫里森》[M]. 纽约: 特温出版公司, 1990 肖腊梅. ―为眼疯狂---《最蓝的眼睛》对种族主义身体政治的揭示”[J], 《天津外 国语学院学报》，2007 俞宁.“雷祖威”[N], 《中华读书报》, 2002(6) 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 x The Thematic Analysis of The Bluest Eye Acknowledgement During the writing of this thesis, I have got a great deal of help from my tutor---teacher Wangdan. I am very grateful to her. Without her profound knowledge, positive encouragement and valuable guidance, I would not fulfill my thesis studies. At the same time; I will also devote this thesis to all the teachers who taught me during three years of my postgraduate studies. I learned a lot from them. Last, my thanks would go to my beloved parents for their persistent loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my thesis during the difficult course of this paper. 牡丹江师范学院西语系2011届英语专业学士学位论文 xi