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摘要：Toni Morrisons Beloved is a morally sophisticated slave narrative. Because of the painful nature of the experience of slavery, the majority of the black characters are unhappy. The result is a sort of dialogue on issues of responsibility and blame. Only through self-love and community solidarity can have the possibility to redeem them and regain their identities.
关键词：Morality;Community conciseness;Beloved
中图分类号：H31文献标识码：A文章编号：1009-0118（2012）11-0342-02
1.Introduction
A study of Morrisons novels shows, in Beloved, Morrison still treats the problem of violence in Africa American communities and the pressure that the violence of oppression places on these communities. The novels moral ambiguity extends beyond its central conflict to all aspects of the story. The result is a sort of dialogue centering on issues of responsibility and blame, but it is unclear whether the white people are solely responsible or whether the blacks sorrows are to some extent due to their inability to come to terms with themselves and their pasts. The novel also raises question about what the black community owes to itself and about the ties that people who are no longer slaves.
After Sethe first arrived at 124, the community celebrated long the night but grew jealous and angry as the feast wore on; to them, the excess of the feast was a measure of Baby Suggss unwarranted pride. Baby Suggs sensed a “dark and coming thing” in the distance, but the atmosphere of jealousy created by the townspeople clouded her perception. In Girards schema, “mimesis coupled with desire leads automatically to conflict”1 Stamp shows Paul D a newspaper clipping with a drawing of Sethe, but Stamp does not tell how Sethe grabbed her children , nor does he mention that, out of jealous spite, the community purposefully neglected to warn Sethe about schoolteachers approach.” Love, in the Western notion, is full of possession, distortion, and corruption. Its a slaughter without the blood”2 Paul D tells her that her love is “too thick”. He feels distanced from Sethe and condemns her act. He suggests that she acted like a beast in attempting to murder her own children. The community is implicated in the tragedy of the infanticide because their jealousy and mistrust. Even after Seteh murders her daughter, the community members feel Sethe is behaving too proudly, a crime for which they will continue to shun her until Denver turns to them for help. In Beloved, the community denies its propensity to focus its anger and humiliation on its weaker members. Frantz Fanon describes: “In order to free themselves they even massacre each other. The different tribes fight between themselves since they cannot face the real enemy.” 4 The community represses and is unable to identify the violence, white oppression. That is the root of its collapse and entrapment in cycles of violence. Consequently, Beloved labors to return to the more immediate origins of violence in the community, a system of slavery that pits members of the same community against each other, creating conflict that most be reckoned with before the community can find peace at the present.
As Sethes only remaining child, Denver serves as a bridge between Sethe with an opportunity to escape the haunting memories and sins of the past. She feels a sense of responsibility for her mother. Throughout the novel,” Beloved stand for the haunting legacy of slavery.”3 As her presence becomes a danger to the whole black community, we see that the consequences of slavery haunt not only individuals, but whole networks of people. Correspondingly, Beloveds exorcisms will provide a catharsis for the towns entire black population as well as for Sethe. It is significant that it will take the community as a whole to rid 124 of Beloved to exorcise the universal ghastly presence of slavery. At the same time, it takes one woman, with her own personal sense suffering, to organize and lead the exorcism. Due to her own painful relationship with the past, Ella is the most attuned to the invasive and harmful aspect of Beloveds resurrection. She wipes away the legacies of slaverys evils and the memories of the evil that slavery induced in its victims.
Instead of simply repeating the past by running to protect her own children, Sethe does what she wished she had done before; she attacks the perceived enemy. Schoolteacher is not really present, though, and Sethes violence is certainly misdirected. She nearly kills Mr.Bodwin, who not only helped Baby Suggs but also fought for Sethes release from jail and is now trying to help her mistake in a way, this time the mistake will not prove tragic; instead, it opens the door to potential growth. Just as this episode gives Sethe the chance to revise and adjust their past behavior. One of the reasons schoolteachers visit tears age ended so tragically was that the community had failed to warn Sethe of his approach. Now, something she will regret later. The individual and the community work together to learn from past mistake and to heal themselves. 2.Conclusion
As though Beloved were a bad dream, everyone tries to forget her. The community sees her as the representative of an implacable loneliness that cannot be soothe or rocked away. Beloved shows that exploited non-white races should love themselves first. They should take cares of themselves without expectations of the beneficence of the white majority. Good and evil are not spilt along a racial divide. Beloved is a good example of the theme of morality and blame, and whats more, takes its profound them to an even more profound level.
参考文献：
［1］Girard,Rene.The Scapegoat.Trans.Yvonne Frescoer.［M］.Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UP,1986.
［2］Tate,Claudia.“Toni Morrison.” Black Women Writers at Work.Ed.Claudia Tate.NY: Continuum,1983:117-31.
［3］Ruetenk Tadd,“Animal Liberation or Human redemption:Racism and Specialism in Toni Morrisons Beloved［J］.外国文学研究,2007,(1):45.
［4］Fanon,Frantz.The Wretched of the Earth:the Handbook for the Black Revolution that is changing the Shape of the World. New York: Grove,1963.
关键词：Morality;Community conciseness;Beloved
中图分类号：H31文献标识码：A文章编号：1009-0118（2012）11-0342-02
1.Introduction
A study of Morrisons novels shows, in Beloved, Morrison still treats the problem of violence in Africa American communities and the pressure that the violence of oppression places on these communities. The novels moral ambiguity extends beyond its central conflict to all aspects of the story. The result is a sort of dialogue centering on issues of responsibility and blame, but it is unclear whether the white people are solely responsible or whether the blacks sorrows are to some extent due to their inability to come to terms with themselves and their pasts. The novel also raises question about what the black community owes to itself and about the ties that people who are no longer slaves.
After Sethe first arrived at 124, the community celebrated long the night but grew jealous and angry as the feast wore on; to them, the excess of the feast was a measure of Baby Suggss unwarranted pride. Baby Suggs sensed a “dark and coming thing” in the distance, but the atmosphere of jealousy created by the townspeople clouded her perception. In Girards schema, “mimesis coupled with desire leads automatically to conflict”1 Stamp shows Paul D a newspaper clipping with a drawing of Sethe, but Stamp does not tell how Sethe grabbed her children , nor does he mention that, out of jealous spite, the community purposefully neglected to warn Sethe about schoolteachers approach.” Love, in the Western notion, is full of possession, distortion, and corruption. Its a slaughter without the blood”2 Paul D tells her that her love is “too thick”. He feels distanced from Sethe and condemns her act. He suggests that she acted like a beast in attempting to murder her own children. The community is implicated in the tragedy of the infanticide because their jealousy and mistrust. Even after Seteh murders her daughter, the community members feel Sethe is behaving too proudly, a crime for which they will continue to shun her until Denver turns to them for help. In Beloved, the community denies its propensity to focus its anger and humiliation on its weaker members. Frantz Fanon describes: “In order to free themselves they even massacre each other. The different tribes fight between themselves since they cannot face the real enemy.” 4 The community represses and is unable to identify the violence, white oppression. That is the root of its collapse and entrapment in cycles of violence. Consequently, Beloved labors to return to the more immediate origins of violence in the community, a system of slavery that pits members of the same community against each other, creating conflict that most be reckoned with before the community can find peace at the present.
As Sethes only remaining child, Denver serves as a bridge between Sethe with an opportunity to escape the haunting memories and sins of the past. She feels a sense of responsibility for her mother. Throughout the novel,” Beloved stand for the haunting legacy of slavery.”3 As her presence becomes a danger to the whole black community, we see that the consequences of slavery haunt not only individuals, but whole networks of people. Correspondingly, Beloveds exorcisms will provide a catharsis for the towns entire black population as well as for Sethe. It is significant that it will take the community as a whole to rid 124 of Beloved to exorcise the universal ghastly presence of slavery. At the same time, it takes one woman, with her own personal sense suffering, to organize and lead the exorcism. Due to her own painful relationship with the past, Ella is the most attuned to the invasive and harmful aspect of Beloveds resurrection. She wipes away the legacies of slaverys evils and the memories of the evil that slavery induced in its victims.
Instead of simply repeating the past by running to protect her own children, Sethe does what she wished she had done before; she attacks the perceived enemy. Schoolteacher is not really present, though, and Sethes violence is certainly misdirected. She nearly kills Mr.Bodwin, who not only helped Baby Suggs but also fought for Sethes release from jail and is now trying to help her mistake in a way, this time the mistake will not prove tragic; instead, it opens the door to potential growth. Just as this episode gives Sethe the chance to revise and adjust their past behavior. One of the reasons schoolteachers visit tears age ended so tragically was that the community had failed to warn Sethe of his approach. Now, something she will regret later. The individual and the community work together to learn from past mistake and to heal themselves. 2.Conclusion
As though Beloved were a bad dream, everyone tries to forget her. The community sees her as the representative of an implacable loneliness that cannot be soothe or rocked away. Beloved shows that exploited non-white races should love themselves first. They should take cares of themselves without expectations of the beneficence of the white majority. Good and evil are not spilt along a racial divide. Beloved is a good example of the theme of morality and blame, and whats more, takes its profound them to an even more profound level.
参考文献：
［1］Girard,Rene.The Scapegoat.Trans.Yvonne Frescoer.［M］.Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UP,1986.
［2］Tate,Claudia.“Toni Morrison.” Black Women Writers at Work.Ed.Claudia Tate.NY: Continuum,1983:117-31.
［3］Ruetenk Tadd,“Animal Liberation or Human redemption:Racism and Specialism in Toni Morrisons Beloved［J］.外国文学研究,2007,(1):45.
［4］Fanon,Frantz.The Wretched of the Earth:the Handbook for the Black Revolution that is changing the Shape of the World. New York: Grove,1963.