Dismantling the Importance of a Nuclear Family in Morrison’s Novels
The nuclear family constricts and confines while mother figures in Toni Morrison’s novels contrastingly free and empower. Throughout Morrison’s novels, single mothers or motherly figures compensate for the lack of nuclear families, raising their children adequately, but not within society’s preferred ideals. Morrison emphasizes the power of a woman and the power of a mother through her portrayal of motherhood contradicting mothers in traditional arrangements that lead to repression. In The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon, Morrison illustrates the essentiality of a mother. Also in Song of Solomon, Morrison proves that her form of untraditional motherhood equates to empowerment and …show more content…
Further in Beloved and also in Jazz, Morrison integrates the importance of community into her portrayal of motherhood. Further in Jazz, Morrison highlights the reconciliation that motherhood offers. Overall, Morrison reconstructs a new form of motherhood that matters, empowers, frees, considers, preserves, communes, and reconciles.
Even from her first novel, The Bluest Eye, Morrison emphasizes that motherhood matters. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison portrays motherless characters that breed destruction into their characters. The juxtaposition of the two mothers Mrs. MacTeer and Pauline exemplify the importance of motherhood through the actions of their children. Mrs. MacTeer remains a proactive mother in Claudia and Frieda’s lives, while the other mother Pauline remains transfixed in her idyllic notions of the perfect family to connect to her daughter. As Andrea O’Reilly explains in Toni Morrison and Motherhood, this discrepancy results from Pauline’s lack of a mother figure in her childhood (55). Influential mothers create a cycle in which they empower their child and when a link breaks like in Pauline’s case, the empowerment stops for future
The nuclear family constricts and confines while mother figures in Toni Morrison’s novels contrastingly free and empower. Throughout Morrison’s novels, single mothers or motherly figures compensate for the lack of nuclear families, raising their children adequately, but not within society’s preferred ideals. Morrison emphasizes the power of a woman and the power of a mother through her portrayal of motherhood contradicting mothers in traditional arrangements that lead to repression. In The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon, Morrison illustrates the essentiality of a mother. Also in Song of Solomon, Morrison proves that her form of untraditional motherhood equates to empowerment and …show more content…
Further in Beloved and also in Jazz, Morrison integrates the importance of community into her portrayal of motherhood. Further in Jazz, Morrison highlights the reconciliation that motherhood offers. Overall, Morrison reconstructs a new form of motherhood that matters, empowers, frees, considers, preserves, communes, and reconciles.
Even from her first novel, The Bluest Eye, Morrison emphasizes that motherhood matters. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison portrays motherless characters that breed destruction into their characters. The juxtaposition of the two mothers Mrs. MacTeer and Pauline exemplify the importance of motherhood through the actions of their children. Mrs. MacTeer remains a proactive mother in Claudia and Frieda’s lives, while the other mother Pauline remains transfixed in her idyllic notions of the perfect family to connect to her daughter. As Andrea O’Reilly explains in Toni Morrison and Motherhood, this discrepancy results from Pauline’s lack of a mother figure in her childhood (55). Influential mothers create a cycle in which they empower their child and when a link breaks like in Pauline’s case, the empowerment stops for future