Toni Morrison's Allegiantia

In the 1950’s-80’s racism was more prevalent during this time than it is today. In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” these racial prejudices are experienced by Twyla and Roberta along with class issues at the time. Twyla and Roberta were both put into an orphanage whenever their mothers were not able to care for them because of personal reasons. One girl was black and the other white, but it was not mentioned who was what race. Twyla’s mother danced all night and Roberta’s mother was ill. These factors played a huge role on both girls thoughts and actions. Race and class issues reflect the prejudice experienced by Twyla and Roberta in Toni Morrison’s short story,“Recitatif” which shapes their life views.

In the novel Sula, by Toni Morrison we follow the life of Sula Peace through out her childhood in the twenties until her death in 1941. The novel surrounds the black community in Medallion, specifically "the bottom". By reading the story of Sula’s life, and the life of the community in the bottom, Morrison shows us the important ways in which families and communities can shape a child’s identity. Sula not only portrays the way children are shaped, but also the way that a community receives an adult who challenges the very environment that molded them. Sula’s actions and much of her personality is a direct result of her childhood in the bottom. Sula’s identity contains many elements of a strong, independent feminist

Two young girls, coalescing on a grass-laden field while lying on their stomachs, dig a hole in unspoken harmony. A picture of youth and innocence, this scene depicts an innocuous moment which the two girls share as a result of their juvenescence--or does it? In Toni Morrison 's Sula, this scene, among others, appears at first to be both irrelevant to the novel’s underlying theme and out of place with regard to the rest of the plot. Yet, when analyzed further, the literary devices that Morrison uses in these scenes bring readers to a vastly different conclusion. These scenes serve as windows into the mind of Morrison and even into the larger themes present in the text. So, perhaps two girls sharing a seemingly casual experience is not as

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

When an author writes a work, it leaves her control and it’s now within the hands of

Toni Morrison brings another surprise to the story of Beloved. The addition of character Beloved conceals whole meaning Morrison tries to conduct to the readers. So far, character Beloved is portrayed as an innocent, pure, yet egotistic girl. Beloved also presumably the incarnation of Sethe’s dead baby, whose tomb is engraved Beloved. Morrison offers supernatural element in the story to create mysterious and spooky atmosphere, which raise curiosity and excite readers even more.

How does it feel when a Roberta, a white girl, who is very enthusiastic and lively will be sent away to an orphanage and there she will meet someone, a little black girl named Twyla, who does not want to be with her in the same room because she was told by her mother to not be with or be friends with a person with a white race? They are just a little girls---black and white---who Toni Morrison portrays in her short story “Recitatif.” An analysis of both the black and white girl shows that because of them belonging to different races, their experiences are way more different but despite their differences they still managed to be friends with each other. Another is why does Maggie, the girl with legs like parentheses, played a big role in this

The novel Sula was written by Toni Morrison in 1973. The book was written around the time of many controversies including racism and women’s rights. It tells the story of Sula Peace and how she handles the many situations in her life. She has many trials and tribulations when it comes to her family and also her peers. She has many different types of conversations, which all of them basically end with Sula making them mad or even confused. The novel talks about the battle between good vs evil. It shows the many topics of love, betrayal, and just how she is different from any other people in her community. Sula is an inspirational character and new world woman, because she beats the odds, being fatherless, poor, and being raised in the shadow of a woman who “gets around”. She is only focused on living life to the fullest. “I don’t know everything, I just do everything (Sula 143)”, she tells Nel. She’s an African American, a woman, and also very outspoken. She doesn’t let anything stand in her way or define her.

Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon was written in 1977, revolving around the African-American man and his life in the city of Michigan. Song of Solomon is the third novel of Morrison which gave her the wider recognition. Chronologically the novel is structured as the narrative from the childhood to the adulthood. The novel shows the traits of the African culture, which represents in the adequate and ruthless story of the community delivered by the example of the single family.

Toni Morrison wrote Recitatif to address ideological ideas of race and social identity. Morrison introduces two characters as children, Roberta and Twyla, but does not specify which girl is black or white. The story follows the relationship of the girls beginning at their stay in a shelter, and then subsequent meeting throughout their lives. Each interaction seems to further confuse the assumption of racial status because of seemingly contrary social status. During this time in America’s history, one would assume that the white girl was from a higher socioeconomic class, and the black girl from a low socioeconomic class.

Any child who was “dumped” in an orphanage while their parents were still alive came with great humiliation. With that humiliation the girls, Twyla and Roberta in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”, slightly gained their self-dignity back through another character, mysterious Maggie. Helane Androne of “Revised Memories and Colliding Identities” states that, “Twyla and Roberta are prevented from having a comfortable, consistent sense of home and motherhood”. The mothers of the two girls are represented in the way they make the girls feel through Maggie, the kitchen lady. Maggie was known as, “the kitchen woman with legs like parentheses” (2155). Twyla described her to be wearing, “this really stupid little hat-a kid’s hat with ear flaps- and she wasn’t much taller than we were” (2155). Androne believes the direct treatment Twyla and Roberta give Maggie “is a precursor for how they will handle moments of recall about their own mothers”. Morrison creates a well mysterious plot with Maggie being the center symbol of a mother to Twyla and Roberta. As Maggie lacked the skills of communicating, interacting, and to have companionships she symbolized what the girls felt from their mothers.

“I want my fiction to urge the reader into active participation in the non-narrative, nonliterary experience of the text… I want him to respond on the same plane as an illiterate or preliterate reader would. I want to subvert… [ the reader] in the company of his own solitary imagination" Morrison proclaims in Memory, Creation, and Writing ( Memory, Creating and Writing 387 ). Toni Morrison has a unique and distinctive style of writing that allows her to stand out from other authors. In her pieces, Morrison incorporates various writing techniques that allow her and the readers to construct the meaning of her work. One type of stylistic approach Morrison takes to her writing is that she draws extensively from fables and folklore.

The Chains of Motherhood In Toni Morrison’s Sula, Morrison paints a bleak picture of motherhood: a vicious recurring cycle of nature versus nurture that ensnares generation after generation through lack of education, poverty, hopelessness, sexism, and racism. The mothers of the Peace household are each confronted with taxing responsibilities, agonizing sacrifices, and burdensome choices that each woman must make in order to keep her family alive. Eva has to go to great lengths to make sure her children survive, as a single mother with three children and no source of income: “ When he left in November, Eva had $1.65, five eggs, three beets (Morrison 32).” Morrison harsh rendition of Eva’s circumstances, illustrates the taxing responsibilities

We in America think we are past racial oppression, but we still stereotype people based on preconceived ideas we have in our head. In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”, she tells the story of Twyla and Roberta who meet at an orphanage, but never explicitly identifies who is either black or white. The reader’s stance to identify the race of the girls transitions constantly throughout the short story. Actions and events throughout the narrative suggest differences in social class and education, but the reader can never be entirely certain who is of what race. Toni Morrison challenges readers to think outside of racial barriers in this compelling selection and teaches us that we as humans still continue to categorize each other.

In that timelessness of afterlife, Toni Morrison allows Othello’s wife Desdemona to tell the stories that William Shakespeare did not allow her to tell (Sciolino). Desdemona is a collaboration between writer Toni Morrison, musician Rokia Traoré and director Peter Sellars. It retells the story of William Shakespeare’s Othello and, thus, serves a prequel and sequel to the tragedy (Carney 1). Toni Morrison’s play examines Desdemona’s relationship with her husband Othello as well as with other female characters, in particular, Desdemona’s relationship with her nurse Barbary (Erickson 3-4). Furthermore, the drama introduces the social conflicts the women come into contact with which are based on gender and ethnicity. An analysis of Toni Morrison’s Desdemona shows the social construction of the division of the sexes as well as the division of ethnicities. This division is known as Otherness: