Abstract
The question of alienation has always been a pervasive theme in the history of modern thought, and it occupies a considerable place in contemporary work. Literature in general, and fiction in particular, raise this issue to reveal its influence on human beings and communities. Novelists have been trying to unravel its complexities and concomitant consequences. The paper aims to explore the experience of alienation through depicting the issue not as a purely racial reality, or something restricted to the colour of the skin or gender of the victim. It is rather presented as a distressing state which cripples the victims and makes them susceptible captives of the dominant forces. In the selected novels, Toni Morrison has delved deep into the experience of alienation through her male and female characters, showing the different forms of this experience. The present research investigates Morrison’s portrayal of the issue from an African-American prospect. References will be made to novels such as Tar Baby, Sula, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved.
Highlights
The question of alienation is a prevalent theme in the history of modern thought, and it occupies a considerable place in contemporary work
The whole is partly the African-American community constantly suffering from alienation, and mainly American society at large
From the inception of her literary career, Morrison has suggested the link between capitalism and African-American suffering
Summary
The question of alienation is a prevalent theme in the history of modern thought, and it occupies a considerable place in contemporary work. Marx inherited the concept of alienation from Hegel, and it figured most prominently in his early writings It is quite implicit throughout Marx’s work, providing a major basis for his treatment and understanding of other major concepts. Hegel, Marx, and Seeman seem to confirm the core of alienation that it is essentially a distinction between man’s subjective and objective existence. In the work of Toni Morrison, man, who is chained to the single fragment of the whole, never appears to maintain a sense of harmony between his subjective and objective realities. In this context, the whole is partly the African-American community constantly suffering from alienation, and mainly American society at large. Morrison tries to shed new light on the failure of her characters to identity, to fulfill an essential self, and to maintain a balance between their subjective and objective realities, between existence and essence
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