Relevance of Toni Morrison

1. Relevance of Toni Morrison • We generally study literature as a document of past or distant incidents. But the great literature transcends the barriers of time and place and helps in connecting with our immediate world. It is this capacity to connect with our present concerns that we call as its relevance. And am going to discuss how Toni Morrison is relevant to us.

2. Issues • There are basically four issues that I am going to discuss. These are – 1. The socio-cultural background of Morrison’s work. 2. The basic elements in her novels. 3. How and why her work is relevant in present day America. 4. How her writing connects us with our own social realities in India.

3. Reading, Not Feeling • When I started reading Toni Morrison, I thought, it was about a distant people and a distant past. I must confess, I did not feel her stories concerned my own world.

4. Far off • I thought, it was about the past of the African American people. To me, America was far away – on the other side of the globe - and I had never seen nor hoped to see the pain and trauma of African American people.

5. Read as a History • The gory details of their exploitation and deprivation did disturb me but it was less disturbing because I read it as a history of days gone by in a distant country.

6. Morrison Rediscovered • As I matured in my own world, I found the basic elements of Morrison’s novels - her characters, their feelings - returning to me again and again like waves of an eternal sea of human pain which we all share, may be, at different shores.

7. Familiarity Slowly I graduated to the awareness of Racial discrimination and to the terms like Apartheid, Gender discrimination and Class exploitation that haunted Morrison’s characters. Then I realized similar patterns exist not only in modern America but modern in modern India as well.

8. Patterns Prevail over Time • Toni Morrison started writing about the suffering of African Americans some 40 years ago. Yet it is not a leaf from the dead past but a continuity even now. Today an African American is the President of the US but alienation and the trauma of African American people is no different than what it was earlier. And we have examples.

9. Trayvon Martin Case • An adolescent boy, Trayvon Martin, was shot dead in 2012. The guard mistook him to be a thief because he was a Black. The murder disturbed the African American community but more disturbing was the judgment. The Judge declared the guard not guilty!

10. “This Could Have Been Me” • Now I quote a reaction over the episode- • “…… When Trayvon Martin was shot, I said this could have been my son. Or Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. …the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”

11. History Haunts • “A set of experiences and a history that does not go away”. - And this was a statement from Barrack Obama. The President of US. He added, “There are few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.”

12. The Big Brother of the World • America claims to be the most free country in the world and the most democratic . It prides itself on having a Black President.

13. But it Hurts • And its Black President says, ….says in the year 2013 that “African Americans are followed when they shop in a departmental store.” • Why ? Because African Americans are expected to steal.

14. The Killer and the Killed • The killer, George Zimmerman, went scot free. That shows the current social attitude towards them.

15. Goodbye to my American Dream! • Last July, disgusted by the attitude of hidden Apartheid, a 23 year old African American girl, Tiffannie Drayton, left America forever. • “As a black woman, I'm tired of loving a country that can't love me back.”

16. Leaving the Land of the Free Tiffannie Drayton wrote,“My face may be repulsive to some since it bears proof that race continues to be a problem. I have found freedom by leaving the land of the free.”

17. Pecola is Tiffainnie The pain of Tiffannie Drayton as expressed in her letter is so reminiscent of the pain of Pecola in Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eyes. Tiffannie Drayton is not a character in a novel. She is a living being in 2013, young and educated, but she is an African American as was Pecola 43 years ago.

18. Racism Racism in America is rooted in that period of American history when the first Africans were brought in as cheap labor to work. 

19. Slavery • Africans were brought as slaves and in many parts of America, could live only like Slaves. • Slaves were profitable and were treated as property of their white masters. • Racism was convenient to continue Slavery.

20. Relation Between Sexism and Racism Paula Giddings explains: “…the experience of Black Women, is the relationship between sexism and racism because both are motivated by similar, economic, social, and psychological forces, it is only logical that those who sought to undermine Blacks were also the most virulent anti feminists.

21. Black Within Black According to Gloria Wade-Gayles • “Three circles of reality in America reflect degrees of power and powerlessness.  There is a large circle in which men experience influence and power.  Far away there is a narrow sphere in which black people experience uncertainty, exploitation and powerlessness.  • Hidden in this second circle is a third, dark enclosure in which black women experience pain, isolation and vulnerability.”(Gloria Wade-Gayles 1984).

22. Outcast and Encircled within a circle Powerful Circle Black women

23. Black Women • Black women face the triple discrimination of Race, Class and sex.  • Racism and sexism co-exit in a traumatic alliance with Class discrimination.

24. Dehumanized • In a long and cruel process, African Americans were not only cut off from their cultural roots but were also dehumanized.

25. Black Women Writers • Several black women writers like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Paule Marshall have reflected the nexus between Racism, Sexism and Capitalism in their novels.  • They all assert, as Blacks as a group are relegated to an under class so women are relegated to a separate caste by virtue of their sex. 

26. But by far, the most prominent voice among them is -Toni Morrison Our Own Voice from A-far

27. Toni Morrison Born CholeArdeliaWofford;  February 18, 1931 American novelist Editor and Professor.

28. Her Novels • The Bluest Eye (1970) • Sula (1974) • Song of Solomon (1977) • Tar Baby (1981) • Beloved (1987)

29. ….her Novels • Jazz (1992) • Paradise (1997) • Love (2003) • A Mercy (2008) • Home (2012)

30. The Bluest Eye Morrison’s first novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’ deals with the difficulty of achieving individuality as a human being. Pecola, an eleven year old girl, suffers from lack of self esteem because she does not have white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. These standards of European beauty affect the psyche of the black female. Pecola is poor, deprived, battered by her mother, raped by her father and silenced by all.

31. Sula • In Sula (1973) the thrust is on - possibility of freedom and - individuality of the African American woman. • Sula is an iconoclast - a “living criticism of the dreadful lives of resignation other women live.” • She startles the community with extreme emotional impulses and grows into a “strange, strong and independent woman.”

32. Song of Solomon • In Song of Solomon (1977) desire for gold propels Milkman Dead into a quest for identity. The protagonist has to overcome the deadening effect of capitalism. • His knowledge of racial history liberates him and he begins to respect the poor black men and women around him. • Class in relation to race and gender becomes the focal point. • Quest for family roots is linked to the search for African American cultural heritage.

33. Tar Baby • Unlike her previous novels, in Tar Baby (1981) Toni Morrison describes the conflict of race, class, and sex in a contemporary context. • Tar Baby exposes all the conflicts that result from the cultural encounter between the colonizer and the colonized. • The two protagonists Son and Jadine, are sharply divided in their attitudes to the ruling class but they must struggle together to resolve their class interest.

34. Beloved • Morrison’s masterpiece, Beloved (1987), is based on the true story of a runaway slave who kills her infant daughter in order to spare her a life of slavery. • Morrison exposes here that history of Racial oppression which has been kept veiled, i.e. the tale of sexual abuse. • In Beloved, Morrison demonstrates - collectivism is the first step for eradicating class exploitation. • The novel also comments on the inequities that Black women still face.

35. Jazz • Morrison’s purpose in Jazz is to make fiction do what music does to the people. • Jazz adds a new dimension to the remedy for the African Dilemma. - Just as African people must bond together to survive, so also African women must help one another to live a wholesome life. • Violet, a wronged woman, comes to herself after bonding with other black women.

36. Paradise • Paradise (1998), portrays the life of a black utopian community in Oklahoma. Set in contemporary times, it is inspired by stories of the all-black communities established after the end of slavery. • The oppressed women form an all-women community and live together. But the paradise is short-lived. The patriarchal society of Ruby looks at it as a threat and kills all of them.

37. Love • Love (2003), is an intricate family story that reveals the myriad facets of love. 

38. A Mercy • A Mercy (2008) deals with slavery in 17th-century America.

39. Home • Home (2012) is Toni Morrison’s 10th novel. War vet Frank Money, retreats into violent memories to escape his fractured present. • His sister, Cee, is abandoned by her husband and abused by a medical experiment. • Both suffer racial, economic, and emotional oppression. In saving Cee, Frank achieves redemption. Cee emerges robust and aware. Home is a lean novel from a major American author known for her complex and elliptical style.

40. Progression We can see a progression in Morrison’s creative journey - an exploration. • Pecola in The Bluest Eye, assesses herself through alien standards. • Sula explores possibility of freedom. • Solomon searches for his own identity. • Tar Baby discovers the conflicts. • Beloved decides to revolt. • Jazz discovers the need for a bonding between women. • Paradise is an aborted result of that bonding. • Love is a discovery of the matrix which can save the Paradise. • But only love is not enough; Mercy too is required. • Home is the story of coming home to the self within.

41. Features of Morrison’s Novels Morrison’s novels are known for their  • Epic themes • Vivid dialogues • Detailed characters • Focus on Black women.

42. Remedy for Race, Gender and Class Bias • Racism is a constant in the lives of all her characters. The Color makes their plight hopeless. • Morrison emphasizes the entrapment of Black Women, the interior colonization they suffer from because of their dependence on men for every thing.  • Morrison suggests, once the woman to woman relationship is established, they no longer need the men.

43. Morrison’s Relevance in India • Dalit and tribal women in India face a similar exclusion and torture as portrayed in the novels of Toni Morrison. • They are ghettoized and debarred from any scope of emancipation. • Racism and Casteism, in effect, are the same things. • The Tribal women are seen as sex objects by the male of the dominant castes and classes.

44. Parallel with Indian Dalit/Tribal Just as Racism and Sexism combine to traumatize the life of the Black Woman of Toni Morrison, Caste, Sex and Class discriminations combine against the Dalit and Tribal women in India.

45. Tribals and Discrimination • Less than 40% of Rape cases are reported. In reported cases, the conviction rate, is almost zero. • The political segments in India walk with the interests of the business houses for whom tribals are the first target. • The authorities too are on the side of the Capitalists.

46. Any Difference? • In Morrison’s novel ‘Sula’ (1975) school going girls have to devise round about ways of returning home from school because the white gang is ready to molest them at every step. • Is the situation any different here?

47. Weapon • "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." -Omar Mukhtar

48. Dehumanized • It is fed into the mind of the Dalits and the women that they were born inferior to their upper-caste masters and men. • Just like African Americans, the Dalits too are dehumanized. • But they have a dream…..

49. Arundhati Roy says.. • “The Dalit woman rag picker, the flower seller, the stone quarry worker, construction laborer, sex worker, the panchayat leader or the urban homemaker are all bound by one single dream -a dignified living. They all dream of a world that treats their children better than it does them.”

50. Who Will Write for them? We don’t have a Toni Morrison or a Maxim Gorky here. But we do want to read about the trauma faced by our people and Morrison shows the way. Says she- “I wrote for myself stories that I wanted to read”.