Alofa Figiel

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.

Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about

Toni Morrison is one of the most talented and successful African-American authors of our time. Famous for works such as The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved, Morrison has cultivated large audiences of all ethnicities and social classes with her creative style of writing. It is not Morrison’s talent of creating new stories that attracts her fans. In contrast, it is her talent of revising and modernizing traditional Biblical and mythological stories that have been present in literature for centuries. Morrison replaces the characters in these myths, whom would have been white, middle-class males, with characters who depict the cultural practices in black communities. The protagonists in Morrison’s works are primarily African-American women

“What is racism? Racism is a projection of our own fears onto another person. What is sexism? It’s our own vulnerability of our potency and masculinity projected as our need to subjugate from another person…” Gary Ross’s breakdown of the age-defying constructions of race and sexism exemplify how fabricated standards can take a toll on the well-being of individuals. American novelist Toni Morrison is renowned for her publications illustrating how racial stigma can dent a character physically, mentally and emotionally. “Sweetness”, an excerpt from God Help the Child, one of Morrison’s more recent works, follows the narrative of a guilt-stricken mother who allowed society’s predetermined notions of race interfere with her parenting, as her daughter was undeniably black while she and her husband have negro roots but are lighter skinned or ‘high-yellow’. As the story develops, it is obvious that the narrator, Lula Ann’s mother feels some sort of resentment for mistreating her child and holding her back from experiencing a blissful childhood like other youngsters, but is too shameful to admit it. With time, tables turn and Lula Ann, Lula Mae’s daughter is able to regain her self-esteem, moves away, builds a career, and is preparing to settle down with a family of her own and change her miserable fate given to her by her parents. Morrison successfully translates the destructive effects of prioritizing racial constructs through varied elements including: characterization, point of

The author tries to show us the reader that even back then, at a time where racism was a huge problem that it is a problem that it is still seen today. Toni Morrison tries to open our eyes and let us know that there is a big problem that still needs to be fixed. If something is still not being done when is the change going to happen? I as the reader feel that in most passages there is always a point of view of how a women must be characterized. It is important to realize that women are being underestimated and racism is still

As Morrison progressed as a writer one can definitively view her evolution not only as a writer but as a thinker. In Sula, the reader can view an author who is quintessentially confused by the system of segregation. Specifically, one could contrive that Sula is Morrison’s attempt to examine the aspects in which segregation helped cement African-American culture, but once America was desegregated the same communities that were empowered by oppression were decimated by the white communities’ extraction of African-American culture. Whereas within Love, one can view a Morrison not content with African-American proliferation under the banner of segregation, but hatred for the powerful individuals of the community that reinforced the system of segregation and oppressed their own community in the effort to gain not only money, but power. As one thinks about the multi-faceted layers of segregation within Toni Morrison’s writings, one can view a political activist who felt content in her youth, rationalizing the evils of this world, yet in the present an enraged woman content with not only the removal of white prosperity within segregation, but African-American elite prosperity upon the literal blood of African-American

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

Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious, enduring conflicts in the world today. Toni Morrison’s short story “Sweetness” articulated her view on oppression more effectively than the song“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar because she used anecdote and metaphor to justify her position.This made the readers aware of the personal issues she went through.“Sweetness” elaborates on her view regarding race because of the personal stories about a mother and the issues she had with her daughter. Morrison’s parents moved to Ohio from the South, hoping to raise their children in an environment friendlier to blacks. This wasn’t the case when she grew up, married her white husband and got a child. In his eyes seeing his daughter was like seeing a lie that was cursed upon him which made it impossible to except her. As a result, Morrison undoubtedly touches on how whites back then didn’t learn empathy or compassion towards the blacks.

The significance of disregarding dissimilarity is disregarding human society, which a hazardous behavior that dismissively affects lifestyles. When we make the decision not to visualize other human beings as they really are whether they are indistinguishable or unalike, we are opposing many human beings are misguided into disregarding dissimilarity. Human beings who are treated unfairly or have no recognition because of their dissimilarities endure the repression, though may sustain to disregard dissimilarity in others. An example of this pattern is the desire of some European American women to generalize their experience as the encounter of all women. When a European American woman professes to declare for all women, she ignores individual

From the role it plays in literature to its looming existence in our everyday lives, race has an undeniable influence on many aspects of our lives. Toni Morrison and Peggy McIntosh, a writer and an activist respectively, both have the urge to understand this presence and impact of race in literature and everyday life specifically. Through self-reflection and attempts to see from others’ perspectives, both Morrison and McIntosh manage to answer their own questions regarding race and its role in literature and everyday life while articulating their discoveries and intentions in similar and comparable ways. Both of their pieces, “Playing in the Dark,” and “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to see Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies,” help Morrison and McIntosh, as well as readers, to understand the polar yet interdependent nature of African American and white status in America.

While Toni Morrison’s Sula and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home take place decades apart, the similar message of both speaks volumes about how the status quo was maintained and continued to prevail throughout the nearly thirty years that separates these novels. Despite the contention of a societal consensus that suggests sociopolitical progress has been made, the plot lines of these books, written by two women who experienced these hardships firsthand, portrays a much different story of continuing suppression. In both Fun Home and Sula, the main characters discover their identity as they come of age in a world where their true selves are not always met by an accepting society. Through the literary use of the symbol of mirrors, the exploration of sexuality, and contrasting character development, Morrison and Bechdel illustrate the struggle of self-realization.

“Sometimes mothers put their sons outdoors, and when that happens, regardless of what the son had done, all sympathy was with him. He was outdoors, and his own flesh had done it,” (Morrison, 17). This passage is significant in its own right, but the point of view presented in this passage is of even greater magnitude. If Morrison chose to maintain a child’s point of view for the following excerpt, and the proceeding paragraphs, then the reader would not seize a clear view of what it authentically means to be put outside in the black community. Perhaps however, the point of view is not merely from an older, wiser Claudia, but from a third person point of view altogether.

Toni Morrison’s novel Sula explores black female life and relations conceived both within and outside sexist and racist influences and mediation. Morrison explores individual characters defined by racial and gender stereotypes while also presenting a focused rumination on a radical black female experience devoid of these oppressive classifications. Through the character Sula, Morrison creates a black female identity based on subjectivity, uninfluenced by the community’s societal gender expectations and lifestyle. Even though Sula possessed self-agency and autonomy, never adhering to her community’s standards, her self-assertion remains solely outside the racist and sexist environment and black community; she ultimately holds power over herself but she is unable to assert that power in “Bottom” as she is suppressed and ostracized, contained by avoidance and being characterized as “devil” and “witch” until she dies contently, knowing she lived freely, yet alone (hooks 150). Morrison’s presentation of Sula’s ostracization as a direct consequence of her ability to constitute

Paradise, a novel written by Toni Morrison, delves into the issue of racial segregation and hierarchies. When a closer look is taken at her novel, through microanalysis, it can be seen that she takes the time to use specific techniques such as dialogue. She does this through distinction between author and focalizer, kinship and family and identification to Ruby. On page 210, Morrison’s use of dialogue can be examined to mean more than what one initially would believe. This paragraph is almost completely dialogue and it is where Morrison analyzes the relationship between the 8-rock families of Ruby and Africa. These techniques, when observed microanalytically, explore the root of racial gaps.

Since childhood, we all have been taught that “racism is bad” and should be avoided at all costs. We have been told that “everyone is a child of God and we are all created equal.” In fact, Americans are praised for the so-called equality they possess. However, renowned author Toni Morrison sheds light on the sheltered and unspoken truth that everyone—to some extent—is racist. “Home” is a reflective essay in which Morrison explains that her triumphs against racist ideologies are evident throughout her various novels (“Home” 3). In Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, instead of establishing a home where race does not matter—a home which she dreams of in her essay—she creates just the opposite (3). In this novel, by using direct