Toni Morrison Essay, Research Paper

?……her perspective is rooted in her experience, and that as we immerse

ourselves, as readers, in the milieu of her novels, we need insight into her culture.?

(Demetrakopoulos, Holloway 150). Toni Morrison?s thoughts, beliefs, and morals are

the basis for her many works. She writes from various topics but all of them tie back to

own personal experience. Her viewpoint and outlook comes from her personal feelings

and convictions. Her life growing up as an African American woman is drastically

demonstrated through her novels. Morrison?s main focuses range from the slavery

issue and background of African Americans to Mother Love. Morrison belongs to a

feminist tradition, a Black tradition, and a humanist tradition and she merges them all in

her telling and readers participate by bringing along their own traditions

(Demetrakopoulos, Holloway 150).

Toni Morrison?s status as a Black woman influence her to write about the Black

woman. Morrison?s life as a mother influences her to write about mother hood. Each of

Morrison?s novels contain some type of love. The most common is Mother Love. An

example is in the novel Beloved. This love starts from the maternal instincts and

intense love for one?s child (Olson 1). Sethe?s experiences at the plantation Sweet

Home clearly demonstrate Mother Love. Sethe escapes from Sweet Home and starts a

new life with her mother-in-law Baby Suggs. When the master finds her and comes to

reclaim his ?possessions? Sethe reaches the height of Mother Love by making a

decision to save her baby from slavery. Sethe look Beloved?s life and saved her from a

life of pain. Most of Morrison?s novel deal with Mother Love. There are many examples

of extreme love in Morrison?s novels. The examples of extreme love in her works show

that African American mothers are strong willed and very capable of doing the

unimaginable in order to give their children a chance at a good life, or sparing them

from a terrible one (Olson 1). Sethe shows total commitment and devotion to the lives

of her children. She travels from Sweet Home to Baby Suggs house pregnant with her

daughter Denver. She must give her life in a canoe with the help of a single woman.

She then has to cross a river and travel to her new home carrying Denver. This is just

the start of Sethe?s devotion to the freedom of her children. Sethe exemplifies Mother

Love and strong will as well as sacrifice to insure the well being of her children. Baby

Suggs also represent the ideal African American woman. She never gives up and is

the highest point of her family. She represents the wise, protective, and instinctive

mother (Olson 1). Baby Suggs acts as a mother figure to Sethe as well as a spiritual

leader to the surrounding African Americans. Baby Suggs works to keep her

household nourished. She often gives a sort of revival to her people proving her

strength and wisdom even in the face of adversity. Morrison writes on the significance

of older woman and their abilities. She writes about how the women are capable of

doing several things even though they live in a world strewn with limitations. Morrison

stated in interviews that she disagrees with the idea that women are confined based on

her own life. She says women can do several things (Donahue 3). Morrison believes

that your upbringing and environment is not an excuse to fail. She says you must not

be a product of your surroundings, but rise above and achieve great things.

The older women bear tremendous spiritual and political significance as foremothers

whose survival ensures others. These older women are magical because of their will to

survive. The also have an embrace of the mythology and wisdom of Africa. Morrison

invests them with physical qualities that are larger than life and enhance their chance

at surviving. In consequence means the survival of the Black community

(Demetrakopoukos, Holloway 159-160). Morrison?s main focus of many of her works is

to evoke a feeling of pride in her African American readers. She wants the reader to

see themselves in the same light as these strong willed older women.

Morrison?s assertion of being an African American woman influences her to write

about the importance of individuality and the interactions between blacks and whites.

Morrison feels that race is of the slightest importance when knowing something about a

person. ?Race is the least reliable information you can have about someone. It?s real

information, but it tells you next to nothing.? (Morrison 7). Morrison says that knowing

people as individuals is the most important and yet hardest thing to do.

?It?s knowing some cultural information which one can assume, but one must be wrong.

But one must know much more than a racial marker. Knowing another person?s race is

like knowing their height or some other almost irrelevant piece of biological

information.? (Morrison 8). This idea is the same as the old saying ?don?t judge a book

by its cover.? It is extremely typical for people to see anthers race and assume things

that may not be true. Morrison makes it clear that a person?s race is not only an

irrelevant fact, but in most cases misleading. Morrison states that in ?Paradise? she

wanted to refrain from utilizing racial markers so the reader knew everything about the

characters except for their race. She wanted the reader to like or dislike the characters

base on the important information (Morrison 8). Morrison?s approach in this novel was

to develop a non-bias reaction from her readers towards the characters before they

knew their race. Morrison says that there are a lot of personal feelings about other

races because the society has been built on racial division. But in fact, when people

meet other people one on one, and the recognize their race, the pull from a large

?suitcase? of stereotypical information. They then pick which is the easiest way to

evaluate each other, and it is generally the information about the race (Morrison 7-8).

?Forcing people to react racially to another person is to miss the whole point of

humanity.? (Morrison 8). One of the main topics Morrison opposes throughout all her

novels is racism and stereotyping people. Morrison?s attitude about the black and white

relationship is seen in her works. In Morrison?s contemporary novels she portrays

harsh confrontations between black and whites. In Tar Baby a character says, ?White

folks and black folks shouldn?t sit down and eat together or do any of those personal

things in life.? It seems hopeless that the void can?t be bridged that Morrison sees

between sexes, classes, and races (Angelo 1). Morrison states her remorse about the

black and white relations a lot of times because black people have always served as a

buffer in America to prevent class war and other kinds of conflagrations (Angelo 1).

?Such interpersonal and intercultural relationships are an explicit focus in Morrison?s

work….? (Moreland 7). Morrison addresses the differences between people and how

those differences have been exploited. She states that discrepancies among people

have been exaggerated for both political and economic purposes.

One of the main focuses of Morrison?s work is the importance of the African

American?s upbringing. Morrison puts a great emphasis on ancestry, background, and

the African American roots. Morrison?s stories take place in a long time before her own

because she is interested in the way in which the past affects the present. She

believes that if the reader understands a lot about history then they will automatically

understand a lot more about contemporary life. She also adds that there is more room

for imagination than there is of the future (Morrison 1). Morrison helps African

American readers to regress back to their past. ?A reason why Morrison uses the

unbelievable is probably to help African American readers go back to their roots.?

(Olson 1). Morrison writes on the traditions and culture of African Americans. Her style

of writing shows her deep concern for the traditions of the African American culture.

Her novels seem more like myths. Morrison?s work comes from many cultures and

genres (Demetrakopoulos, Holloway 159). In Susan Bower?s, ?Beloved and the New

Apocalypse? Morrison?s work is placed with in a tradition of African American

apocalyptic writing. Bowers argues that Morrison is working from a West African

philosophical perspective (communion with one?s ancestors) (Mates 152). Another

topic that Morrison focuses on is the importance of the ancestor. She writes about the

ancestor as a sort of timeless people whose relationships to the other characters are

compassionate and protective. The presence of the ancestor is critical to its tradition

and because of that it blends the traditions of Africa with the contemporary realities of

America (Demetrakopoulos, Holloway 160).

One topic that is typically seen in Morrison?s novels is her view towards the

experience of slavery and oppressed blacks. Morrison tries to give the reader a

greater comprehension of what the slaves in the past went through. She helps the

reader understand how African American life works. A quote from the Nobel Prize

dedication pointed out that Morrison?s status as an African American gives her the

desire to voice to black experience in America. A question about Morrison?s new

insight into the daily struggle of slaves came up in an interview. Morrison answered

saying, ?I was tying to make it a personal experience. The book (Beloved) was not

about the institution– Slavery with a capital S. It was about these anonymous people

called slaves. What they do to keep on, how they make a life, what they?re willing to

risk, however long it takes, in order to relate to one another….? (Angelo 3). Morrison

harshly depicts slavery in Beloved. She describes what awful extremes slaves would

go to in order to prevent other from becoming slaves. In Beloved, a mother slits her

baby?s throat to prevent her from becoming a slave. Morrison also writes about the

oppression of African Americans even after slavery was over. Even though the slaves

were free after the Civil War, they were still persecuted (Olson 2). After the Civil War

society didn?t accept Blacks as being on their level. They thought of Blacks as below

them. Morrison wants her reader to understand that even though blacks were

oppressed, they still tried to make the most out of everything they had (Olson 2).

One of the last things that Morrison writes about is the significance of love and

the supernatural. Morrison uses her ability to combine reality with the supernatural in a

way where the reader doesn?t even doubt the idea of the unbelievable should be

commended (Olson 1). She destroys the boundaries between earthly and spiritual

realms and it becomes an invasion of the living world by the world beyond the veil

(Mates 152). The writer of Essence magazine, Audrey Edwards, notes on Morrison?s

skillful use of magic and mysticism in her novels. Edwards says, ?She taps into the

spirit work and into the very real spirituality of black people.? (Donahue 2). Morrison

states that it is impossible to live in a world without love. Showing a specific kind of

love in one?s life is an important aspect for Morrison?s novels (Olson 1). In Beloved the

characters Sethe and Paul D fall in love, but the ghost of Beloved pushes them apart.

Even though there is a force that separates them, they eventually get together. This

shows that true love conquers all, even the supernatural (Olson 1).

All of Morrison?s works can be summed up by saying that they all are tied to

Morrison?s own life. Morrison?s writings are deeply rooted in the black experience. Her

novel express her personal feelings in terms of racism, slavery, love, and individuality.

Although her topics are profoundly painful, she writes with the luster of poetry

(Donahue 2). She can easily change her topic, going from the gruesome to the most

attractive. ?Novelist Toni Morrison has a wondrous voice, rich with textures. At

moments, it is as soft as a kitten fur. Then, suddenly, it is as nubby as a piece of

homespun. Or as seamless as the robes of a gospel singer.? (Donahue 1).

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1. Angelo, Bonnie. Interview. Time (22 May 1989) 31 Jan. 2000.

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2. Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie A. and Holloway, Karla F.C. New Dimensions of

Spirituality: A Biracial and Bicultural Reading of the Novels of Toni Morrison.

Westport: Greenwood Press, 1987.

3. Donahue, Deirdre. ?Morrison ?taps spirituality of black people.? ? USA Today

(8 Oct.1993) 31 Jan. 2000..

4. Donahue, Deirdre. ?The Lyrical World of Toni Morrison.? USA Today (28 Sept.

1987) 23 Jan. 2000 .

5. Mates, Jill. Toni Morrison: Contemporary World Writers. New York:

Manchester University Press, 1998.

6. Moreland, Richard C. Learning from Difference: Teaching Morrison, Twain,

Ellison, and Eliot. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1999.

7. Morrison, Toni. Interview. Time (21 Jan. 1998) 31 Jan. 2000

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8. Olson, Kevin T. Toni Morrison Analysis. 31 Jan. 2000

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