Abstract

Toni Morrison is one of the most influential African-American women writers of contemporary American literature. She is known widely for the Nobel Prize-winning novel Beloved. She is also the first African-American woman writer who has won this great honor. Beloved is one of her representative works. Set on the life of a small town in Ohio, Cincinnati in 1873, Beloved focuses on the great trauma of slavery in the mind of the black people. 

The thesis aims to interpret the novel from the perspective of American Black Feminism. The double identity of black and female force the black female slaves to be oppressed by the slavery, racism and sexism. Baby Suggs and Sethe have been enslaved. Baby Suggs has eight children, but only one child accompanies her, and she is deprived of the right of naming; Sethe has the right to choose a husband, but they could not see each other often. She is even deprived of the right of milking her children. Then Sethe plans to escape. She does not want her children to live like her, so she kills her child. Eighteen years later, Beloved comes back and tortures her day and night. Denver does not be enslaved by her mother Sethe’s escaping. She becomes a warrior who helps herself and her family to get out of the trouble. She is also the hope for the future. She, under the help of the black community and the white, succeeds in rescuing her mother, at last she finds who she is and what she should do. Only knowing the past and not being frozen by the past cooperatively can promote the happiness of the family and the progress of society.

Key Words：American Black Feminism; slavery; dilemma; resistance

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Dilemma caused by slavery, racism and sexism-2

2.1 Sex objects of the white male-3

2.2 Loss of speech or language-4

2.3 Fragmentized relationship-5

3 Resistance to the unfair treatment-8

3.1 Baby Suggs—a failed fighter-8

3.2 Sethe—a brave warrior-9

3.3 Denver—a hope of the future-11

4 Conslusion-.13

References-15