Abstract
Paradise, Toni Morrison's latest novel in 1997, interweaves the stories of five Convent women with the migration history of nine black families. As its title indicates, the search for the definition of a paradise is the main issue in the novel. This thesis attempts to explore the definition of paradise through the comparison of the Convent with Ruby in terms of history, place and identity. My goals are not only to indicate that Morrison in Paradise has the tendency toward multiculturalism but also to provide a dialogical site for Gloria Anzaldúa and Morrison since both of them are minority women in the U. S. Chapter one is a survey of critical reviews on Paradise and an investigation of the advantages and limitations of each approach. In Chapter Two, I am going to use Anzaldúa's conception of borderlands as my theoretical framework to examine the politics of inclusion in Paradise. Anzaldúa develops her theoretical discourse from the aspects of geography, history, language and culture. Her intention is to embrace difference and ambiguity with her "mestiza consciousness" which is a new consciousness generated in borderlands. In Chapter Three, mapping Paradise from the angle of history is the main issue. Morrison blends in copious historical information, including black movements, racial policies and the history of "Disallowing." She expresses the problems of black movements from the arguments between integrationists and separatists at the end of 19th century, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910s to the black cultural nationalists and black feminists in 1970s. Furthermore, Morrison also examines the problems of color prejudice in American history, such as white people’s preference for mulattas to the other black people since 19th century and the implementation of "one-drop law" in order to insure their political and economical superiority. The last piece of historical information is about the black migration recorded in the newspaper Herald. Through the history of Disallowing, Morrison pries into the feelings of blacks being disallowed by their own people. Chapter Four aims to map the novel from the perspective of place. American utopianism and the spatial analysis of Morrison's trilogy are concerned with the construction of a utopia. In Paradise, Ruby apparently is presented as the dwellers' paradise, which nevertheless is just a cloaking device that covers up the fragmentation of self. Conversely, the Convent women have different attitudes to confront their broken identities. Through the spatial transformations from the extremism of materialism to that of spiritualism, the Convent women have gradually learn to stop dichotomization and mend their fragmented identity with a creolized ritual. Chapter Five explores the differences of cultural identity formations with double consciousness from mestiza consciousness. It is apparent that the Ruby people form their collective identity with double consciousness. On the one hand, they argue about the unifying black consciousness without consideration of women's fragmented selves; on the other hand, they judge their achievements with white values. The identities of the Convent women are more fragmented than those of the Ruby people; their identities are mutilated not only by the white society but also by the black patriarchal society. Yet, they ultimately embrace their fragmented selves and mend the splits with mestiza consciousness through the ancestral belief in Piedade, who is a goddess containing all opposing elements.