LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Research Project Submissions 2013 research post 2

Rebecca Chlapowski

Did You Get That?

In class American Minority Literature, we read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Morrison is an African American female born in 1931. She has become an amazing author, an editor, and a professor. She is also an activist. She has accomplished a great many things in her life and is continuing to achieve things today.  She is a woman of power and dignity, the women of today’s world can learn a lot from her. How did Toni Morrison’s work help African Americans become understood by the population that refused to admit they existed?

Toni Morrison is a great author, editor, professor and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, and her novel Beloved won a Pulitzer in 1988. She has caused some controversy with her work and touched the hearts of many others.  In an article written for the Virginia Quarterly Review in 2004 title, The Journey to School Integration, Morrison tells of the memories she has when smelling gumbo or sheets drying on the line. She brings the reader in with something familiar to them. She then twists the reader around and without knowing, the readers have put themselves in the place of the African American on this trip. Some of us were not around when schools became integrated, but I can remember my mom telling me about it. I remember thinking how horrible it must have been for these children to be walking into the hatred they received, and yet how excited they must be because they are finally allowed an education.  Reading this article makes me realize I was wrong with my thoughts. They were more excited than scared they were ready and willing. Much stronger than I would have been at their age, much stronger than the children of today. Morrison writes “children had to be braver than their parents”, sends chills down my spine. It leaves the reader in an in between place of wanting to be there and not wanting to be there. To experience the history Morrison has must be phenomenal.

            An article written for the Contemporary Justice Review titled Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning a Just World, discusses Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye. They discuss how Toni Morrison “exposes how the culture creates false standards of beauty and how these standards, based upon white norms, affect the African-American women and men in the novel” when she details Pecola’s loss. This is such a strong statement, and so very true. The reader comes to understand Pecola, and feels for Pecola and more importantly roots for Pecola. We want her to overcome her hardships in the novel and as a white woman reading the novel, I hurt for Pecola. I wonder how this could happen in a small community where everyone knows everyone. Upon reading the rest of the book, it becomes no clearer. The only thing that does become clear is that the neighborhood I grew up in the neighborhood Pecola grew up in was in two completely different worlds. The authors of this article go on to say “Morrison’s novel (The Bluest Eye) chooses not to place blame on any one individual; instead, the novel, in telling each characters experiences and struggles with racism, encourages readers to empathize with their plights”. This is exactly what the reader does. Morrison has created a pretend world in which the reader comes to believe is real, as are the people. It is hard for the readers to integrate themselves into a character, but could be done. By the end of the novel, the reader does empathize with the characters plights. We empathize as mothers, friends, daughters, sisters and neighbors. 

Toni Morrison is an amazing author who has accomplished amazing things.  By introducing the world to her novels, she assimilated the average white reader into the world, the neighborhoods and lives of her unique African American characters. It is true that reading creates a more rounded individual, but after reading Toni Morrison, the reader becomes a whole new person.

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York. Vintage Books. 1970. Print

Morrison, Toni. "The Journey To School Integration." Virginia Quarterly Review 80.1 (n.d.): 3-8. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.

Riley, Jeannette, Kathleen Torrens, and Susan Krumholz. "Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning A Just World." Contemporary Justice Review 8.1 (2005): 91-106. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.