1 Introduction
Toni Morrison is the first African-American female writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and she has created a profound impact on American literature. Her novel The Bluest Eye has aroused extensive concern at home and abroad since its publication. This chapter tells us the life story and main works of Toni Morrison, and then there is also a brief introduction to The Bluest Eye. In addition, the systematic literature review and the significance of the thesis are also presented in this chapter.
1.1 Introduction to Toni Morrison and Her Works
As a great African-American woman writer, Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, an industrial center, on 1931. She was the first black woman writer who received the Nobel Prize in the history of American literature in 1993. Toni Morrison grew up in a working-class family. In order to escape the devastation of racism, her family migrated from South to the North when she was very young. Under the influence of her parents’ experiences about racism and the traditional African American folktales, she realized the existence of racial injustice, and gradually formed a strong political consciousness about the situation of the black people on the edge of the society. Toni Morrison received her bachelor degree from Howard University in 1953, and then she continued her postgraduate studies at Cornell University, where she obtained an M.A. in 1955. Afterwards, Toni Morrison became a university teacher, and she taught English. She worked at Texas Southern University in Houston during the first two years, and then she taught at Howard for seven years. As a member of an informal group of writers at Howard University, Morison began to write fiction. She married a Jamaican architect in 1958, and they had two children, but finally divorced in 1964. She worked as an editor after the break up of her marriage. As an editor, Morrison made a great contribution to bring black literature into the mainstream. Toni Morrison’s works mainly depicted the African-Americans’ history, legends and real life. Both the use of narrative technologies and the ideological content promote the black novel to a new height. She is not only familiar with the Bible, the black folklore and the Greek mythology, but also influenced by the characteristics of Western classical literature. Toni Morrison’s fictions are her main literary achievements, and her works are emotionally intense, short and poetic. These works not only reflect the political and economic oppression that the black people have suffered, but also reveal the inner feelings of the marginalized African-Americans.
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1.2 A Brief Introduction to The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first novel. It depicts a tragic story of an eleven-year-old black girl, Pecola Breedlove. The story took place in Lorain, Ohio during the period of the dominant white culture. The little black girl was born in a poor, violent and indifferent family,
