Toni Morrison
Life: Toni Morrison (born Chloe
Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931)
is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prizewinning American author, editor, and
professor. Her novels are known for
their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and
richly detailed black characters.
Among her best known novels are
The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and
Beloved.
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain,
Ohio to George and Ramah (Willis)
Wofford, the second of four children
in a working-class family. As a child,
Morrison read constantly; among her
favorite authors were Jane Austen and
Leo Tolstoy. Morrison's father told
her numerous folktales of the black
community (a method of storytelling
that would later work its way into
Morrison's writings).
In 1949 Morrison entered Howard
University, where she received a
B.A. in English in 1953. She then
earned a Master of Arts degree in
English from Cornell University in
1955, for which she wrote a thesis
on suicide in the works of William
Faulkner and Virginia Woolf.
After graduation, Morrison
became an English instructor at
Texas Southern University in
Houston, Texas (1955–57), then
returned to Howard to teach
English. She became a member of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
In 1958 she married Harold Morrison,
a Jamaican architect and fellow
faculty member at Howard University.
They had two children, Harold and
Slade, and divorced in 1964. After the
divorce she moved to Syracuse, New
York, where she worked as a textbook
editor. A year and a half later she went
to work as an editor at the New York
City headquarters of Random House.
As an editor Morrison played an
important role in bringing black
literature into the mainstream,
editing books by authors such as
Toni Cade Bambara, Angela
Davis, and Gayl Jones.
Morrison taught English at two
branches of the State University of
New York. In 1984 she was appointed
to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the
University at Albany, The State
University of New York. From 1989
until her retirement in 2006, Morrison
held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in
the Humanities at Princeton
University.
Though based in the Creative Writing
Program, Morrison did not regularly
offer writing workshops to students
after the late 1990s, a fact that earned
her some criticism. Rather, she has
conceived and developed the
prestigious Princeton Atelier, a
program that brings together talented
students with critically acclaimed,
world-famous artists.
Together the students and the artists
produce works of art that are
presented to the public after a
semester of collaboration. In her
position at Princeton, Morrison used
her insights to encourage not merely
new and emerging writers, but artists
working to develop new forms of art
through interdisciplinary play and
cooperation.
At its 1979 commencement
ceremonies, Barnard College
awarded her its highest honor, the
Barnard Medal of Distinction.
Oxford University awarded her an
honorary Doctor of Letters degree
in June 2005
In May 2010, Morrison appeared at
Pen World Voices for a conversation
with Marlene van Niekerk and
Kwame Anthony Appiah about South
African literature, and specifically, van
Niekerk's novel, Agaat.
She is currently a member of the
editorial board of The Nation
magazine.
Political Viewpoints:
In writing about the impeachment
in 1998, Morrison wrote that, since
Whitewater, Bill Clinton had been
mistreated because of his
"Blackness":
“Years ago, in the middle of the
Whitewater investigation, one
heard the first murmurs: white
skin notwithstanding, this is our
first black President. Blacker than
any actual black person who could
ever be elected in our children’s
lifetime.
After all, Clinton displays almost
every trope of blackness: singleparent household, born poor,
working-class, saxophone-playing,
McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving
boy from Arkansas.”
In the context of the 2008
Democratic Primary campaign,
Morrison stated to Time magazine:
"People misunderstood that
phrase. I was deploring the way in
which President Clinton was being
treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal
that was surrounding him.
I said he was being treated like a
black on the street, already guilty,
already a perp. I have no idea what
his real instincts are, in terms of
race."
In the Democratic primary contest
for the 2008 presidential race,
Morrison endorsed Senator Barack
Obama over Senator Hillary
Clinton, though expressing
admiration and respect for the
latter.
Works
Novels:
The Bluest Eye (1970)
Sula (1974)
Song of Solomon (1977)
Tar Baby (1981)
Beloved (1987)
Jazz (1992)
Paradise (1999)
Love (2003)
A Mercy (2008)
Children's literature:
(with Slade Morrison)
The Big Box (1999)
The Book of Mean People (2002)
Short fiction:
"Recitatif" (1983)
Plays:
Dreaming Emmett
(performed 1986)
Awards:
1977 National Book Critics Circle
Award for Song of Solomon
1977 American Academy and Institute
of Arts and Letters Award
1987-88 Robert F. Kennedy Book
Award
1988 American Book Award for
Beloved
1988 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in
Race Relations for Beloved
1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for
Beloved
1989 MLA Commonwealth Award in
Literature
1993 Nobel Prize for Literature
1993 Commander of the Arts and
Letters, Paris
1994 Condorcet Medal, Paris
1994 Pearl Buck Award
1994 Rhegium Julii Prize for
Literature
1996 Jefferson Lecture
1996 National Book Foundation's
Medal of Distinguished
Contribution to American Letters
2000 National Humanities Medal
In 1993 Morrison was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature. Her
citation reads: Toni Morrison,
"who in novels characterized by
visionary force and poetic import,
gives life to an essential aspect of
American reality."
Although her novels typically concentrate
on black women, Morrison does not
identify her works as feminist. She has
stated that she thinks "it's off-putting to
some readers, who may feel that I'm
involved in writing some kind of feminist
tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I
don't think it should be substituted with
matriarchy. I think it's a question of
equitable access, and opening doors to all
sorts of things."
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by
American author Toni Morrison. It is
Morrison's first novel, written while
Morrison was teaching at Howard
University and was raising her two
sons on her own. The story is about a
year in the life of a young black girl in
Lorain, Ohio named Pecola. It takes
place against the backdrop of
America's Midwest as well as in the
years following The Great
The Bluest Eye is told from the
perspective of Claudia MacTeer as a
child and an adult, as well as from a
third person omniscient viewpoint.
Because of the controversial nature of
the book, which deals with racism,
incest, and child molestation, there
have been numerous attempts to ban
it from schools and libraries.
Plot summary:
Claudia and Frieda MacTeer live in
Ohio with their parents. The MacTeer
family takes two other people into
their home, Mr. Henry and Pecola.
Pecola is a troubled young girl with a
hard life. Her parents are constantly
fighting, both physically and verbally.
Pecola is continually being told and
reminded of what an “ugly” girl she
is, thus fueling her desire to be
caucasian with blue eyes. Throughout
the novel it is revealed that not only
has Pecola had a life full of hatred
and hardships, but her parents have as
well. Pecola’s mother, Pauline only
feels alive and happy when she is
working for a rich white family.
Her father, Cholly, is a drunk who was
left with his aunt when he was young
and ran away to find his father, who
wanted nothing to do with him. Both
Pauline and Cholly eventually lost the
love they once had for one another.
While Pecola is doing dishes, her
intoxicated father rapes her. His
motives are unclear and confusing,
seemingly a combination of both love
and hate.
Cholly flees after the second time he
rapes Pecola, leaving her pregnant.
The entire town of Lorain turns
against her, except Claudia and
Frieda. In the end Pecola’s child is
born prematurely and dies. Claudia
and Frieda give up the money they
had been saving and plant flower
seeds in hopes that if the flowers
bloom, Pecola's baby will live; the
marigolds never bloom.
In the afterword, Morrison
explains that she had met a man
named Terry Owens from a down
south area. Morrison knew this
man while he had children of his
own. He was a very nice but
harmful man and didn't take any
crap from no one.
Morrison explains in a later book
that Terry Owens was a veteran
from the Vietnam war. " I was a
very strong minded man coming
from a home where I hadn't learn
to read or working for a man that
paid nothing much than a dollar."
Ideas of beauty, particularly those
that relate to racial characteristics, are
a major theme in this book. The title
refers to Pecola's wish that her eyes
would turn blue. Claudia is given a
white baby doll to play with and is
constantly told how lovely it is. Insults
to physical appearance are often given
in racial terms; a light skinned
student named Maureen is shown
favoritism at school.
There is a contrast between the world
shown in the cinema and the one in
which Pauline is a servant, as well as
the WASP society and the existence
the main characters live in. Most
chapters' titles are extracts from a
Dick and Jane reading book,
presenting a happy white family. This
family is contrasted with Pecola's
existence.
Characters:
Pecola Breedlove - The
protagonist of the novel, a poor
black girl who believes she is ugly
because she and her community
base their ideals of beauty on
"whiteness". The title The Bluest
Eye is based on Pecola's fervent
wishes for beautiful blue eyes.
She is rarely developed during the
story, which is purposely done to
underscore the actions of the
other characters. Her insanity at
the end of the novel is her only
way to escape the world where she
cannot be beautiful and to get the
blue eyes she desires from the
beginning of the novel.
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