Chloe Anthony Wofford‚ better known Toni Morrison‚ was born on February 18‚ 1931 in Lorain‚ Ohio. She is a Noble Prize- and Pulitzer Prize- winning American novelist. Her well known novels are The Bluest Eye‚ Song of Solomon‚ and Beloved. She is the second oldest of four children. Her father‚ George Wofford‚ worked as a welder but he also had other jobs to support his family. Her mother‚ Ramah‚ was a domestic worker. She wasn’t aware of racial divisions until her teenage years. In the future she
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Trauma can be defined as: an occurrence so disturbing and painful it never seems to leave ones mind‚ leaving an emotional scar for life. There is an abundance of trauma within the pages of Beloved by Toni Morrison‚ but there are three specific instances that can be dissected and are extremely unique to the text in terms of language and what the author is conveying. These three instances are when Sethe is sexually assaulted by the teacher’s nephew‚ when Paul D almost drowns in the mud while in prison
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Scars are often seen as a blemish‚ an indication of imperfection and a reminder of a painful past‚ but in the rights hands scars can also be made beautiful. Sethe‚ the female protagonists of Toni Morison’s novel and a former slave living in post civil war Ohio‚ is forced to reopen her scars as well as her traumatizing past when a mysterious young woman arrives on her porch. Inexplicably the woman‚ who claims to be called Beloved‚ is infatuated with Sethe and has the characteristics of Sethe’s daughter
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the world. Why did Sethe kill her own daughter and not think twice before doing it? What made that thought even cross her mind‚ an action that took her daughter away from her forever? It may be hard to understand this from ones point of view. Toni Morrison‚ in the novel Beloved‚ uses the character Beloved to function as a mythic archetype in the society to help the reader understand things and answer complex questions in the book‚ like Sethe’s actions and why she did what she did. Archetypes represent
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Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood What is a Mother? The typical American family as a whole falls under a wide range of descriptions. Families do not always come with two biological parents and biological siblings. Some are blended or are a single-parent household. The age of the mother at the time of birth also plays a role in her nurturing skills and the way she cares for the child. The mother in the typical American household plays a significant role in nurturing‚ guidance and family growth
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in the United States. However‚ Toni Morrison’s A Mercy‚ and Anderson’s Chains clearly paint a different portrait of slavery as tensions in the New World rose to the breaking point. The stark contrast between slave-master relationships as depicted in A Mercy‚ and relationships as depicted in Chains show an evolution of the institution of slavery moving towards violence and more oppressive behavior. As illustrated by these dramatic shifts between Chains and A Mercy‚ despite arguments presented in
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Femelon Toni Morrison’s use of language throughout the novel gives her writing a sense of wit; it is easily understood by the reader‚ and acts as a subtle hint into the minds and emotions of the characters. Her use of innuendo speaks to a sexual theme‚ a common tension found among the main characters of the story. The final passage of Chapter 4 depicts a dialogue between Cee‚ and Sarah‚ sharing a ripened melon on a hot afternoon. The language used in this passage juxtaposes sexual vocabulary
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Surrogate Motherhood is when one women carries to term the fertilized egg of another woman. This procedure is chosen by married couples who can not conceive a child in the "natural way". In some occasions the mother may be able to produce an egg‚ but has no womb or some other physical problem which prevents her from carrying a child. Whether or not the husband can produce a large amount of sperm is not a problem. Once the egg and sperm are combined in a petri dish fertilization is very likely
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“Thank God I don’t have to rememory or say a thing because you know it all‚” Sethe says on page 115 of Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved. “Beloved” deals with the trauma and aftermath of slavery in Reconstruction era Ohio‚ while introducing the idea of “rememory‚” which main character Sethe describes as the experience of remembering and engaging directly with a memory (Morrison‚ 21). This concept of rememory has become a formidable critical tool for understanding how trauma continues to haunt literary
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The postmodern novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison set during the early 1930s in North Carolina challenges the expectations and morals of women and assumptions of gender and race. In the novel‚ a landlord by the name of Macon Dead Sr. and his family struggle through tough years and strained relationships. The novel starts with a scene in front of Mercy Hospital on a Wednesday afternoon where a North Carolina Insurance agent named Mr. Smith has invited everyone to come watch him take “flight” from
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