Toni Morrison What meanings can be attributed to the literary accomplishments of American author Toni Morrison? How does Morrison use history to portray her stories and her characters? How did Morrison become known as one of the premier African-American authors in America? This paper delves into those issues and others relevant to the writing of Toni Morrison. What meanings are attributed to the works of Toni Morrison? Critic Marilyn Sanders Mobley -- in

Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Beloved (Morrison), based loosely on a real life experience of a Cincinnati area former slave, mirrors her own journey from her early life living in a segregated South to her moving to a more racially friendly Lorain, Ohio (Reinhardt). Her life in Lorain was free of many of the prejudices that would have been present if she had remained in the South but she

For example, Dorcas' father was killed in East St. Louis during the riots of 1917. He was pulled from a streetcar and beaten to death. Her mother died that same day when her apartment building was torched by protestors. Morrison notes that Dorcas, just a child at the time, went to "two funerals in five days, and never said a word (Morrison, 57)." When Violet seeks out solstice with

It gave her otherwise plain face a broken excitement and blue- blade threat like the keloid scar of the razored man who sometimes played checkers with her grandmother." (52-53) This birthmark is a mark of evil for some critics while others associate it with Sula's sensuality. But the fact remains that such a mark combined with a disturbingly defiant behavior turned Sula into a dark figure, not worthy of reader's

He has not previously shown any great desire or motivation to seek out on his own the reasons for who he is, why he is here, and what came before him. In the process of his discoveries, Milkman also learns that his grandfather, Macon Dead, after he was killed, had his shallow grave dug up and had his body dumped into Hunters Cove. That kind of information can be very

Morrison-Summary 'Cinderella's stepsisters' Toni Morrison's 'Cinderella's stepsisters', was actually a speech given by her at Bernard College. The occasion was chosen carefully as the speech could be most effective in this setting. In this essay, Morrison, highlights the similarities between Cinderella's stepsisters and modern, educated young women of today. Discarding all generally accepted notions about the stepsisters, the author explains that stepsisters were "not ugly, clumsy, stupid girls with outsized feet" (590)