Toni Morrison
hat 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.
hat meanings are attributed to the works of Toni Morrison?
Critic Marilyn Sanders Mobley -- in her book Folk Roots and Mythic ings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison: The Cultural Function of Narrative -- writes that Morrison is a "redemptive scribe" (Mobley, 1991, p. 10). One of Morrison's missions is to "correct a cultural misimpression," Mobley explains. She references Morrison's explanation of the need for a writer to correct misimpressions about African-Americans; "Critics generally don't associate black people with ideas. They see marginal people…" and figure that when they read about African-Americans it will…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bouson, Brooks J. Quiet as it's kept: Shame, Trauma, and Race in the Novels of Toni
Morrison. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000.
Coser, Stelamaris. Bridging the Americas: The Literature of Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison,
and Gayl Jones. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1994.
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 was still subject to hearing her older relatives relate stories of their prior Southern lives. These memories, like the memories of her characters in Beloved, form the background of many of Morrison's novels.
In Beloved, Morrison tells the story of emancipated woman slave named Sethe who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio after having escaped from slavery in Kentucky a few years following the Civil ar. The joys of her escape, however, are short-lived as she soon discovers that her former owner has…...
mlaWorks Cited
Angelo, Bonnie. "The Pain of Being Black." Time Magazine 22 May 1989.
Feng-hui, Lui. "Toni Morrison's Writing Features in Beloved." U.S.-China Foreign Language (2007): 52-55.
Kimberly, C.D. (1998). "Postmodern blackness": Toni Morrison's beloved and the end of history. Twentieth Century Literature, 44(2), 242-242-260.
Koolish, L. (2001). "To be loved and cry shame": A psychological reading of Toni Morrison's beloved. MELUS, 26(4), 169-169-195.
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 Dorcas' aunt Alice, Alice points out to her that she earned the nickname "Violent" for slashing Dorcas' face. Alice said that she never picked up a knife, "Even when my husband ran off I never did that. And you. You didn't even have a worthy enemy. Somebody worth killing. You picked up a knife to insult a dead girl (Morrison, 85)." But after that Alice thinks back to how she felt when her husband abandoned her and how she too…...
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 disturbing, and it was. But meanwhile, Milkman shows his naivete about race relations in America -- and the history of bigotry and Jim Crow dynamics that were part of America prior to his maturation -- in the dialogue that follows (Morrison, pp. 231-232). "Did anybody ever catch the men who did it -- who killed him?" Milkman asked Reverend Cooper in the parsonage. "Catch?" The reverend asked, "his face full of wonder…Didn't have to catch 'em. They never went nowhere."…...
mlaWorks Cited
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Alfred a. Knopf, 1977.
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 compassion. It is felt that this inscription suggested that there was something menacing about her as Mae G. Henderson comments: "[Sula's birthmark] is a mark of nativity -- a biological rather than cultural inscription, appropriate in this instance because it functions to mark her as a 'naturally' inferior female within the black community" (27).
Where evil is concerned, Sula shares some traits with Cain. Cain was beaten as Genesis informs and he lived with a blackened face. There is some connection…...
mlaReferences
Badt, Karen Luisa. "The Roots of the Body in Toni Morrison: A Mater of 'Ancient Properties.'" African-American Review 29 (1995): 567-77.
Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism-Perspectives on Black Women Writers. New York: Pergamon, 1985.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: A Plume Book/New American Library, 1973.
Henderson, Mae Gwendolyn. "Speaking in Tongues: Dialogics, Dialectics, and the Black Woman Writer's Literary Tradition." Changing Our Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing by Black Women. Ed. Cheryl a. Wall. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1989. 16-37.
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) instead, they resembled modern powerful women of today and could be accurately described as, "beautiful, elegant, women of status" (590). Morrison believes that with women emerging as a powerful force in the world today, misuse of power is an imminent possibility. This, she felt, could destroy self-esteem of their underprivileged and less accomplished peers. The author further elaborates on the problem saying that misuse of power by one group often results in destruction of self-esteem of the other less privileged…...
From girlhood," Sula shows a natural gift for daring, Lorie atkins Fulton writes in African-American Review (Fulton, 2006). Sula in fact persuades Nel to join up with her in order to confront the bullies on Carpenter's Road; and when Sula shows the guts to pull her grandma's paring knife from her pocket and slice a piece of her finger off, the boys star "open-mouthed at the wound" (Morrison 54).
If I can do that to myself, what you suppose I'll do to you?" (54-55) Sula asks the shocked bullies. Nel is impressed, the boys back off, and a feminine-strengthening act by Sula helps build an even stronger friendship between Sula and Nel. On page 58 of the book, an important passage leaves alert readers with memorable imagery - for some it relates back to their youth, and for others it builds up something that was perhaps left out of their youth…...
mlaWorks Cited
Basu, Biman. (1996). The Black voice and the language of the text: Toni Morrison's "Sula."
College Literature, 23(3), 88-104.
Bordo, Susan. (1992). Does Size Matter? In N. Tuana, W. Cowling, M. Hamington, G. Johnson,
T. MacMullan (Eds.), Revealing Male Bodies (pp. 19-37). Bloomington, in: Indiana
There many instances in the book to remind the reader of the non-human ways those slaves were treated. There is a passage in which a slave does not have any name other than the name that was written on the bill of sale when she was purchased. When finally asked what she calls herself her answer is chilling: "Nothing.... I don't call myself nothing" (142) (Malmgren, 1995).
The book belies the truth of human nature by providing what can happen when a dead child becomes non-human as well as when the institution of slavery becomes non-human. The use of a ghost provides Morrison with the vehicle to introduce racism and slavery as they are interspersed in society today.
Conclusion
Toni Morrison provides a strong illumination of the current memories and pain embedded into American society with regard to racism and slavery. Just as the ghost in Beloved was there, without being tangible, the…...
mlaREFERENCES
Harris, Trudier, Andrews, Willam (2001) Morrison, Toni. The Concise Oxford Companion to African-American Literature
Malmgren, Carl D (1995) Mixed genres and the logic of slavery in Toni Morrison's 'Beloved.' CRITIQUE: Studies in Contemporary Fiction
Kastor, Elizabeth (1987) Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' Country' the Writer & Her Haunting Tale of Slavery. The Washington Post
Morrison, Toni Beloved. Vintage; Reprint edition (June 8, 2004)
Toni Morrison's Beloved
Through the exquisitely penned prose and evocative storytelling weaved within her novel Beloved, author Toni Morrison manages to depict the spiritual damage inflicted on African-Americans throughout the darkest period in our nation's history. ather than confine her penetrating perceptive abilities as a writer to the external conditions of slavery, Morrison delves deeply into personal experience and cultural heritage to expose the insidious internal consequences of human bondage on the individuals involved. The tale of escaped slaves Sethe and Denver, a mother and daughter fiercely devoted to one another, and the spiritual upheaval within their Cincinnati home on 124 Bluestone oad, portrays the suffering of an entire people through the prism of a single family struggling to cope with unspeakable tragedy. By beginning the novel with the simple declaration that "124 was haunted. Full of baby's venom" (1987, pp.1). Morrison immediately establishes her thematic purpose, juxtaposing youthful rage…...
mlaReferences
Morrison, Toni. 1987 Beloved. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Schapiro, Barbara. 1991 The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's "Beloved." Paper published in Madison, Wisconsin: University Of Wisconsin Press.
He is identified as follows in the story: "...he had not so much moved through his life as wandered through it, his spirit like a dazed body bumping into furniture and corners. He had always been a fearful father..." This depiction of Matt shows how his love for his family has become a weakness for him, for there is always a fear in him that he will fail as a father to his children and husband to his wife. However, this characterization of Matt changed when Strout, Frank's killer, was released from imprisonment. Matt takes revenge on his own hands, for he believes that he does not deserve the freedom that he got after killing his son. Thus, he now becomes an individual determined to avenge his son, and does so by killing Strout. Matt's characterization in "Killings" illustrates how character transition is achieved by bringing strength to his…...
This shows how violence against women and rape are trivialized. It does not seem that rape and violence are accepted, but it does seem like they are tolerated. Further information is provided when Christine is described investigating why no action has been taken. The Comrade's account of the rape is described as follows, it wasn't his fault the girl was all over him braless sitting sloppy he'd even patted her behind to alert her to his interest she giggled instead of breaking his jaw and asked him if he wanted a beer (Morrison 156).
This description paints a picture of a naive girl being taken advantage of and then being blamed for the events. It is important to note that this description suggests that the girl was the one who should have stopped the rape from taking place by becoming violent. In reality, it seems that the man who is…...
mlaWorks Cited
Butcher, J.N., Mineka, S., Hooley, J.M. Abnormal Psychology. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Morrison, T. Love. New York: Knopf, 2003.
NCCAN: National Center of Child Abuse and Neglect. (1996). Executive summary of the third national incidence study of child abuse and neglect. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996.
On the evening of her first menstruation, for example, she asks, 'How do you do that? I mean, how do you get somebody to love you.' And, after a visit to Marie, Poland, and China, Pecola ponders, 'hat did love feel like?... How do grownups act when they love each other? Eat fish together?' " (Bloom, 26)
The question of how to get somebody to love you is significant for the understanding of the loveless world which Pecola inhabits. In her world self-love, love of the others, and being loved by the others are all missing. As M. Miner notices, the image Pecola could have had of love is even more shattered when her own father rapes her, an act which to her can only mean that, for her, love can only be dirty and ugly, just like she feels about herself:
hen Cholly rapes his daughter, he commits a sacrilege…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bloom, Harold ed. Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999
Butler- Evans, Elliot
Race, Gender, and Desire: Narrative Strategies in the Fiction of Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker, New York: Temple University Press, 1989 www.questia.com/SM.qst?act=adv&contributors=Doreatha%20Drummond%20Mbalia&dcontributors=Doreatha+Drummond+Mbalia" Mbalia, Doreatha Drummond, Toni Morrison Developing Class-Consciousness, Susquehanna: Susquehanna University Press, 2002
Morrison, Toni The Bluest Eye, New York: Random House, 2000
That shows the same thing, that Morrison is showing racism even exists in the black community. This book shows that white society controls everything, from how people feel about each other to how they see themselves and what they think is beautiful. Pecola is black, but she wants to be white, and that means she does not understand who she really is and why it is not bad to be black.
Pecola becomes so desperate for blue eyes that she goes to a crazy old black man who thinks he has the power of God, and asks him for blue eyes. It is one of the most touching and sad parts of the book. Morrison writes,
Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty. A surge of love and understanding swept through him, but was quickly replaced by anger. Anger that he was powerless to help her. Of all the…...
mlaReferences
Author not Available. "Toni Morrison." Western Washington University. 1995. 3 Nov. 2006. http://www.az.com/~andrade/morrison/start.html
Bloom, Harold, ed. Toni Morrison's the Bluest Eye. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1999.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Jazz. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1998.
Why Everyone Should Read 'The Bluest Eye.'" Oprah.com. 2000. 3 Nov. 2006 http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2000/tows_past_20000526_b.jhtml;jsessionid=C4UBDNAZAHQGTLARAYGB3KQ
I missed the people altogether."(Morrison, 167) the narrator perceives his or her flaws in many other aspects, and realizes that the characters and the story have escaped the control of the omniscient fiction: "I was sure one would kill the other...I was so sure it would happen. That the past was an abused record with no choice but to repeat itself... I was so sure, and they danced and walked all over me. Busy, they were, busy being original, complicated, changeable -- human, I guess you'd say, while I was the predicable one." (Morrison, 220) Violet and Joe prove thus to have their own minds and act for themselves, without the narrator's knowledge. Thus, the story telling device employed here by Morrison conforms to the postmodernist belief that omniscience can not exist in a text, as the fiction itself is much more powerful than the author. It is impossible…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cutter, Martha J. "The Story Must Go on and on: The Fantastic, Narration, and Intertextuality in Toni
Morrison's Beloved and Jazz." www.luminarium.org
Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Vintage, 2004.
Kids always promise to write, and rarely do in "real life," so why would they be any different in fiction? it's one of those polite customs to say you'll be sure to write. Roberta "promised to write every day" but wait, if she can't read how can she write? And as for Twyla, she would have drawn pictures (very child-like) and sent them to Roberta but Roberta hadn't given Twyla her address. Did Twyla ask for it? It sounds as though she didn't. So, as stated earlier, this story used very common themes of the fragility of "friendships"; like friends getting mad at each other, and when they part, they promise to write. "Her big serious-looking eyes - that's all I could catch when I tried to bring her to mind," Twyla said. That's it? Four months living in close quarters with a girl who was her friend, and…...
mlaWorks Cited
Goldstein-Shirley, David. (1997). Recitatif. Short Story, 5(1), 77-86.
Morrison, Toni. (2006). Recitatif. Retrieved Nov. 30, 2007, at http://www.facultyfiles.deanza.edu/gems/quigleyjill/recitatifessay.doc.
Wikipedia. (2007). Recitatif. Retrieved Nov. 30, 2007, at http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Reditatif .
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1000-Word Essay on Titles for Literature Essay
The selection of an effective title for a literature essay is a pivotal task that can significantly enhance the impact and clarity of your work. A well-crafted title succinctly captures the essence of your argument, engages readers, and provides a roadmap for the content to follow. Here are some suggestions for titles that effectively convey the purpose and content of your essay:
1. The Role of Symbolism in the Exploration of Identity in Toni Morrison's Beloved
This title clearly states the focus on symbolism and its connection to identity exploration in Morrison's novel. The inclusion of....
Selecting Essay Topics that Cover a Book
1. Character Analysis
Topic: The protagonist's struggle with identity and purpose in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Focus: Examine the protagonist's evolving self-awareness, the challenges they face, and how their journey shapes their character.
2. Theme Exploration
Topic: The theme of prejudice and its impact on society in Alice Walker's "The Color Purple."
Focus: Analyze how the novel portrays different forms of prejudice, its consequences, and the characters' responses to it.
3. Symbolism and Imagery
Topic: The use of symbolism and imagery to create atmosphere in Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
Focus: Discuss how specific symbols....
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