Abstract:Toni Morrison is the most successful Afro-American woman writer of the 20th century. In 1993, she received the Nobel Prize for literature for her excellent achievements in writing, and becomes the first Afro-American writer to win this award. Her works always show and explore history, fate and spiritual world of Afro-Americans, especially the spiritual world of black women. The culture context of Tony Morrison is the historical context in which the western classical literature tradition is combined with the black ethnic culture, with the theme of pursuing self-identity. On the one hand, Morrison is eager to join the American society mainstream. On the other hand, she wants to keep her own black cultural tradition, struggling between freedom and alienation. The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first work which tells us a story about a little black girl, Pecola, suffering all kinds of torture and damage because of her color and appearance. So she desires a pair of blue eyes for respect of other people. With the distortion and alienation of values, Pecola is destroyed by those damages. The first person narrator of the novel, Claudia who is younger than Pecola helps to review the tragic life of Pecola. Finally, Claudia “grows up”, but it is just a process of being assimilated. It is not only the tragedy of Claudia herself, but also the tragedy of the nation. This essay will analyze the psychological changes of Pecola and Claudia on the basis of interpersonal relationship, exploring how Pecola falls into the abyss because of influence of people around and how the thoughts of Claudia is developing, from revolting to accepting. It can be seen that the personal power is too tiny to face up with the whole social background. In my opinion, Morrison needs to call on all the black to awaken and cherish their heritage.

Keywords: interpersonal relationship; social influence; contrast; tragedy

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Psychological Changes on the Basis of Social Impact-3

2.1 The Interpersonal Relationship-3

2.2 The Neighbors Impact-4

2.3 The Family Impact-5

Chapter 3 Tragic Destiny Caused by Racial Prejudice-9

3.1 Racial Prejudice-9

3.2 Personal Tragedy and National Tragedy-9

Chapter 4 Conclusion-11

References-13

Acknowledgements-14