The Survival Dilemma in the Culture Conflict: A Study of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
Abstract
The Bluest Eye is the debut of the American black writer Toni Morrison. The novel tells the tragic story of an eleven-year-old black girl Pecola who yearns for the bluest eye everyday. However, in a white value dominant society, the little girl’s imagination for happy life is crushed by reality, and finally she falls into madness.
The thesis is mainly on the survival dilemma of the black in white culture dominant society. The first part, based on the postcolonial perspective, is about culture pressure. And the author illustrates it from two aspects of culture institutions: education and mass media; the second part centers on the devastating social psychology effect to blacks. With the white aesthetic standard, the black regard the blackness as ugliness and lost themselves. They are lack of careness and helpfulness to each other. All these lead to Pecola’s tragic fate. The third part exposes the black’s way of survive through characters. Comparing with the Breedloves’ discarding of black tradition, the MacTeers soothe their souls with blues songs and fight with the reality. Therefore, they live through the white dominant society.
Key Words: Toni Morrison; The Bluest Eye; postcolonism; white culture; black culture
摘 要
《最藍的眼睛》是託尼•莫里森的第1部作品。講述的是1個年僅11歲的黑人女孩佩克拉極度渴望1雙藍眼睛的故事。然而，在1個白人文化價值佔統治地位的社會裏，黑人女孩對美好人生的幻想被醜陋的現實擊得粉碎而最終導致精神失常。
本文討論了在白人主流文化社會中黑人的生存困境。論文共分爲3部分，第1部分：以後殖民主義理論爲基礎，分析白人文化佔統治地位的社會裏，黑人所受到的文化壓迫。並從文化機構中教育和大衆媒體兩個具體方面加以闡述；第2部分：着重分析了文化機構給黑人帶來的`社會心理上的傷害。在以白爲美的社會裏，黑人以黑爲醜，迷失了自我，黑人之間缺乏愛心和幫助。這些最終導致了佩克拉的悲劇命運；第3部分：透過人物命運對比揭示了黑人的生存之路。
關鍵字：託尼•莫里森、《最藍的眼睛》、後殖民主義、 白人文化、 黑人文化