大学英语毕业论文--黑人性的遗失与保存.pdf

BLACKNESS LOST AND PRESERVED AN APPROACH TO EVERYDAY USE IN THE LIGHT OF BLACK CULTURAL TRADITION by May 2009 University 黑人性的遗失与保存 从黑人文化传统看 日用家当 黑人性的遗失与保存 从黑人文化传统看 日用家当 摘 要 摘 要 美国黑人的历史是惨痛的 他们经历了边缘文化 否定 逐步被认同和迷茫 四个阶段 20 世纪 60 年代 黑人文化处于完全被否定的处境 始终处于亚文化 的境地 于是一些有识之士开始了连续不断的反抗 其中马丁 路德 金领导了 黑人权利运动并做出了巨大的贡献 在其影响下 莫里森 沃克等作家也相继以 文学形式支持黑人运动 艾丽斯 沃克 美国当代女诗人 小说家 女权主义者 兼政论家 大学时代即投身于民权运动 她是 70 年代美国文坛的三大黑人女作 家之一 与托尼 莫里森和玛娅 安吉拉齐名 主要代表作有 外婆的日用家 当 1973 紫色 1982 寻找我们母亲的花园 1983 从她的诗歌 小 说作品和论文集中我们不难发现艾丽斯 沃克是一位非常坚定的黑人文化的宣传 者和拥护者 她的作品显示了她对美国黑人文化的深刻洞察力 日用家当 描述了母女三人对待文化遗产的不同态度 阐述了当时美国黑 人的不同价值取向 日用家当 以文学形式诠释了美国黑人为确立和维护自己 的民族文化身份所经历的心路历程 讽刺了 20 世纪 50 年代后期黑人意识中鲁莽 冒失的言辞 坚持了那些被疏忽的价值观念 本文根据 日用家当 讨论分析黑人性的遗失和保存 通过描述三人对家庭 文化遗产的态度以及文章所反映出的关于黑人民权运动的问题来揭示美国黑人 文化遗产的实质以及美国黑人应如何去保留黑人文化价值 关键词 关键词 美国黑人 黑人民权运动 黑人性遗失 黑人性保存 Abstract The history of blacks in the United States is painful as they had experienced several stages including being a marginal culture being negated being recognized and having confusion In 1960s the black culture was nearly denied so that they had no status in the society Under this situation some people set out continuous Black Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King was one of the leaders in this movement and made tremendous contributions under his influence Morrison Walker and other writers then went on supporting the Black Power Movement in the form of literature Alice Walker a contemporary poetess novelist feminist and political commentator in the United States was engaged in the Civil Rights Movement when she was a university student She was one of the three black female writers in the American literary field in the 1970s and equaled the same status with Toni Morrison and Marry Angela Her main representative works are Everyday Use 1973 The Color Purple 1982 and In Search of Our Mother s Gardens 1983 It is not difficult to find that Alice Walker is a very strong advocate for black culture and from her works we can find her profound insight of African American culture Everyday Use describes the three persons different attitudes towards heritage and shows the different values at that time Everyday Use illustrates the process of how the African American establish and maintain the national cultural identity by their own thoughts and feelings in the form of literature It satires the blacks bold worlds in the late 1950s and adheres to the ignored values This article discusses the loss and preservation of blackness according to Everyday Use By describing the following two aspects first the three figures attitudes towards family cultural heritage second the problem reflected from this book about the Black Civil Rights Movement I will reveal the essence of black cultural heritage and discuss what black people should do in order to restore the black values Key Words African American Black Civil Rights Movement Blackness lost Blackness preserved Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Two opposite attitudes towards quilt 2 2 1 Clinging to the quilt 2 2 1 1 Mother a cultural defender 2 2 1 2 Maggie a cultural inheritor 4 2 2 Deserting the quilt 5 3 Preservation of blackness 8 3 1 The external preservation 8 3 2 The internal preservation 8 4 Loss of blackness 9 4 1 The loss of hard working spirit 9 4 2 The loss of heritage 9 4 3 The loss of community sense 9 5 The confusion of Black Power Movement 10 6 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 1 Blackness Lost and Preserved An approach to Everyday Use in the light of black cultural tradition 1 Introduction Looking back the past history in which black people struggled for life in the United States surely we can find this was a very sad memory full of blood and tears In the early times American looted a large number of black slaves from Africa later the black people faced discrimination and suffered the tragedy of life which was America s most shameful historical memory In 1787 the American wrote the natural rights into the Federal Constitution but they avoided the issue of trade intentionally In 1861 after the Civil War the slavery was abolished in law But that was just the first step to pursue equal rights for black people In 1863 Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation let them free in theory The American Civil War and the Black Civil Rights Movement in the 60s in 20 century had brought African American freedom and equality but their suffering from apartheid and racial discrimination in politics economy culture and education were still very serious Under the strong erosion of all pervasive of the white mainstream culture the black culture is always in a passive position of the sub culture Xu jiming 2007 In this mentality in order to achieve recognition and acceptance in the white society some black people accepted the white s cultural values thereby attempting to bleach in the culture itself they avoided of their identity born of shame hated their appearance and color which is in a pathetic sense of inferiority and self destructive situation Wang Yuechuan The Civil Rights Movement was a massive social movement that African American fought for equal rights in politics economy and society and the outbreak of World War II played a crucial role in encouraging and promoting it The World War II made the African American have a more profound understanding of racial discrimination and oppression so from the beginning of the 20th century they set out many non stop Black Power Movements In 1995 Martin Luther King led the Alabama s black citizens to oppose the black and white segregation measures in the bus although the repeal was not abolished completely yet it had played an inspiring role in the wave of the movements for civil rights In May 1961 Martin Luther King led the free ride campaign that is used the bus to promote the Black Civil Rights Movement In 1963 Martin Luther King delivered the famous speech I have a dream in Washington which forced the Congress finally to pass the civil rights bill opinion in the following year announced the policy of apartheid and discrimination to be illegal This was the key time of Civil Rights Movement On 2 April 4 1968 Martin Luther King was shot dead and the Black Rights Movement came to an end in the same year Walker was impacted by the Civil Rights Movement greatly after Martin Luther King s I have a dream she firmed her decision to stay in the South of fighting for the rights She went into the community understood the lives of ordinary people and concerned about the survival of black people as well as the protection and ongoing problem of black cultural heritage Her idea was fully embodied in her early short stories Everyday Use Everyday Use used the surging campaign for the rights of African American as background described the three main character the mother the novel s narrative she had no education but there is a certain mind two daughters whose look personality life experiences and so on are different and in sharp contrast Through three generations attitudes towards the quilts we can know their different attitudes towards their own culture and traditional heritage Walker used these two quilts as a central metaphor in the novel symbolizing the cultural heritage of African Americans and through the mother s tough choice Who is the best heir to get the quilts as well as how to use them Walker expressed her profound thought about heritage Yao Fushen 1998 Everyday Use illustrates the process of how the African American establish and maintain the national cultural identity by their own thoughts and feelings through the course in the form of literature satires the blacks bold worlds in the late 1950s and adheres to the negligence of those values 3 This article by analyzing the different attitudes towards the cultural heritage of African Americans at that time through the character s varied attitudes towards the quilts explores the loss and preservation of blackness and shows the author s intention and confusion in this novel 2 Two opposite attitudes towards quilt Walker had mentioned quilt in many works such as in The Color Purple the quilt symbolizes the understanding and community in Everyday Use the quilt is a symbol of cultural heritage and the attitude of Maggie and Dee on quilts usage symbolizes the conflict of two different views on the cultural heritage 2 1 Clinging to the quilt Morrison once said that the African American women are cultural bearers searching for identity and cultural roots Mbalia 1991 This idea has been fully embodied in the character of mother and Dee 2 1 1 Mother a cultural defender Mother is a defender of blackness she loves and respects for the black cultural heritage strongly and resists the culture outside world Mother is the typical 3 African American on behalf of ordinary African Americans Mother was the narrator of the story She was an ordinary working woman who was fat thick bones and her hands covered with callosity She could kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man could work outside all day could eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog From her description of her own we can conclude that she was real proud of her character and would not spend a lot of time to consider such abstract cultural heritage Although she is not high culture but that does not preclude the establishment of her love and respect in her ancestors based on the inherent understanding of cultural heritage She can link these pieces which were removed from the old clothes passed down from generations to the clothes owner is a very good example They had been pieced by Grandmother Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell s shirts And one teeny faded blue piece about the size of a penny matchbox that was from Great Grandpa Ezra s uniform that he wore in the Civil War 1 These two quilts had a special meaning to the mother When she touched the quilts it appeared that she was touching her relatives represented by the quilts In addition she has a natural ability to resist the outside world meeting the self reliant leisurely and extremely simple way of life She disgusts and conflicts the mainstream culture in the United States In the text there is a section of memory for her daughter and her reading wrote she used to read to us without pity forcing words lies other folks habits whole lives upon us two sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice she washed us in a river of make believe burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn t necessarily need to know 1 As we can see the elder daughter wanted her mother and her sister to accept the views and values of the whites what she learnt at school but for the mother changing her way of life and giving up her values were no doubt a painful torment and suffering which was simply impossible The respect of mother to black culture is also reflected in her attitude towards dasher which embodies her understanding appreciation and attachment for her loved ones families and her culture After Dee packaged the churn well the mother was also exposed hand to the handle for a grip Mother s resistance to the culture outside world is also reflected in her attitude towards Dee s new name When Dee told her name had been changed to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo she was disappointed but she immediately called her daughter for Wangero Mother using the new name does not mean that she respected the 4 choice of Dee on the contrary she carries a strong tone of irony The mother s attitude towards her two daughters changed slowly and it is exactly the key point of her deep understanding of the cultural heritage This shift proves that the mother does not understand the history of black culture but more valuable is that she knows how to continue the tradition of the black culture and how to carry it forward At first the mother was very disappointed of Maggie and even a bit ashamed She was very clear that Maggie s situation was caused by a fire which was impossible to controlled but she did not realized that in order to survive her little daughter needed for courage and strength so much Her full attention was given to Dee However when she heard Maggie said Dee could take these quilts away and she could also remember Grandmother Mother mother s reaction was I m staring at her hard Her mouth with a snuff show a listless expression of helplessness because it is Grandmother Dee and Aunt Dee taught her how to fight the system of the quilt She stood there to be full of scars that hand into a skirt in the fold 1 Now the mother stared at Maggie finally found something that she had never been aware of before she found the image of her own mother and sister from Maggie In her hands full of scars she found cultural heritage which should not be ashamed of but only be proud of Twinkling of an eye for the mother she had a clear answer of who should have these two quits Eventually she flatly rejected the request of Dee From the above analysis we can see that the mother represents the general public of African Americans although they have succeed the traditional culture completely but can not afford out of their own only in a passive situation to choose between her two daughters and then rely on her to help her out of the suffering Therefore at the beginning of the story there is a scene that the mother waits Dee Later after further contact the mother found that Dee did not understand their own cultural traditions and then found the value of Maggie this insight shows the author s intention pointed out general misunderstanding of the American public at the time who avoided the pain cowardly Mother the American public was helpless in front of the past suffering culture which expressed the African Americans pain under the slavery apartheid and racial discrimination in the United States 2 1 2 Maggie a cultural inheritor Maggie is an inheritor of blackness that she understood the true meaning of black cultural heritage In the story the description of Maggie is not written so much but her image is equally clear and forms a strong contrast to her sister Maggie was so different from Dee either in the features or in the internal character she was not beautiful had no money or repute and even was not so clever Vision in the world she was real weak 5 especially by the fire burns the scars of countless people crippled hands and feet walking towing disabled legs bowed her head as if a wheel roller was broken legs puppy She symbolizes the suffering history of African American She naturally cowardly and timid shy when she saw her sister and boyfriend come home she was very nervous and just wanted to hide in the house She was also very clear about her situation but she did not feel inferior did not give up herself During the living with her mother she was influenced by the family greatly that she did not only learned how to live self reliance but also learned how to quilt and other sewing She was not ignorance at all as she had a deep and clear memory of the people and things in the house Maggie was kind hearted and she was unlucky which was totally unlike the kind of Dee She was patient everywhere even when she knew her sister wanted to take away the quilts which had been promised to give to her she just expressed her dissatisfaction with closing the kitchen door heavily Compared with Dee s attitude towards the cultural heritage of black Maggie is diametrically contrary which is shown in her attitude to the quilt as she cherished them were out of the inner depths of the love of her grandmother She learnt from her grandmother and aunt how to sew quilts in the technology meanwhile in the sewing process she also inherited the history and traditions of black people These quilts were beloved things to Maggie so when she heard her sister wanted to take them away she was very disappointed and shocked and I heard something in the kitchen and minute later the kitchen door slammed But when she saw her mother s embarrassment and Dee s stubborn she took the initiative to give up She can have them mama I can remember Grandmother Dee without the quilts 1 Therefore it is not difficult to see that Maggie is full of respect understanding and love towards the cultural heritage and she realized the attachment in the woes bed quilt exactly This understanding is substantive rather than superficial Liked her mother Maggie could remember the black heritage clearly knew the source and understood its significance This is a complete succession From the characteristics of Maggie we can see the step by step development history of African American At first Maggie was refused by her mother then made an unexpected resistance in order to get the quilt and finally obtained her mother s identity as well as the precious quilt This process reflects the development of African American completely that is they were completely denied as serfs at the beginning then fought for civil rights continuously and finally were recognized in a certain sense 6 The author gave Maggie many excellent qualities of epic the hard working studious kind hearted clear that love and hate and had her own unique views and insights of black historical and cultural heritage It is not difficult to see that the author s sympathy and support for Maggie and her recognition of the struggle of the African Americans 2 2 Deserting the quilt Dee is a traitor of the blackness she is lack of understanding of African culture admires White culture blindly thus her understanding of blackness is rather one sided and superficial Dee symbolizes the Black Civil Rights Movement who retains the sense of black culture consciousness but only one sided and superficial Dee s color was not so black and she was tall plump and slim Her legs were so slender as if God himself made for her specific When Dee entered the house wrote A dress down to the ground in this hot weather A dress so loud it hurts my eyes There are