가장 푸른 눈(The Bluest Eye)의 주제 연구

A Study of Afro-American/Woman Search for Identity and Narrative Structure in The Bluest Eyes

Toni Morrison has consistently dealt with searching for Afro-American self-identity in the face of slavery and constant racism from her first novel, The Bluest Eye(1970) to the latest work, Jazz(1992). Although the struggle for gaining selfhood for them (Afro-Americans) in the united States has been extremely difficult, Morrison discovers and celebrates the dynamic force and firm determination that have enabled generations of Afro-Americans to survive. In most of Morrison’s works, the problem of gaining self-identity is presented for characters to define themselves not by other people but by their views of life. Each of them comes to realize the power of his own voice in the process of narrating his life and defining himself as a subject. This thesis aims to explore how search for self-identity of each character in Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye is represented by way of narrative structures - Orality and Inner speech. Orality is a conceptual theory of language that scholars are using to describe, characterize and analyze the significance of orally based thought and expression. Orality which is represented as dialogue and blues in The Bluest Eye, makes Afro-Americans resist to the white-centered culture and preserve their cultural identities. Inner speech reflects the plurality of self, which represents the twoness of one self for Morrison. It also means heteroglossia, the dominant voice (authoritative discourse) and the muted voice (inner persuasive discourse) found in a society. Morrison’s novel deals with the relationship between these two discourses. Morrison points out that inner speech makes each character examine his life and develop his own view of life independent of the dominant ideology. The Bluest Eye deals with the success and failure of self-knowledge found in two African-American girls, Pecola and claudia. Pecola is victimized by internalizing the white-centered ideology about beauty, while Claudia’s resistance to assimilation is found in her involvement of orality and inner speech. Orality, which is represnted as dialogue and blues enables Claudia to gain psychological stability and to improve her own thought independent of people in general. Inner speech brings Claudia as well as Pauline into the recognition of their realities which are restricted by racism and other oppression. Especially Claudia shows the way one young girl is able to develop a positive sense of self-definition in the face of an oppressive and racist society.