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Abstract.iii
1 Introduction.1
2 Brief Survey of the Term¬¬¬¬¬—Black Consciousness.3
2.1 Concept of Black Consciousness.......3
2.2 Black Consciousness and Afro-American History....4
3 Tony Morrison and Song of Solomon7
3.1 Tony Morrison’s Biography...7
3.2 The Background and the Novel Song of Solomon.....8
4 Black Consciousness in Song of Solomon11
4.1 The Accept of the Black Identity.11
4.1.1 The Basic Theme of Roots....................12
4.1.2 The Puzzle of Lost Identity...12
4.2 The Pride of the Black Cultural Heritage.14
4.2.1 The Rebuilt of the Black National Consciousness.....................14
4.2.2 The Myth of Flying15
4.2.3 The Return of Black Cultural Tradition.16
4.3 The Last Song of Racial Freedom18
4.3.1 The Racial Stand of Milkman and Guitar.18
4.3.2 The Pursue of Freedom and Equality19
5 Conclusion..21
Bibliography..22
1. Introduction
When Song of Solomon was first released in 1977, its theme was describes as “Self pursuit and Cultural orientation.” by Toni Morrison. In 1978, the next year right after its publication this novel won the National Critics Circle Award and the Letters Award. It is widely accepted that it symbolizes the maturity of Toni Morrison’s writing style. It is an attempt to reveal the thematic significance of names, the inner class contradictions of the Black, the racial conflict between the Black and the White and the spirit of rebuilding the Black’s home in Song of Solomon.
It is through a long time that Afro-American literature has got attention from the public and Toni Morrison was the first black woman who won the Nobel Prize. The theme of this novel is different from her other novels, against her normal theme of woman as she set a man’s growth to reflect the Afro-American’s development of that time in most of her novels. Through this paper, we can truly know the literature and writing style of the Black writer. It is time that we should pay attention to the Afro-American literature. Song of Solomon is one of the great works in the Afro-American literature that embodies the root and the style of the black culture.
Song of Solomon captures intensive attention in the western critical circles, especially among American critics. Criticism about it covers a wide range of topics from its myth, turning of name, theme and even the roots. Focuses of these criticisms are mainly on its hero, myth, significance of naming, and its magical realism. Some criticism directs its attention on the work’s gender and race problems, other papers illustrate the theme of returning to the Black cultural tradition.
As a matter of fact, these critics domestic and abroad do provide deep insight and broad perspectives for us to better understand the novel. However for the author’s African background, the black consciousness conveyed through the whole text is obvious and this consciousness contains race, class, and culture implications. The major focus of the paper is Black Consciousness in the novel. And it seems that there is no set definition to “Consciousness”. So In this paper, we are going to discuss “Black Consciousness” from race, class, culture and some other aspects. Toni Morrison set forth her consciousness through identity orientation, culture feature and racial attitude in her novel. It deepens the theme of the novel, highlights the vivid personality of character and enhances the artistic characteristics of the novel which arouse readers’ interest and give us the topic to discuss.
It is no denying that Toni Morrison’s novel does represent her racial discrimination and a strong desire to preserve the completeness of black name, tradition and culture. In order to better explore the thesis, this paper opens with a brief survey of the black consciousness, then there is an introduction of Toni Morrison’s black consciousness in Song of Solomon. Subsequently the paper respectively explores the three aspects of the author’s black consciousness: the accept of the black identity, the pride of the black cultural heritage, the last song of racial freedom. Finally the paper comes to the conclusion that Toni Morrison’s black consciousness is the key to understand her novel Song of Solomon and it plays a critical role in enhancing the literary enchantment of the work.