QUEST FOR IDENTITY IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE: A STUDY OF TONI MORRISON'S THE BLUEST EYE AND TAR BABY

ABSTRACT One of the most potent themes in African-American literature is the ongoing search for identity, which has always played a major role in African-American experience. This study examines Quest for Identity in African-American Literature using Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Tar Baby. The study employs Critical Race Theory proposed by such scholars as Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman and Richard Delgado as its theoretical anchor and aims to reveal the profound difficulties the blacks face in their search for identity within a society that simultaneously marginalizes them and dictates standards of beauty they cannot conform to using the a foremost mentioned text. This study uses a qualitative methodology and a close reading approach in its analysis of the primary selected texts. The main sources of data for this study were Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Tar Baby, as well as peer-reviewed scholarly publications and internet database. The investigation reveals that the fundamental factors that influence the main characters' search for identity are both internalized racism and the external pressures of societal norms which play pivotal roles in the fractured and conflicted sense of self among Morrison's protagonists. In The Bluest Eye, the study discovers that the protagonists' problem of identity is deeply tied to internalized racism and the destructive pursuit of unattainable beauty standards. In Tar Baby, the study discovers that the protagonists' problem of identity manifests in the clash between cultural heritage and assimilation into white-dominated society. The study concludes that Morrison's work illuminates the multifaceted struggle for identity within African-American Literature, as shaped by racial inequality. This quest for identity among Blacks continues till today, hampering their growth in the society, a feature that Morrison mirrors in both texts.