From Identity Crisis to Identity Construction: A Study of Identity Issues in Beloved

Abstract

The 1993 Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent black female writers in contemporary American literature. Beloved is her very outstanding work and wins the Pulitzer Prize for Best Novel. It reveals the darkness of slavery and its torture towards the blacks. This paper tries to show the tragic destiny of the blacks, criticize the extremely negative influence of cultural hegemony and the other, and explore ways to construct identity. The colonialism and racism of cultural hegemony and the other are the prime causes of identity crisis. The blacks should face the miserable history bravely, dissolve the erosion of white culture, recover and develop black culture on the basis of traditional culture. Only in this way, can they come out of the shadow and obtain true freedom.