Toni Cade Bambara

to its fullest, one must put the past behind them. At times society fails to realize that living in a former moment in life continues to allow the hauntings from that occasion to thrive, when in reality that date is erstwhile. In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison uniquely portrays a twisted Hero’s Journey through the character of Beloved in order to present to the reader the horrors of living in the past. Morrison establishes the first three steps, of the typically chronological Hero’s Cycle, in…

oppression in which they have been targeted by institutionalized racism. The Bluest eye by Toni Morrison depicts an African American family who is victim to the pressures of society. Pecola Breedlove has been born into a world in which she attempts to fit in and establish herself. However she comes to understand that it will never be possible based on the circumstances in which she lives around. Within Toni Morrison’s The Bluest eye, he attempts to reflect how society enforces standards of…

Literary Analysis: Beloved Sethe's appearance changes in various ways throughout the book. Her appearance reflects her state of mind. Sethe is described in different ways as the storyline moves along. First, it starts with Sethe's life as a slave at Sweet Home. Then, her appearance, and mind-set changes with events occurring at 124 Bluestone. Lastly, Sethe becomes very weak and would rather die, rather than letting her past haunt her. Sweet Home and Sethe's journey to 124 Bluestone…

With the evident aspects of beauty expressed within the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and its transformation within societal perception, it is apparent that black women have been seen as infinitesimal and wholly “invisible” in the eyes of society. Written in the late 60s, The Bluest Eye takes a sentiment into the lives of young black girls and how society’s perception can create devastating impressions on how they see themselves as well as the world itself. Morrison successfully creates…

Who or What is Beloved? By looking at “ Beloved” by Toni Morrison, we can see firsthand how slavery has taken a toll on Sethe, Denver, and Paul D. Set during Reconstruction in Cincinnati in 1871, this family is constantly haunted by their past hardships as slaves. All their pain eventually manifests into someone or something called Beloved. Beloved, is something of a mystery throughout the story. Who is Beloved? Is she a Ghost or is she a real human? What is her strong connection to Sethe,…

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Cholly, driven by multiple factors, rapes his daughter, and this scene is included for a certain purpose, as well. Cholly, the father, engages in nonconsensual intercourse with his daughter because of his alcoholic stupor and sense of freedom. Cholly is alcoholic because of the emptiness that cannot be filled with anything drink, seen when he describes, “Nothing, nothing, interested him now. Not himself, not other people. Only in drink was there some break,…

me is lost, forever lost,/Some vital thing has gone out of my heart,/And I must walk the way of life a ghost/ Among the sons of earth, a thing apart;/For I was born, far from my native clime,/Under the white man's menace, out of time.” In Beloved, Toni Morrison depicts these ideas of racism, misery, and disharmony through the story of a former slave, Sethe, who is ostracized from her community because she killed her own child to protect them from slavery. This dead child then comes back to haunt…

The world is not black and white, but as gray as the smoke from a gun ripping through races dividing them. In Toni Morrison’s short story, Recitatif, there is a constant division of races specifically between blacks and whites. Within this story you learn of two young ladies named Twyla and Roberta growing up whilst the civil rights movement is occurring; and as time goes by racism effects these young ladies more and more until they start to fuse into the racism. In Morrison’s Recitatif she…

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye takes place in Lorain, Ohio sometime in the early 1940’s. Moreover, the MacTeer and Breedlove families are the main characters that surround the protagonist, Pecola Breedlove. There are a handful of hardships that Pecola and the others face, and within these struggles lie symbols that convey a deeper meaning to the context. The main two symbols that Pecola herself struggles with are the identity of blue eyes and her the love within her house and others. Pecola’s…

“...Sethe was licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved’s eyes.” (Morrison 68) This example of metaphorical cannibalism depicts the bottomless hunger that Beloved feels for Sethe. Throughout Beloved, Toni Morrison embeds the motif of hunger to develop a juxtaposition: Consumption nourishes and allows the establishment of connections; however, it can become a lethal obsession. Including the hunger of the characters in 124 unravels their emotional pain and emphasizes the psychological traumas they endure.…