| Summary: | 碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系 === 88 === In this thesis, I apply W. E. B. Du Bois’s theory of Double Consciousness to interpret Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye. According to Du Bois, African Americans seek to release the anxiety of participation in American society by means of blend of blackness and whiteness. They would merge their double selves into better and truer selves. What Morrison presents in The Bluest Eye is different from Du Bois’s optimistic view. In order to be accepted by dominant white society, the black characters attempt to erase the black selves. The desire to become white usually leads to tragedy. This thesis aims at exploring the roots of the imbalance between white culture and black culture, as well as examining the impact of pervasive dominant culture on black community, family and individual.
This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One introduces the frameworks of the discussion, Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness and Erich Neumann’s scapegoat psychology.
Chapter Two discusses how education, commodity and movie cause the imbalance between white culture and black culture, how whiteness is molded as superior while blackness is inferior, and how white ideology becomes a pervasive mythology from whose trap few African Americans can escape.
Chapter Three examines the impact of the dominant white myth on black community. To displace their negative emotions and guilt-feeling, members of black community project their blackness onto the weakest member of the community.
Chapter Four discusses the impact of the dominant white culture on the Breedlove family. In this chapter, I explain how the projection of blackness is detrimental to child-parent relationship.
Chapter Five concludes that Pecola is a scapegoat of black community and black family’s fear, fury and frustration.
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