Essay about Toni Morrison and bell hooks

History and literature relate to one another and are influenced by the other. Texts are usually interconnected with a concept and a period in history. Beloved by Toni Morrison which was published in 1987, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs which was published in 1861 are texts that discuss a similar topic. Both texts are written in a time where segregation and slavery were present. Literary elements such as characterization, style, tone and point of view are the crucial techniques which can assist in the understanding of the readers. Like most literature writings both texts create a moral of the narrative and give the readers a message they can take from the reading.

Using powerful, interesting vocabulary in an easy to understand manner is another way bell hooks strengthens her argument and persuades her readers. Minor use of hyperbole in her essay by using the term “no one” a few times challenges the reader to change what she states nobody does. There is a clear lack of fussy, confusing language in her work that allows her audience to easily read and understand her argument. Her tone aids in keeping the audience interested and aware of her passion on the topic, instead of muddying her voice with complex, sterile language.

Toni Morrison, the infamous novelist, took the stand as a concerned citizen of the United States when she wrote a public letter to presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. At the time, the country was divided with contrasting opinions on George W. Bush, which seemed to block the focus of the candidates’ elections. Morrison mentioned this issue as one of her reasons for writing the endorsement, when she wrote, “One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this one one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril.” Morrison addressed her personal thoughts on the two presidential candidates, and gave reasoning as for why she chose Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton. Overall, Morrison created a very concerned tone regarding the United States and its political future, using phrases such as “multiple crisis facing us” and “peril” to describe the issues that faced the country. Furthermore, when describing Obama’s political future, the tone was much more optimistic and light. Morrison used phrases such as

In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices:

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

bell hooks Plantation Paratricay can be describes as a black feminist narrative that interrogates the ideas of colonialism, gender, race, class and the effects of socialized behaviors on the black community. The article continuously problematizes the black women's experience in relation to the black man, herself and white society. Though her views can be interpreted as a deconstruction of the black family structure and the black man, she has continuously brought the focus of her concepts back to the black women and her experience. Which in turn, takes her article from being viewed as just a black feminist piece to a womenist piece because its roots are constantly being drawn back to the sexual and general oppression of the black women.

Through this book, the most important point she puts emphasis on is the acknowledgment of the complex interlocking of classism, racism and sexism. Bell Hooks is not a poor working-class any more,

The old woman, when she says of the bird “I don’t know…in your hands,” means that the fate of the bird is inevitably going to be decided by the children. She repeats the phrase, “it is in your hands,” being as the bird symbolizes language, to emphasize that the use of language can be once again corrupted or pure, literally the bird’s fate. This phrase has become a metaphor

“I can remember a dinner where I talked about the book and one person, in a big booming voice choking with laughter exclaimed, ‘what is there to be said about black women!” I had written… the existence of black women was often forgotten, that we were often ignored or dismissed…” (Hooks).

bell hooks, renowned black feminist and cultural critic criticizes the lack of racial awareness in her essay, Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination (1992). ‘bell hooks’ is written in lower case to convey that the substance of her work reigns more important than the writer. From a marginalized perspective, hooks argues that sites of dominance, not otherness is problematic and critiques the lack of attention that white scholars pay to the representation of whiteness in the black imagination. Critical feminist scholars Peggy McIntosh and Ruth Frankenberg identify their own whiteness as a dominant discourse, but share a critical departure from hooks with the notion of whiteness as terror. hooks aim is not to reverse racism, but discuss her position to authentically inform readers about how she experiences racism. Furthermore, systems of oppression are manufactured by human thought and thus the site of the Other is always produced as a site of difference. Gender, race, sex, class, disability, and geography are situated differently in social structure, but dominant groups assume they share the same reality though they cannot experience it. In consequence, the Other cannot hold a singularized identity of their own and the binary structure succeeds in containing racialized bodies in place. What happens to those bodies when they cross boundaries of the binary? hooks recounts being routinely disciplined back into place when crossing the border; however, dominant white

Toni Morrison, bell hooks, and James Baldwin are all writers, professionals crafting fully realized people living in black and white, and poetically weave humor and personal tragedy into academic essays. In the past, I always avoided calling myself a writer because I simply could not compare with them or their contemporaries. Throughout the years, I realized that forbidding myself from using that title was not a humble act, but instead, limiting myself from strengthening my writing through making excuses. Writing did not come naturally to me. I could do the bare minimum. I would only be proficient enough to pass a high school English class. Labeling myself a writer allowed me to take ownership of the writing habits I developed and motivated

hooks selects the movie Crooklyn to illustrate America's views on how worthless black life is. In this film the mother dies, but the audience is not aware of this until the children are found discussing the funeral, " Carolyn's death is treated in a matter-of-fact manner....We never see the family grieve" (hooks, 105).  Instead of crying, the daughter throws up, again showing how even a family member treats death awkwardly.  The advertisements for this film even down play death telling moviegoers "' The Smart Choice is Spike Lee's hilarious Crooklyn'" (hooks,100).  The movie was presented as a comedy due to the fact that people would not be intrigued by a black death.  hooks feels that this movie was " directed towards mainstream, largely white, viewers" which would account for the nonchalant addressing of a black death. This target audience has preconceived

The bird in the story represents someone who lost hope in receiving freedom. That concept is best shown in the story, “But the swallow no longer believes what people say”. The bird lost complete hope. The bird is promised that he will be taken care of, but each time he finds himself in the hand of a new owner. In each situation he begs to be freed but no one seems to understand him. The

Hooks asserts how stereotypes about African-American women are plagued within the feminist system, as many women of color endure a form of

Birds often represent freedom and the ability to fly but are also symbols for something that goes one step further. Several kinds of birds appear throughout