3。1。2 Identity in the new family 

Since she was only a small girl, she had been suffering from the fear caused by being abandoned by her mother。 After arriving at the house of Jacob in Virginia, Florens had been trying her best to satisfy every single person in that house, including both the masters and slaves。 As described in this novel: “the indentured worker Scully felt that Florens never set up defense against anyone and was always eager to flattering others。 The most noticeable part of her behavior is that she is willing to blame herself for the malicious thought of others” (Morrison 25)。 Besides, the slave girl Lina was sympathetic for Florens and wanted to protect her。 However, Lina realized that “Florens was grateful for only a little love for her。 Even the touching of her head or a smile could make her appreciate”(Morrison 26)。 Those behaviors show that Florens did not have proper standpoints about her own identity and she hoped to win the love of others even though it will make her satisfy her self-esteem。 Living in the family of Jacob, most people were kind to her so Florens never realized of the negative part of the identity as a black slave。 However, on her journey to find the black smith, she realized of the real meaning of such an identity: she realized of the strange eyesight of the white people and their contempt against the black people。 In order to find out the real meaning of the identity as a black human, Florens depended on the black smith to construct her self-identification。 Florens said to the black smith that “you will tell me because you have dark skin as me。 When I saw you and was in your arm, I knew that I was still alive。 Now I am not fearful at all” (Morrison 35)。 Nevertheless, it was dangerous to depend on such a male to construct her own self-identification, which is exactly why Florens was finally chased out of the house of the black smith。 

3。2 Her understanding of gender relationships 

Another important part of Florens’s growth is her understanding of gender relationship。 Actually, “the relationship between the two genders is an important part of the social relationship of an inpidual and such relationship determines whether an inpidual could cope with marriage and love properly”(Shang 14)。 As Morrison pointed out in the interview, the relationship between black males and females is more like the comrade-relationship, instead of the love relationship, because they took care of and support each other to go through the harsh time :”( Bakerman 124)。 Such a statement shows that the relationship between black males and females is actually harmonious because both of them suffer much from the evil slavery。 Therefore, normally a black mother would teach her daughter that they must depend on themselves and protect themselves from degrading in the society in which black females were the victim of both racial and gender discrimination。 However, Florens failed to get such education from her mother so she had no idea about how to cope with the relationship with males independently and to establish harmonious relationship with family members。 As a result of the lack of such knowledge, Florens did not know how to change herself for the sake of the harmony of family life。 

3。2。1 Relationship with the blacksmith 文献综述

The first man who Florens loved deeply was the blacksmith who was a free black man。 When the blacksmith worked for Jacob, Florens saw this black man who was working and sweating, Florens was completely attracted by the man: “the sweat flew along your backbone, which surprisingly stimulates me to lick it。 I run away to the cowshed, trying to stop the thought but nothing could stop it” (Morrison 58)。 Such description showed that Florens was addicted to the love for the blacksmith even though she knew nothing about him。 Despite that Lena warned Florens that it was dangerous to fall in love with a strange man, Florens firmly believed in the love for the blacksmith。 After the blacksmith left, Florens soon accepted the task of looking for the blacksmith to help with the disease of the female master, Rebakka。 Despite that she experienced much pains on her journey, including being raped by a strange man。 However, Florens felt that the blacksmith would protect her from more harms so she could gain the courage to continue the journey to find him。 At that time, Florens was reluctant to accept all the arrangement of the blacksmith。 She would like to become the only person that the blacksmith loved and to gain the sense of belongings from the blacksmith。 However, according to Florens’s mother, “it was evil to make oneself controlled by others。 Unfortunately, the mother failed to teach Florens such rules in time, which indirectly led to the shattering of Florens’s dream about love and marriage”(Su 151)。