Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate

Author:Claudia Tate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Haymarket Books

* Lorde’s close personal friend.

* Audre Lorde, “Feminism and Black Liberation: The Great American Disease,” The Black Scholar 10, 8–9 (April 1979), p. 19.

TONI MORRISON

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. She received her B.A. from Howard University and an M.A. from Cornell. She is the mother of two and is a senior editor at Random House.

Morrison’s novels are characterized by meticulously crafted prose, using ordinary words to produce lustrous, lyrical phrases and to portray precise emotional perceptions. Her extraordinary characters struggle to understand aspects of the human condition: good and evil, love, friendship, beauty, ugliness, death. While her stories seem to unfold with natural ease, the reader can discern the great care Morrison has taken in constructing them.

Her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1969), depicts the tragic life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who wants nothing more than to be loved by her family and her school friends. She surmises that the reason she is despised and ridiculed is that she is black and, therefore, ugly. Consequently, Pecola sublimates her desire to be loved into a desire to have blue eyes and blond hair; in short, to look like Shirley Temple, who is adored by all. Unable to endure the brutality toward her frail self-image, Pecola goes quietly insane and withdraws into a fantasy world in which she is the most beloved little girl because she has the bluest eye of all.

Morrison’s second novel, Sula (1974), is about a marvelously unconventional woman, Sula Peace, whose life becomes one of unlimited experiment. Not bound by any social codes of propriety, Sula is first thought to be simply unusual, then outrageous, and eventually evil. She becomes a pariah of her community, a measuring stick of what’s evil and, ironically, inspires goodness in those around her.

The Song of Solomon (1977) traces, in an epic way, the self-discovery of Macon Dead III. Macon or “Milkman,” as he is called by his friends, sets out on a journey to recover a lost treasure in his family’s past, but instead of discovering wealth learns the intricate details of his ancestry. Milkman’s odyssey becomes a kind of cultural epic by which black people can recall their often obscured slave heritage.

Morrison’s latest novel, Tar Baby (1981), is about the evolution of an intimate relationship between an unlikely couple. Jade, a jetset fashion model, falls in love with a young vagrant only to become estranged soon thereafter. He is not discouraged by their breakup but pursues her with the hope of reconciliation. Through the use of elaborate symbol, Morrison suggests that reconciliation between the black man and the black woman can only occur when they mutually understand they are both victims of racial exploitation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.