An Analysis of the Black Mother Sethe’s Infanticide in Beloved From the Perspective of Hannah Arendt’s Theory of “Evil”_英语论文

摘要

诺贝尔文学奖获得者托尼·莫里森被视为美国黑人文学的杰出代表，《宠儿》被誉为其最成熟和最令人印象深刻的杰作。本文将采用汉娜·阿伦特“恶的理论”：根本恶和平庸之恶来分析黑人母亲的弑女行为，并由此探索奴隶制的邪恶以及对人性的扭曲。

本文将从黑人女性“赛丝”形象入手，探讨她在小说中的弑女行为。本文认为，塞丝不仅是邪恶的奴隶制下的受害者，更是她女儿的加害者。一方面，奴隶制下的身心折磨迫使赛丝逃离奴隶庄园“甜蜜之家”，因此，在学校老师前来抓捕她们之际，为了确保自己的孩子不再经历这些折磨，赛丝做出了弑女的举动。奴隶制的极端恶不仅使赛丝的身体饱受创伤，更使得赛丝变得歇斯底里。另一方面，赛丝本身以及黑人社区的平庸恶在弑女事件中也承担着重大的责任，赛丝以母爱之名去占有控制自己的孩子,而黑人社区的嫉妒和狭隘阻碍了他们通风报信的步伐。奴隶制的根本恶以及赛丝和黑人社区的平庸恶共同作用，导致了后来弑女行为的悲剧。

关键词:  托妮·莫里森  《宠儿》  弑婴  “恶的理论”

Abstract

Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Price for literature, is generally regarded as an outstanding representative of American black literature. Beloved is known as the most mature and the most impressive masterpiece of Morrison. This thesis will employ Hannah Arendt’s theory of “evil”: radical evil and the banality of evil to analyze the black mother’s murder of daughter in Beloved and to explore the evil of the slavery and distortion of human nature. 

This thesis makes efforts to analyze the black woman image “Sethe” to discuss her infanticide in the novel. This thesis holds that Sethe’s infanticide reveals that she is not only a victim caused by the evil slavery, but also a perpetrator for the daughter she murders. On the one hand, physical and psychological tortures under the evil slavery force Sethe to run away from the “sweet home”, therefore, when the schoolteacher comes to catch Sethe and her children, in order to make sure that her children will no longer experience these tortures,  Sethe murders her daughter. The radical evil of slavery not only causes great physical traumas, but also pushes Sethe to go into hysterics. On the other hand, the banality of evil of Sethe and the black community also take great responsibilities. Sethe possesses and dominates her children in the name of maternal love. And jealousy and parochialism keep the black community from sending Sethe and Baby Suggs a secret message. It is the radical evil of slavery and the banality of evil of Sethe and the black community that act together and lead to the tragedy later. 

Keywords:  Toni Morrison  Beloved  infanticide  theory of “evil” 

Contents

1   Introduction 1

1.1 Toni Morrison and Beloved 1

1.2 Literature Review 2

1.3 Theoretical Framework 4

1.4 Thesis Structure 5

2   The Radical Evil of Slavery 7

2.1 Slavery's Effects on Physical Persecution 7

2.2 Slavery's Effects on Mental Persecution 8

3   The Banality of Evil of Infanticide 10

3.1    The Banality of Evil of Sethe 10

3.2    The Banality of Evil of Black Community 11

Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 15

References 16