摘    要

在托尼•莫里森的小说《宠儿》中，社区在奴隶（以及获得自由的黑人）摆脱奴役状态，追求身体和精神的解放过程中发挥着重要的作用。本文将对甜蜜之家、乔治亚、林间空地、蓝石路124号的四个社区，以及这四个社区在奴隶（以及获得自由的黑人）对奴隶制逃离中所扮演的角色进行分析。前两个社区在奴隶逃离奴隶庄园, 逃脱奴隶主的压迫,摆脱奴隶制的身体奴役的过程中给与他们力量；而后两个社区则在奴隶（以及获得自由的黑人）摆脱奴隶制造成的心理阴影，追求精神解放的过程中，发挥重要的作用。社区赋予奴隶（以及获得自由的黑人）力量使他们得以逃脱奴隶制在身体和精神上的束缚。而奴隶（以及获得自由的黑人）只有通过在社区中彼此合作、支持、爱护才能取得真正意义上的对于奴隶制的逃离。

关键词：《宠儿》，社区，逃离，奴隶

ABSTRACT

In Beloved, community plays different roles in each of slaves/ex-slaves’ physical and mental escapes from the slavery. This essay focuses on the relationship between community and slaves/ex-slaves’ physical and mental escapes. It examines the various roles that community plays in four areas — Sweet Home, Georgia, Clearing, and 124 Blue Stone. In the first two communities, slaves escape physically from the slavery while in the third and the fourth communities, the ex-slaves make a mental escape from the trauma caused by slavery. The community gives slaves/ex-slaves the strength to escape from slavery and slaves/ex-slaves’ escapes are made possible only by cooperation, support and love between each other in the community.

Key words：Beloved, community, escape, slave

Introduction
Beloved is about a story of a runaway slave who, when captured, cuts her two-year-old daughter’s throat rather than sees her grow up in slavery. Its author, Toni Morrison, is practically unmatched in reputation among African-American women writers as well as American writers. Her national and international reputation is confirmed when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. In Beloved, among the places that the characters live in and escape to are four special communities. Toni Morrison demonstrates the importance of these communities in slaves/ex-slaves’ physical and mental escapes from the slavery. Each community plays a specific role in their escape. In the Sweet Home, community of slaves helps individuals to learn the nature of Mr. Garner’s and Schoolteacher’s rules. It also helps them make a plan and try to escape to the “Magical North.” In the second community — Georgia, forty-six slaves/prisoners form a community to offer slaves strength to escape by trusting and relying on each other. In the third community — Clearing, Baby Suggs is trying her best to help the ex-slaves make a escape from the painful and miserable past caused by slavery. In the fourth community — 124 Bluestone, the black community exposes the desperate situation in 124 Bluestone and helps Sethe and Denver escape from the control of Beloved, the ghost of the child killed by Sethe, by giving them food and finally driving Beloved away from 124 Bluestone.
This thesis examines the role each of the four communities played in the physical and mental escape of slaves to find out the relationship between community and escape in Beloved.