scholarly journals Quest for Identity in the novels of Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1183-1188
Author(s):  
Nehdeep Lakra, Et. al.
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Family Culture ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Search For Self

Identity is often described as finite and consists of separate and distinct parts such as; family, culture, personal relations and profession, to name a few. The formation of identity is an ever – evolving one wherein our genealogy, culture, loved ones, those we cared for, people who have harmed us and people we have harmed, our memories of the various phases of life, or the deeds done to oneself and to others, experiences lived and choices made, all come together to form who one is, at a given moment. The black Americans in the select novels are neglected even not to be considered as human beings, deprived of their rights. This article deals with the search for self as to who they truly are in the novel of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Identity is the uniqueness of a person and when it is lost, the person loses everything in his life.

scholarly journals The Experience of Alienation in Toni Morrison’s Work: Man’s Fragmentation and Concomitant Distortion

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Mohammed Mahameed ◽  
Majed Abdul Karim
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Song Of Solomon ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Work

The question of alienation has always been a pervasive theme in the history of modern thought, and it occupies a considerable place in contemporary work. Literature in general, and fiction in particular, raise this issue to reveal its influence on human beings and communities. Novelists have been trying to unravel its complexities and concomitant consequences. The paper aims to explore the experience of alienation through depicting the issue not as a purely racial reality, or something restricted to the colour of the skin or gender of the victim. It is rather presented as a distressing state which cripples the victims and makes them susceptible captives of the dominant forces. In the selected novels, Toni Morrison has delved deep into the experience of alienation through her male and female characters, showing the different forms of this experience. The present research investigates Morrison’s portrayal of the issue from an African-American prospect. References will be made to novels such as Tar Baby, Sula, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved.

scholarly journals A Du Boisian Reading of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 121-127
Author(s):  
Sediqeh Hosseiny ◽  
Ensieh Shabanirad
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black People ◽  
The Other ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
White People ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Black Characters ◽  
Different Types

Due to the color of their skins, Blacks were always subject to different types of disrespect and insecurity in their society. Among different groups of people, writers and critics knew it as their responsibility to act as Black people’s voice and talk on behalf of them, as these people were labeled as ‘The Other’ by the Whites. Du Bios created a kind of new trend of dealing with African-American culture by innovating the concept known as “double consciousness”, and arguing that these black people were trapped between dual personalities. As an American writer, Toni Morrison carried this specific burden upon her shoulders to reveal all those oppressions Blacks had to bear in their life, like what she depicted in the novel The Bluest Eyewith portrayal of the main black character Pecolla who is being blamed for the color of her skin. This article intends to elaborate some inherent postcolonial traces in Toni Morrison’s outstanding novel The Bluest Eye and examine how European power and white people were dominating the whole system of the society and what kind of regretful complications Blacks had to endure, and at the same time working on how Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness can be analyzed in black characters.

scholarly journals The Influence of Social Contexts towards the Identity Development of the Main Character in The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Sofiani ◽  
Sabarti Akhadiah ◽  
Emzir Emzir
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black People ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
Data Validity ◽  
Blue Eyes

This research aimed to show how the social contexts influencing the main character of The Bluest Eye, Pecols’s identity development, and the stage of her identity development with the help of Erikson and Marcia’s theories. The research used qualitative research through the literary psychology approach. The data collection had been taken from the novel entitled The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, selected and sorted to find out how many among them were supporting the research. The steps were data analysis and data validity. The results show that social contexts greatly affected Pecola’s life, and therefore her identity cannot be developed.; racism, thus, has an influence on all aspects of the black people. Pecola undergoes multiple oppression and abuse as a result of racism, which leads to her self-loathe. She, thus, believes that having blue eyes is the only hope to escape from the suffering she undergoes. It is a warning of identity confusion since she wants to change her identity and becomes white. It pushes her to insanity. Racism and abuse ruin a person’s life by creating hatred and damaged to a person’s soul, and segregate society into groups. It results in the division of groups through the use of terms such as ‘them’ and ‘us’, implying that they are not equal.

scholarly journals Persuasive Strategies towards Racial Appeal in Tony Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Somayeh Shabani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Persuasive Strategies ◽  
Blue Eyes ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Racism is the main theme in Toni Morisson’s The Bluest Eye. The little black girl’s long lasting yearn for blue eyes has been linked to the standards of America’s society in 1940’s which associated beauty to being white. Although instances of racism are rampant throughout the story, previous studies have not attempted to determine the type of persuasive strategies used by Toni Morrison to justify racism in the novel. In this paper, the author made use of Aristotle’s concepts of ethos, logos, and pathos, as 3 main dimensions of persuasion to determine the strategies used in the novel by the narrator-Claudia. Descriptive qualitative analysis of the novel’s text revealed that the author has made use of all these strategies. Pathos was observed in form of feelings of fear, anger and hatred. Logos was observed in the logic of the grown up society of America about being white and ethos was found among the black who themselves credited the whites over their own race.  

Moralitas dalam Novel Negeri di Ujung Tanduk Karya Tere Liye

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-173
Author(s):  
Muhtadin Muhtadin ◽  
Sugi Murniasih
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Record Data ◽  
Morality Literature

The objective of this research was to describes the morality contained in the novel Affairs at the Negeri di Ujung Tanduk the works Tere Liye. The research method used content analysis. The data in this research is a sentence containing the moral values ​​contained by the novel of the State at Ujung Tanduk Karya Tere Liye. Technique of collecting data using documentation technique and record. Data analysis techniques with steps: data reduction, data tabulation and coding, interpretation, classification, and conclusion. The result of the research shows that morality in Tere Liye Negeri di Ujung Tanduk novel is: first, human relationships with other human beings in the form of self existence, self esteem, self confidence, fear, death, longing, resentment, loneliness, maintaining the sanctity of greed, developing courage, honesty, hard work, patient, resilient, cheerful, steadfast, open, visionary, independent, brave, courageous, optimistic, envy, hypocritical, reflective, responsible, principle, confident, disciplined , and voracious. Second, human relationships with other humans or social and nature in the form of cooperation, acquaintance, hypocrisy, caring, hypocrisy, caring, friendship, smile, mutual help, and betrayal. Third human relationships in the form of God's menthidising and avoiding shirk, piety and pleading with prayers, prayers performed by human beings, as an awareness that everything in this universe belongs to God. Keywords: morality, literature, novel

scholarly journals Critiquing Anthropocentrism in Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Pushpa Raj Jaishi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
East African ◽  
To Come

Vanishing Herds (2011) is Henry Ole Kulet’s novel that hovers around the ecological depletion caused by the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings. Set in the East African Savannah, the novel grapples with the critical issue of anthropogenic environmental degradation. The novel is based on the tribulations of a young Maasai couple –Kedoki and Norpisia whose epic journey through the wilderness provides a window through which the destruction of the physical environment can be viewed. Additionally, the text catalogues the challenges faced by a pastoralist community’s attempt to come to terms with the socio-economic realities of a fast-evolving contemporary society. The paper is an attempt to study this novel under the surveillance of green lens and throw light on the ecological destruction especially the clearing of the forest by human self centered endeavors and to critique the anthropocentric attitude of the human beings that render the environment at the verge of destruction.

scholarly journals Frog Metaphors in Mo Yan’s Novel 蛙 /UA55/ (Frog): A Cognitive Perspective

MANUSYA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-153
Author(s):  
Yao Siqi
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mo Yan ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
One Child Policy ◽  
Child Policy ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
Chinese Author

《蛙》/ua55/ (frog) by the Nobel Prize winning Chinese author Mo Yan describes China’s changing its highly controversial one - child policy and system of forced abortions over the past half-century. Frog metaphors are omnipresent throughout the novel. The present study aims to investigate these metaphors within the framework of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and the “GREAT CHAIN OF BEING” system of George Lakoff and Mark Turner (1989) to deepen our understanding of their nature and manifestations. Zoltán Kövecses’s (2002) “HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS” and “ANIMALS ARE HUMAN BEINGS” were also considered as cognitive metaphorical models. Moreover, the viewpoint of “phonetic metaphor” initially proposed by Ivan Fónagy (1999) was also taken into account. Results were that in Mo Yan’s work, the frog plays an essential role in the conceptualizing conventional views of certain areas in China. The analysis demonstrates how a cognitive approach offers an effective way to explore the cognitive basis of the text’s view on the complex relationship between the basic human rights and the dilemmas of living in a repressive society. This paper also hopes to make a certain contribution to comprehending frog metaphors in terms of more clearly delineated concepts and ideology reflecting China’s real society of a one-child policy and its traditional counter - policy notion.

"A Dismal Swamp": Darwin, Design, and Evolution in Our Mutual Friend

1994 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard W. Fulweiler
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Victorian Fiction ◽  
Dismal Swamp ◽  
Human World ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
Our Mutual Friend ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend, published just six years after Darwin's The Origin of Species, is structured on a Darwinian pattern. As its title hints, the novel is an account of the mutual-though hidden-relations of its characters, a fictional world of individuals seeking their own advantage, a "dismal swamp" of "crawling, creeping, fluttering, and buzzing creatures." The relationship between the two works is quite direct in light of the large number of reviews on science, evolution, and The Origin from 1859 through the early 1860s in Dicken's magazine, All the Year Round. Given the laissez-faire origin of the Origin, Dicken's use of it in a book directed against laissez-faire economics is ironic. Important Darwinian themes in the novel are predation, mutual relationships, chance, and, especially, inheritance, a central issue in both Victorian fiction and in The Origin of Species. The novel asks whether predatory self-seeking or generosity should be the desired inheritance for human beings. The victory of generosity is symbolized by a dying child's "willing" his inheritance of a toy Noah's Ark, "all the Creation," to another child. Our Mutual Friend is saturated with the motifs of Darwinian biology, therefore, to display their inadequacy. Although Dickens made use of the explanatory powers of natural selection and remained sympathetic to science, the novel transcends and opposes its Darwinian structure in order to project a teleological and designed evolution in the human world toward a moral community of responsible men and women.

From Decline of the West to Dawn of Day

Janus Head ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Hub Zwart ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
The West ◽  
Smart Technologies

This paper subjects Dan Brown’s most recent novel Origin to a philosophical reading. Origin is regarded as a literary window into contemporary technoscience, inviting us to explore its transformative momentum and disruptive impact, focusing on the cultural significance of artificial intelligence and computer science: on the way in which established world-views are challenged by the incessant wave of scientific discoveries made possible by super-computation. While initially focusing on the tension between science and religion, the novel’s attention gradually shifts to the increased dependence of human beings on smart technologies and artificial (or even “synthetic”) intelligence. Origin’s message, I will argue, reverberates with Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, which aims to outline a morphology of world civilizations. Although the novel starts with a series of oppositions, most notably between religion and science, the eventual tendency is towards convergence, synthesis and sublation, exemplified by Sagrada Família as a monumental symptom of this transition. Three instances of convergence will be highlighted, namely the convergence between science and religion, between humanity and technology and between the natural sciences and the humanities.

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