Toni Morrison

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…

Do you know how important Toni Morrison’s style is in all of her works of literature? Or how she exemplifies it in her books? The works chosen for this review are The Bluest Eye, Beloved, and Song of Solomon. As a result of reading these books, it allows a non-African American reader insight into the discrimination of African Americans. Toni Morrison has written many books, on the struggle of African American women. In these books she uses theme, setting, and conflict to show the battle African…

The Bluest Eye is written by Toni Morrison, in 1970. This book aimed toward exposing the destructive idea that black skin, and black culture were inherently ugly. Also, it is about how black community hates itself simply for not being white. Morrison starts this novel with Dick and Jane text. Dick Jane text often represent basal reader. The Dick and Jane represented white wealth and white beauty. In this book, the Dick and Jane are representations of the development of the black lives. Also,…

Within the first few chapters of the book Beloved, written by Toni Morrison, the reader has a good understanding of the characters and the setting. Sethe is a former slave who worked on a plantation with five other men. She married one of the men, Halle, who disappears years after they are married. Both of her boys leave her around the age of thirteen and she currently lives with her daughter Denver in a house that is haunted by her other unnamed daughter who dies at a very young age. Sethe is…

Light skin, silky corn yellow hair, and clear crisp blue eyes. Who is to say this is what defines beauty. The Bluest Eye a novel by Toni Morrison is about a little eleven years old girl named Pecola Breedlove, in the 1930’s, her family and her two friends Frieda and Claudia who are sisters. Pecola believes she is ugly, and is regarded by many of the characters as such; but she believes that if she were to have a pair of blue eyes she will become beautiful, and in turn the ones around her would…

When reading Sula by Toni Morrison some people will see race as the defining feature of the characters. However, when taking a closer look at the text it can be seen that the characters identities are much more complicated than this. It is not simply being black that makes the characters identify as such, but the characters choice in how to view themselves that defines them. This can be seen in the contrasting ways Nel and Sula form identities for themselves. Nel constructs her identity based on…

bound to be another with strong refutations opposing the will of the other. Toni Morrison has produced a novel that hinges on harsh reality and unsubtle triggers that divide at the questions of educational value. The Bluest Eye due to its abusive nature should not be taught in high school classrooms. As, it displays extreme vulgarity, cases of abuse, and violence. The students may or may not relate to Pecola, however, the Morrison novel presents too many challenges to educate in the classroom.…

in life. Relationships such as parents, relatives, and even ex-girlfriends, can have the most profound impact on our lives. It has been proven that parents play an important role in the emotional development for children. In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison uses the relationship between Ruth, Hagar, Pilate, and Milkman to demonstrate how the women influence our lives greatly. Being Milkman’s mother, Ruth has a significant impact on Milkman and how he treats others in his life. Ruth is a…

Through the experiences of the black characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the damages of white femininity are exposed. Throughout the book, white girls and white movie stars often embody standards of cleanliness and beauty by containing funkiness (blackness) and creating order. Morrison often substitutes whiteness for cleanliness and demonstrates the dangers of this mixture in how the black female characters witness the supposed beauty and vulnerability of white girls and movie stars.…

by Toni Morrison is a novel following the life of Pecola, a young black girl growing up during The Great Depression in Lorain, Ohio. In this coming of age story, Pecola experiences the harmful effects of beauty standards, racism, trauma, and rape. Pecola, along with other characters in the novel such as Claudia, Frieda, and Cholly Breedlove, experience a world in which innocence is difficult to maintain and outside forces attempt to cause pain at any given chance. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison…