山西农业大学信息学院
本科毕业论文（设计）
论托妮莫里森《宠儿》中宠儿的多重身份
BACHELOR'S DEGREE THESIS
OF CISAU
Analysis of Multiple Identities of Beloved in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
郑重申明
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本人签名：日期：
论托妮莫里森《宠儿》中宠儿的多重身份
摘要
托妮·莫里森是美国文学界最伟大的非裔美国女性作家之一，曾于1993年获得诺贝尔文学奖。1988年她的小说《宠儿》荣获普利策文学奖。该书自出版以来，受到了极大的关注，并被视为美国文学史上的杰作。《宠儿》揭示了黑人文化的独特远景，尤其在黑人女性的感受、体验、生活环境方面,凸显了种族主义时代的斗争和冲突。国内外学者运用不同的批评手段对宠儿的真实身份进行了研究。而本文探讨宠儿的心理身份和真实身份，试图突破传统束缚，理解宠儿的身份。
文中通过探讨人物宠儿的现实身份—塞丝的女儿和普通奴的代表及其精神身份—塞丝的母亲和丹芙的指引者，揭示黑人奴隶制的残酷本质以及对黑人所造成的身心上的巨大伤害以及美国黑人对独立精神的追求。除此之外，它也暗示了历史不能忘记，黑人们必须团结和保持独立自主的意识才能摆脱残暴的压迫。
关键词：宠儿；多重身份；奴隶制；自我意识
Analysis of Multiple Identities of Beloved in Toni
Morrison’s Beloved
Abstract
Toni Morrison is one of the most significant Africa-American female writers who won Nobel Prize in 1993. The novel, Beloved, which is considered as her best work, has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. This work is considered as a masterpiece in literature history. Since Belove was published, many critics have been arisen.Both overseas and domestic scholars studythe real identities of Beloved using different critical method, but the thesis studies Beloved?s spiritual identities and real identities to break through the shackles of tradition, and to understand the identities of the Beloved.
In thethesis, Beloved?sreal identitiesare discussed—Sethe?s daughter and a survivor from the trade of slavery, and Beloved?s spiritual identities—Sethe?s mother and Denver?s guider. It reveals the cruel nature of black slavery and the great physical and psychological harm caused by it and the pursuit of black people?s independent spirit. In addition, it also implies thatpeopleshould not forget history and the black must unite and keep independent consciousness to get rid of the brutal oppression.
Key words: Beloved; Multiple Identities; Slavery; Self-awareness
Table of Contents
摘要 (i)
Abstract (ii)
I. Introduction (1)
1.1 Research Background (1)
1.2 Research Significance and Purpose (1)
II. Literature Review (3)
2.1 Toni Morrison and Beloved (3)
2.2 Researches on Beloved at Home and Abroad (3)
2.2.1 Domestic Researches (3)
2.2.2 Foreign Researches (4)
III. Real Identities of Beloved (7)
3.1 The Dead Daughter of Sethe (7)
3.2 The Survivor from the Trade of Slavery (9)
3.3 Implication of the Identities (11)
IV. Spiritual Identities of Beloved (12)
4.1 The Mother of Sethe (12)
4.2 The Guide of Denver (14)
4.3 Implication of the Identities (16)
V. Conclusion (17)
References (19)
Acknowledgements (21)
I. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The novel Beloved tells the story of black woman Sethe to make her own baby girl to escape from the suffering of slavery in the hunting of slave owners. She resolutely cut the throat of her two-year-old daughter who is called Beloved. She has been lived under psychical torment. Until 18 years later, Beloved came back.
In the novel, the ambiguous identities of Beloved become the unique characteristics for this novel. She can be an ordinary black slave that Sethe saved in front of 124 Bluestone, but some scholars think that Beloved is Sethe?s dead daughter, and she woke up the process of the black?s pursuit of self-consciousness. Other people think she is a representative of black women, and opinions vary. As Morrison said, when you finish reading Beloved, you do not know who she is. The identities of Beloved become a controversial subject for different scholars.
1.2 Research Significance and Purpose
So far, many scholars have made studies, using different analytical measures of literary criticism. In domestic studies, they stated the double identities of Beloved. They believe that she is not only the daughter of Sethe, but also the representative of black women. In foreign studies, they combine the real life examples with plots of the novel. They believe Beloved is the survivor from the trade of slavery. However, most of them focus on Beloved?s real identities, these studies are not enough thorough and systematic, leaving room for Beloved?s spiritual identities.
Therefore, the thesis will think creatively from Beloved?s spiritu al identities,
study the influence of Beloved on Sethe and Denver in mind and provide a new idea to understand the history of black people.
Toni Morrison had a strong national consciousness and devoted her life to improving the material life of black people and their social status. Meanwhile, she focuses on the future of the nation and hopes that the black can get thinking and enlightening from the past and the present, without forgetting history.
Beloved is the epitome of the whole black nation. The thesis reveals the cruel nature of slavery and its enormous harm to the black, and these harms have hampered their search for personal value and personal identity. Under the slavery, the black slave's language power is under full control of the slave owner. Meanwhile, it also implies that history cannot be forgotten and unity is the only way of black people to get freedom.
II. Literature Review
2.1 Toni Morrison and Beloved
Toni Morrison is an American writer. Her works are well known for fantastic themes, vivid conversation, and abundant details and including TheBluest eye(1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon(1977), Tar Baby(1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1993), Paradise(1998), Love(2003), A Mercy(2008), and Home (2012). She is also a professor in Princeton University.
In 1988, her fifth novel Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. In 1993, she became the first black women who won the Nobel Prize in literature. Morrison is the representation of people who have contributed to developing American?s historical consciousness.
The novel Beloved tells the story of black woman Sethe to make her own baby girl to escape from the suffering of slavery in the hunting of slave owners. She resolutely cut the throat of her two-year-old daughter who is called Beloved. She has been lived under psychical torment. Until 18 years later, Beloved came back. Beloved is popular for the healing power that it provides to the black. The novel may enhance all the people?s understanding of the history of black slavery and the power of the black community.
2.2 Researches on Beloved at Home and Abroad
2.2.1 Domestic Researches
From 1993 to now, Chinese scholars have published 118 comments about Beloved, and the data shows that more and more people pay attention to Toni Morrison and Beloved. The studies of Chinese scholars are mainly classified into three aspects including the maternal love, writing kills and the female perspective.
Tang Hongmei (2006) viewed that Sethe's behavior of killing her child is out of her twisted maternal love. Slavery forced mother to believe that only by death would her children be saved. It challenges the authority and makes the image of traditional mother collapse.
Some people study writing skills of Beloved, just like Constructivism and Magic Realism. Wu Xinyun (1999) commented that it used the image of tree on Seth's back and the image of water to warn the black and held that people should try to forgive the past and move on rather than try to forget about the pain of the past.
The heroine of Beloved is a black woman, and many scholars explore the novel from the female perspective. For example, in Zhang Rulin?s (2006) analysis, she believed that the unity of black people is the crucial factor for each individual to fight against the discrimination and abuse.
2.2.2 Foreign Researches
Before 1975, Morrison did not pay any attention to the western literary field. However, with the book The Bluest Eye published, Morrison?s novel has become more and more popular, especially Beloved.
The studies of Beloved abroad are also classified into three aspects including the maternal love, the cruel nature of slavery and the process of the black women pursuing self-worth.
Peter J．Capuano (1992) in the book of Black Issues Book Review believed that compared with the black male and the society, the black women also have their inherent value and the right to be respected by men. Under the racial discrimination and sex discrimination of the society, black women are psychologically distorted. However, they still do not give up discovering their
own value.
The maternal love is a unique perspective in Beloved. Davis and Kimberly Chabot(1998)explored female experience and pointed out that the black woman slave behavior reflected the extreme love. Under the slavery, the only choice of black mother was to kill her daughter so as to protect her from the class oppression.
In the cruel nature of slavery, many scholars focus on the situation of the black in the whites? society and emphasize on racial problems in the novel. For example, in To Be Loved and Cry Shame: A Psychological Reading of Toni Morrison's Beloved, the author Koolish Lynda (2001) pointed out that black people did not have freedom and any civil right during that specific period. However, Morrison?s description brings a vivid image of black people who suffered in that situation. This will raise public concern to racism and sexual discrimination.
Beloved has attracted more and more scholars from both home and abroad to explore. However, the application of critical approaches in the study of Beloved at home and abroad is not entirely the same in some perspectives. With time passing by, many new theories from the novel have also been gradually developed. For example, Barbara Schapiro (1991) interpreted Beloved from the psychological perspective.
Through the comparison of the studies at home and abroad, the conclusion can be naturally drawn that most of the studies are on the themes and the artistic features of Beloved. So, there is still some big space where exploration can be done about the novel. In the recent new studies, many scholars start to focus on the identities of Beloved. For instance, Wendy Harding and Jacky Martin (1992) studied Beloved's identities from the black?s past. However, they just explored the
identities of Beloved in the real world as Sethe?s dead daughter or a survivor from the trade of slavery. Therefore, exploring the spiritual identities of Beloved is meaningful to the research of this novel.
III. Real Identities of Beloved
One of the keys of the story is the multiple identities of Beloved. In the title page, Toni Morrison stated “sixty million and more.” This significant number of dead African American people reveals the savage crime of slavery system. Furthermore, this figure also implies that Beloved is not one particular case for black people. Therefore, the identities of Beloved are not one single character. There are so many possible identities for Beloved regarding to how people perceive. She maybe is the daughter who was killed by Sethe or a survivor from the trade of slavery. No matter who she is, Toni Morrison has left some evidences in the novel.
3.1 The Dead Daughter of Sethe
The first identity of Beloved is Sethe?s dead daughter who was murdered by Sethe. The name of the house where Sethe living, “124 Bluestone”, has significant meaning: from one to four, only three is missing. The coincidence is that the dead daughter is Sethe?s third child. That is the reason why some people regard this ghost as Sethe dead daughter. Beloved first shows up as a baby ghost in 124 Bluestone. Toni Morrison describes her as a greedy and naughty soul. What she did in that house showed her madness and her trying to remind the other family members not to forget her existence.
One of the characters is Paul D who tries to force out the ghost and attempts to help the family forget the past. When he arrived at 124 Bluestone, he engaged with the ghost directly. Consequently, he seemed succeed and the ghost left. However, this “peace” time did not last for long. One day when Paul and Denver came back the home, the young woman who claimed herself as Beloved sit in front of 124 Bluestone, and Sethe adopted her.
In the tradition of African Americans, the barriers between live and dead, now and past do not exist. Therefore, dead people can communicate to live people, and even they can summon the dead people and bring them back to live. In the novel, due to the strong love and guilty of Sethe, her daughter appeared again, who aim to recover her own identity in the family and punish the others.
The physical characteristics and the way she talks all indicated that she is the dead daughter. When Sethe the first time met Beloved, she found that her skin is new and soft like a baby. In addition, she found out that there is a scar on her neck where she cut the throat of her daughter with a handsaw. There are also some evidences showing that she is her d aughter. She asked about where Sethe?s earrings are without seeing them, and she knew the song Sethe used to sing to the baby, which was only known by Sethe and her baby daughter.
The family did not accept Beloved in the first place. In the beginning, Sethe did not consider Beloved as her dead daughter. She believed that her daughter was kept in a “safe place” and even told Denver that Beloved is a poor slave girl who escaped from her master. However, she gradually noticed that Beloved is the murdered daughter. In addition, when Beloved came back to this house, Paul D. forced her out. However, she drove her up the wall, so she came back in a living body. Denver also accepted Beloved as a member of the family. She believed that Beloved is the one who haunted the house and now being a real human. Finally, she confirmed that Beloved is her elder sister.
Toni Morrison once said in an interview that there were several roles which she wanted Beloved to play. One of Beloved?s identities is Seth's imaginary figure. Therefore, she must consist with that description in the novel. This could explain why Sethe and Denver think Beloved is the dead baby.
3.2 The Survivor from the Trade of Slavery
As is described in the novel, many details indicate that Beloved is a black girl who escaped from the slaveholder. Some parts of the description of Beloved show that she is a slave who escaped from the slavery trade. When Paul D first met her in front of 124 bluestones, Paul asked her name and where she was from. She just remembered her name called Beloved. In the later chapter, she recalled some other details of being a slave. For example, she saw that her mother took flowers from the leaves and put them in a round basket and still remembered that she always curled up and watched the others who held the same position as hers.
Some other characters also believe that Beloved is a slave who was traded from African to American. Sethe believes that Beloved has been imprisoned and abused by white people. Stamp Paid imagines a story of a girl running away that was prisoned by a white man while the white was dead. All these evidences rebuilt the past of Beloved as she described. She was deflowering with her mother in Africa, and then they were caught in the ship by slaveholders. The space was very narrow and crowd in the ship, so she curled up all the time. When her mother committed suicide by jumping into the ocean, she was transferred from Africa to America. After they got to America, she was sold to a white male. That white man prisoned and abused her. Once the white man was dead, she escaped from that place and met Sethe and her family. In that case, it can be concluded that Beloved is a lucky slave girl who survives from slave trade compared to the large quantities of slaves losing their lives on the trip in ocean.
Meanwhile, scholars believe that Beloved also represent all the people who suffer from the slavery. As Toni Morrison stated in the title page, Beloved is a representative of sixty million or more people.
In the plot, Beloved forced people like Sethe and Paul D to recall the horrible memories that they tried to forget and how they suffered from slavery. Since Beloved lived in 124 Bluestone, she forced Sethe to tell the stories of her past. Both Sethe and Denver found that, the stories became her “nutrition” and she got satisfied with them. With the increasing demands of the Beloved, Seth also started to talk and explain how many hardships that she has suffered for her children, and Sethe decided to face her past and did not fear it. Besides, Beloved also influenced Paul D. When Paul D escaped from Sweet Home, he buried all his past. However, while he had sex with Beloved, he started to recall all the horrible memories of the slavery era. Beloved influenced these people in a unique way to face and conquer their fears.
By recalling the memories, Beloved's story was the first record of the history in which the black were sold from Africa to America. As she described, she was crouching in crowd with other slaves. Some of them were even dead for long time. The fear of hunger was filled in the atmosphere, and some of the slaves started to eat others' dead bodies. In addition, when the flesh was dead in such a long time, they tried to leave this flesh behind the ship. They piled the dead bodies, and these bodies accumulated into a small hill of dead people. Therefore, Beloved represented more than sixty million slaves and she brought forward the living environment for black slaves who are so miserable during the trip to America. Beloved reveals this grievous history for the others.
Before Sethe murdered her daughter and did not give a name to her, “Beloved” is the name that she leaves on her grave. Therefore, this girl should represent each black people who was transferred and sold from Africa to America. Some characters, for instance, Stamp Paid also considers Beloved as the representative of all the victims from the slavery. Since Sethe killed her daughter,
no one has visited 124 Bluestone. Stamp Paid tried several times to get into 124 Bluestone, but each time he failed. He believed that there are some voices around From the above analysis, it can be seen that Beloved is the name of the forgotten and unnamed baby. This unnamed baby has the same fate with all the black victims, dead in suffering and buried with fury. She can be a good representative for “sixty million and more”. Therefore, the identity of Beloved can be the representative of African Americans.
3.3 Implication of the Identities
Under the slavery, the black people only is a pa rt of the slave owner?s possessions. They cannot enjoy freedom and do not have a happy family. Their wives and children belong to the slave owner as well. Slave owners seem slaves and their families as their private properties, so they could trade and transfer them, present them as gifts, treat them as mortgages for debts and exchange them. In the slavery, the rights of slaves are proscribed, and crimes just like sexual abuse have been committed to black women.
No matter what your social class and skin color are, child is the loveliest angel to a mother. Even though Sethe is a black slave, she is also a mother. As a mother, the future of her children was deprived, and they were traded like commodities and abused by slave owners, and it brought despair to her. Consequently, Sethe killed her daughter. However, the past scar is just like a tree on her back, which Denver described as tiny little cherry blossoms. Many black people have faced the same situation, in which they are forced to bear the heavy shackles in slavery and to face the life that is filled with blood and death. Morrison has demonstrated their tragic experience.
IV. Spiritual Identities of Beloved
Beloved also promotes the spiritual awakening of others. Some people think that she may be Sethe?s mother and Denver?s guide. She forces Sethe to face her past and wake up from the guilt of her. In addition, she provides an opportunity for Denver to leave her imagined world. Beloved in everybody's mind has become
a power that forces him or her to go out of the past and face the future.
4.1 The Mother of Sethe
There is another possibility that Beloved could be Sethe?s mother, or Sethe?s ancestors in Africa. This may be a contradiction to the previous statement that Beloved is Sethe?s daughter, but some of the details in novel have indicated the identity.
Some behaviors of Beloved made Sethe recall something about her mother. Before she appeared, Sethe almost had no impression of her mother. As she described, she was taken away from her mother since she was about three weeks and grew up under endless work. She even never knew who her father was and barely remembered her mother?s face. However, if without the only things left in her memory, she couldn't have found the common characters between Sethe?s mothers and Beloved the first time Sethe met Beloved. Therefore, Sethe recalled her mother?s face when she saw Beloved?s face.
In Sethe?s memory, her mother always smiled to other people, which was one of Beloved?s characteristic. For example, when thirty black women crowed outside their house, Beloved remained standing on the porch and smiling. Meanwhile, the accent of Beloved was more close to her mother?s rather than her daughter Denver and it might be some kind of dialect in Africa. These details show that Beloved might come from Africa as her mother. These details show that
Beloved might came from Africa as her mother.
Actually, the powerful evidence to prove that Beloved is probably Sethe's mother in the last part of the novel, and this evidence is that Beloved would smash things and refuse the role of Sethe being a mother when Sethe tried to build up a kind of mother's authority. Beloved was eager to play the role of mother. Finally, they switched their roles in which Beloved behaved like a mother and Sethe behaved like a child. Therefore, with all these evidences, it is rational that Beloved is Sethe?s mother. When Sethe was young, her mother never gave up fighting for her own freedom, she also did not make her children forget their identity. These are the only warm memories of Sethe.
However, every child will be separated from their mother and be sold. These women were just like production tools whose children were threw away in ship by slavery. They love their children, but they do not belong to them. This is the memory that every black most unwilling to remember from the past.
Although the novel does not have a lot of the details to describe that Sethe very missed her mother, she deeply loved to Beloved shows that her longing for a mother?s love.
Before Beloved appeared in their life, Seth was constructing their identities from the comfort mutual with Pual D. She fantasized to start her new life on the basis of herself unreal and incomplete world. However, the sweet and ugly memories were brought by Beloved broke the fantasy of Sethe.
Beloved…s appearance made Sethe remember her mother. She started to remember her happy time at Sweet Home and pain of the past in 124 Bluestone. Morrison once said Sethe?s daily life was so empty that she can only use the en dless work to defeat with past memories. However, the Beloved?s appearance made Sethe recall her past.
Finally, Beloved disappeared. Sethe woke up from dormancy and tried to create a new future with Paul D. To Seth, the disappearance of Beloved meant forgiveness, and she realized that nothing was more important than herself. Meanwhile, it also forces her to go out of the 124 Bluestone, embracing the real society and facing everything bravely. The wounds of the slavery are starting to heal.
4.2 The Guide of Denver
Denver had been living in 124 Bluestone ---a house filled with venom. Her two brothers had run away when they were fifteen. Since Suggs dead, they did not have visitors and any friend. Denver was isolated because people escaped the house. Sethe and the ghost became her friend. Even for a long time, she pretended to be deaf to escape from the contact with other people and the society. She indulged herself in her fantasy world.
When Denver seen the appearance of the delicate girl, she knew the girl was her sister reincarnation. Denver was happy because she has a real friend. In the next days, Denver listened to her breathing and watched her sleeping face. She thought Beloved has replaced the missing part of love in her life.
Denver carefully looked after Beloved, though Paul D thought that she was a devil. Beloved became her only bestie. She and Denver shared other secrets, they joyfully danced in bed, and she enjoyed it.
Denver was so afraid of losing Beloved, and she loved Beloved?s accompany. She seemed to believe that she was Beloved and Beloved was her. So Denver started to tell the story of about her birth, she reconstructed her past when Beloved listened it repeatedly with patience. Denver told Beloved, Sethe for her children can live freely to escape from white slave owner. When she told the story to