Abstract

Beloved was written by Tony Morrison in 1987. The images in this novel are endowed with special meaning. This article tried to show African-American history and explore the deep theme connotation of this novel through the image decoding. It’s suggested in this thesis that by describing different images, Morrison vividly depicts the characters and the relationship between the contradictions. These images become the language tools of the novel which play an important role in depicting character, showing contradictory relations and revealing the theme of the novel. This paper aims to reveal the theme of love and freedom of this novel by interpreting the images. 

Key words: images, black literature, love, freedom

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 The introduction of the author-1

1.2 The introduction of Beloved-1

2. The Origins of Symbolic Images in Beloved-2

2.1 The production of the work-2

2.2 Symbolic images in other works of Tony Morison.-3

3. Three Main Symbolic Images in Beloved-4

3.1 Water-4

3.2 Color-5

3.3 Trees-6

4. Theme Interpretation with Reference to Symbolic Images-7

4.1 Memory of the past-7

4.2 Recuperating Afro-American traditional culture-7

4.3 Maternal love-8

5. Significance of Beloved and its Social Influence-8

5.1 The contribution to Afro-American literature.-8

5.2 Social influence produced by Symbolic Images and its meaning-9

6. Conclusion-10

References-11