Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18th, 1931, in the small town of Lorain, Ohio. She was the second born of her four siblings that her mother, Ramah Willis, and father, George Wofford, had. Morrison grew up during the Great Depression, which had begun in 1929. Growing up, Morrison heard stories about the violence that took place against African Americans. Both sets of Morrison’s grandparents were a part of the “Great Migration”, which took place during the early 1900s. Her maternal grandparents left the city of Greenville, Alabama, in 1910 due to the loss of their farm. As for her paternal family, they left Georgia and headed north the same year as her maternal family to escape sharecropping. Chloe’s childhood was filled with African American Folklore, music, rituals and myths. Like Morrison’s grandmother, Willis for example, would keep a dream journal which she tried to decode each dream symbol into winning numbers. Throughout her childhood her father and grandmother helped develop a love of storytelling. She would mainly hear about the violence that took place against the African Americans, but Chloe’s mother warned her against the hatred of whites. During her early education, she went to an integrated school. She was the only African American student in her first grade class, but was still one of the best students in her class. Her success in school would not stop! She excelled in high school where she graduated with honors from Lorain High School in 1949. She then went on to Howard University in Washington DC, where she majored in English, and continued to succeed academically. During her time at Howard, she then changed her name to “Toni” because many people were not able to pronounce her actual name. C... ... middle of paper ... ...by others across the world for her literary contributions! For those who have't heard of her, they need to wake up from that rock they're under and get to know Toni Morrison the legend! Works Cited Coss, Lauren, ED. How to analyze the works of Toni Morrison. North Mankoto, MN: Abdo Publishing Company, 2013. Print. Essential Critiques. Smith, Valerie, ED. African American Writers Second Edition. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001. Print. The Scribner Writers Series. Teisch, Jessica. “Toni Morrison”. Bookmarks. Sept./Oct. 2003: 18-23. Sibs Renaissance. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. “Toni Morrison”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in context. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. Williams, Michael, W, ED. The African American Encyclopedia Second Edition. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2001. Print. The African American Encyclopedia Vol. 6.
Davis, Cynthia A. "Self, Society, and Myth in Toni Morrison's Fiction." Contemporary Literature 23.3 (1982)
Rushdy, Ashraf H.A. "'Rememory': Primal Scenes and Constructions in Toni Morrison's Novels." Contemporary Literature 31.3 (1990): 300-323.
Warren, Nagucyalti. "Black Girls and Native Sons: Female Images in Selected Works by Richard Wright." Richard Wright - Myths and Realities. Ed. C. James Trotman. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988.
The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience. Ed. Gabriel Burns Stepto. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003.
Duvall, John N. The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernity, Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Print.
Solomon, Barbara H., ed. "Critical Essays on Toni Morrison's Beloved." New York: G.K. Hall & Co. 1998
Work Cited PageCentury, Douglas. Toni Morrison: Author New York: Chelsea Publishing, 1994Childress, Alice. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" "Conversation with Alice Childress and Toni Morrison" Black Creation Annual. New York: Library of Congress, 1994. Pages 3-9Harris, Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison Knoxville: The university of Tennessee press, 1991Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Plume, 1973Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume, 1970Stepto, Robert. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" Intimate Things in Place: A conversation with Toni Morrison. Massachusetts Review. New York: Library of Congress, 1991. Pages 10- 29.
Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of "Double-Consciousness": Toni Morrison's Novels, University of Georgia Press: Athens and London, 1993.
Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917. She grew up in a harsh, racist time period along with The Great Depression. Brooks’ poems were influenced from this and encouraged her to write many poems about the life of a black American. “She was inspired by the black power movement and the militancy of such poets as Amiri Baraka” (Barker, 448). During the 1960s her writing underwent a racial change in style and subject matter. Brooks learned to write such great poems at the Associate of Literature and Art, Wilson Junior College, 1936. Writing many known poems such as: A Street in Bronzeville, Annie Allen, Maud Martha, Bronzeville Boys and Girls, The Bean Eaters, etc. She’s a poet of contemporary writings; her poems mirror the ups and the downs of black American lives at this time. Although she writes with great encouragement and wisdom, she looks at everything with an open mind. Her characters speak for themselves. “Her works sometimes resembled a poignant social document, but her poems are works of art…” (Miller, 78). One can picture a vivid idea of Bronzeville, U.S.A. because of the great details she puts into her poems. A black district in her native Chicago, that serves as the setting for many of her poems. “Her characters are usually the unheroic black people who fled the land for the city- only to d...
...al stereotypes to allow the readers to make their own assumptions based on their personal thoughts and beliefs. Many of the stereotypes that Morrison chose to use portray more of a socioeconomic class and not discriminating by race. As the setting or environment changed, it will be seen as a symbol of transformation of both Roberta and Twyla friendship. Each circumstance that they went through was distinctive. It tested the strength of their relationship with one another and exemplified their struggles they were facing in society. They had to adjust their beliefs to match the changing phases in the United States as many blacks and whites today still face problems in society about racial stereotypes and segregation. Toni Morrison portrayed racial identity not by black and white, but as irrelevant to relationships but rather by means of distinguishing between people.
Rose, Arnold. “The Negro in America”. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1964. Print
Thesis: In Beloved, Toni Morrison talks about family life, mother-daughter relationships, and the psychological impact from slavery.
Rothstein, Mervyn. "Toni Morrison, In Her New Novel, Defends Women." Rev. of Beloved. New York Times 26 Aug. 1987, Final ed., sec. C: 17. The New York Times Book Review. New York Times. 7 Mar. 2011 .
Toni Morrison is one of the leading Afro-American writers who addressed the position of the African Americans in the pre-slavery and post slavery periods. She was concerned with the way Black individuals and communities were expressive or silenced within a dominant culture which has been intolerant of the racial difference. She knew fully well that everything was not well with America. She was aware of the identity crisis faced by the Blacks in America. Therefore, she tried her best to defend her race, protest against racial discrimination and glorify her culture and tradition.
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Toni Morrison’s father, George Wofford, worked primarily as a welder, but held several jobs at once to support his family (Toni Morrison Biography 1). As a welder, he was a hardworking and dignified man who took a great deal of pride in the quality of his work and always made sure that his dress game was on point (1). He was also a well-dressed man, even during the depression and later started to become racist (1). This made Toni Morrison start to mistrust all white people (1).