Toni Morrison and Historical Memory

Racial identities are an ideological, social construct and phenomenon adopted by various literature. Many literature authors select the subject of race to identify the existing stereotypes of race in the modern and ancient societies. Toni Morrison reveals her beliefs about racisms through a graphic description of the Recitatif plot. The style allows the reader to experience the true nature of racism and revelation of personal traits without the use of race. In the short story, Recitatif, Morrison deliberately denies her characters, their racial identity contributing to the ambiguity fluctuating between the dominant races, white and black. The author reviews the historical events of the 1960s and 70s that promote the racial identities of White and African-Americans. Changing the expectations of her readers on the solutions based on stereotypes, further spreading the awareness of the racial stereotypes that are controversial topics on human existence (Löchle 4). The ironic nature, literature tricks, and the plot of the story embrace the racial stereotypes unfolding in the narrative. The author engages her readers through a closer reading through the adoption of literary elements, allowing the readers to fill in the gaps in the story. Through their participation, the readers develop an emotional attachment to the characters and the story, generating a deeper understanding and reversal responses. In particular, the ambiguity of racial

The American Minority Authors opens the reader eyes of the struggles of acceptance within the society, and how their heritage and their American culture can coexist. Minority writers, Cisneros, Eastman, and McKay, through their stories, give us insight of their cultural heritage and the struggles they have with society embracing diversity. In Sandra Cisneros, story “Geraldo No Last Name”, speaks of a Latino immigrant who does not speaks English living in America. The narrator of the story even put a label on him calling him a ”brazer”(Cisneros,1989, para 4), is a slang word for a migrant worker(Garling, 2007).

'Recitatif', by Toni Morrison, is a profound narrative that I believe is meant to invite readers to search for a buried connotation of the experiences that the main characters, Twyla and Roberta, face as children and as they are reunited as adults. Some of the story?s values and meanings involving race, friendship and abandonment begin to emerge as the plot thickens; however, more messages become hidden and remain unrecognized, even until the very last sentence.

Maya Angelou and Amy Tan both write about growing up as a minority in the American Culture and the problems

In 1983, Toni Morrison published the only short story she would ever create. The controversial story conveys an important idea of what race is and if it really matter in the scheme of life. This story takes place during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. The idea of civil rights was encouraged by the government but not enforced by the states, leaving many black Americans suffering every day. In Morrison’s short story Recitatif, Morrison manipulates the story’s diction to describe the two women’s races interchangeably resulting in the confusion of the reader. Because Morrison never establishes the “black character” or the “white character”, the reader is left guessing the race of the two main characters throughout the whole

American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon,

In "Learning to Read and Write" by Fredrick Douglass, "The Good Immigrant Student" by Bich Minh Nguyen and "The Joy of Reading and Writing" by Sherman Alexie, each author narrates their experiences in acquiring literary skills. A common factor for all of them is that they all experienced significant difficulties in becoming proficient in academics . Through a variety of rhetoric strategies, the authors articulate their utmost concerns where they present strong evidence on the difficulties experienced by minority communities in their quest for education. Therefore, this paper asserts that the role of reading, writing, and language relates to racial discrimination, cultural difference, and freedom which is of much relevance to today’s

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

The atrocities of slavery know no bounds. Its devices leave lives ruined families pulled apart and countless people dead. Yet many looked away or accepted it as a necessary part of society, even claiming it was beneficial to all. The only way this logic works is if the slaves are seen as less than human, people who cannot be trusted to take care of themselves. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved the consequences of a lifetime of slavery are examined. Paul D and seethe, two former slaves have experienced the worst slavery has to offer. Under their original master, Mr. Garner the slaves were treated like humans. They were encouraged to think for themselves and make their own decisions. However, upon the death of Mr. Garner all of that changes. Under

The history of the African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans contains an infinite variety of experiences. To the Native Americans who founded these lands, slavery, and the waves of migration. What all minority groups have experienced is the

Repression of memories is a psychological concept that has haunted modern psychology for years. Repression of memories also known as “rememory” defined by the mind pushing away traumatic or shocking experiences into a dark corner of a person’s unconscious. As this idea developed and began to be studied more thoroughly, slavery became an institution in which researchers saw promise in drawing conclusions about the dangers of repressing memories. In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, the character narratives of Paul D and Sethe exemplify the dangers of repressing memories. Both disconnect from and push away unwanted emotional traumas or experiences from their past. However, this effort doesn’t pay off and their repression of memories is not successful. Through the use of symbols such as Paul D’s tobacco tin and Sethe’s scars and lost child, Morrison demonstrates how repression of the past isn’t effective and how it always comes back to haunt a person who doesn’t correctly cope with their trauma. Paul D and Sethe live unfulfilled lives as a result of repressed memories.

    Toni Morrison makes a good point when, in her acceptance speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, she says, “Narrative . . . is . . . one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge” (7).  The words we use and the way in which we use them is how we, as humans, communicate to each other our thoughts, feelings, and actions and therefore our knowledge of the world and its peoples.  Knowledge is power.  In this way, our language, too, is powerful.

Beloved by Toni Morrison emphasizes the politics associated with the historical discourse of slavery and African American culture. Characters such as Denver, Beloved, Baby Suggs, and Halle provides the audience’s clues to the past of such discourse. The language communicates complex symbolism that comment’s on the philosophy of Aesthetics, racial segregation, the sublime, and African American scholarship. The symbolism of the text in Beloved broadcasts references to these philosophical debates in this quote:

History is a type of collective memory as it is the discipline that is made up of collective events. Sociologist Maurice Halbwach introduced the theory on “collective memory.” For Halbwach, society uses history as a tool to produces “historical truth” and shapes the memories of individuals (Poole 2008). As collective memory has to do with social groups, like nation, family, etc, it has connection with both individual memory and history (Poole 2008). In comparison to individual, groups have more information as they comprise of individuals from different backgrounds and with different memories and experiences. Thus the remembering power of a group is more than that of individual and this leads to take further the group discussion (Henningsen

Born on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. Morrison has won nearly every book prize possible. She has also been awarded honorary degrees.