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Argumentative topics about race
Problems with racism in literature
Research in african american literature
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Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, is a novel about contentions and conflicts based on learned biases and prejudices. These biases exist on a race level, gender level, and a class level. The central conflict, however, is the conflict within the main character, Jadine. This conflict, as Andrew W. A. LaVallee has suggested, is the conflict of the "race traitor."2 It is the conflict of a woman who has discarded her heritage and culture and adopted another trying to reconcile herself to the "night women" who want to bring back "the prodigal daughter."
The first of the contentions is that of race. As New York Times Book Review correspondent John Irving aptly puts it: "Miss Morrison uncovers all the stereotypical racial fears felt by whites and blacks alike." Prejudice exists between the white and black people in the house; between the black people of the house; the black people and the local populace. Sydney and Ondine Childs, the Cook and Butler in the house of Valerian Street, feel superior to the local black populace. Sydney remarks twice on how he is "A genuine Philadelphia Negro mentioned in the book of that name" (284). Part of this feeling of superiority might be class-related. The Childs' are very proud of their positions in the Street house-they are industrious and hardworking. The Dominique blacks are to them "swamp women" or "horsemen"--depersonalized figures. This is most apparent in their ignorance of their help's names--they dub Gideon, Thérèse, and Alma Estée "Yardman" and "the Marys." At Christmas dinner Valerian adds epithets calling them "Thérèse the Thief and Gideon the Get Away Man." (201). But as Judylyn Ryan points out, "Both the superordinate and the subordinate exercise this prerogative of nam...
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LaVallee, Andrew W. A. "'Faces as Black as His But Smug'-The Race Traitor in Morrison's Tar Baby."
Online Internet. 1 May, 1997. Available: http://ocaxp1.cc.oberlin.edu/~alavalle/morrison.html
Moon, Yonghee. "Rootedness." Paraphrase. Online. Internet. 1 May. 1997. Available: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~yongmoon/root.html
Morrison, Toni. "An Interview with Toni Morrison." With Tom LeClair.Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists.
Ed. Tom LeClair and Larry McCaffery. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983. 252-61.
Ryan, Judylyn S. "Contested Visions/Double-Vision in Tar Baby." Modern Fiction Studies Volume 39. N3&4. Fall/Winter 1993. 597-621.
"Toni Morrison," Contemporary Authors, Gale Research, 1993. Online. Internet. Available: http://www.en.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/Morrison/tarbaby.html
Class politics are introduced to the story when the Phonies arrive in Stella Street. The Phonies are disliked as soon as they arrive in Stella Street because of the renovations they make on Old Aunt Lillie’s house and the children of Stella Street make fun of the fact that the Phonies refurnish the house (p.13). Henni encourages the reader to make fun of the high class Phonies about the way they speak, because the Phonies use words such as ‘dinnah’ and ‘daaaarling’ (p.18). This shows the Phonies in a negative way enticing the audience to take Henni’s side or a middle class approach to the story. When the Phonies send a note from their lawyer to Frank’s family for a proposal of a new fence (p.22) they are once again looked at poorly.
The word ‘houseskeeping’ refers to both the lack of domestic feminine roles in the book, but also to what the girls’ grandmother, Sylvia Foster, stated about keeping her home within the family, both in a physical sense and, as Sylvie and Ruth depart from it, a spiritual one. Ruth’s grandmother is using the maintenance of the family home as a metaphor for the women of the Foster house to maintain the very essence of their family itself, “Sell the orchards, but keep the house. So long as you look after your health, and own the roof over your head, you’re as safe as anyone can be,” (Robinson 27). In saying that the orchards should be sold, but not the house, Sylvia is telling her granddaughters that everything outside of the family can be lost and replaced, but so long as they contain the family unit, they will remain safe. While this story does deconstruct the idea of an “all-American”, aesthetically pleasing family, it doesn’t shed the values that one would consider typical for American Literature, such as a heavy emphasis on religion and family. Instead, it allows a unique viewpoint of the different structures of an American family, and demonstrates how, while the structures may change, the overall goals of staying rooted in one’s beliefs and in one’s familial comfort zone often are the same no matter how the roles within a household are established and
The American Dream is a dream that everyone imagines to be picture perfect. The American Dream means having freedom, equality and opportunity’s to achieve the dream that you conceptualize to be right by you. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck did not want to just illustrate the American dream as being easy, but he wanted to point out the American Dream as being difficult too. Steinbeck made a work of art by composing a great novel to make the reader understand that life can be difficult and at times dreams are hard to achieve. Of Mice and Men was written and based on the settings of the Great Depression (Anderson). The Great Depression was a very dire time that left multiple of people despondent and the unavailing to move on with their lives. The Great Depression created a world where everyone had to seek and survive for themselves. In the novel Steinbeck wanted to explore and point out how powerless people where during the time of the Great Depression. Steinbeck purposely incorporated his characters to depict the life struggle of what people go through during grim times. In the novel, Steinbeck illustrated a great set of characters Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck discusses handicaps, hardships, and friendships of the characters.
Duvall, John N. The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernity, Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Print.
Though the boycott was a smart idea; to prove a point, but the nations boycotting had to deal with all the people that were to participate, and missed their chance of a lifetime. President Carter stated, ‘“Regardless of what other nations might do, I would not favor the sending of an American Olympic team to Moscow while the Soviet invasion troops are in Afghanistan.”’ (Bigelow) If the Soviets didn’t retreat within a month of the Olympics, from the invasion, President Jimmy Carter would withdraw from the Olympics along with many nations. Canada, some of Germany, and Japan joined the U.S. in boycotting the Olympics. Carter tried, but failed to convince Great Britain, France, Greece and Australia to also boycott the games. The U.S. not only issued a boycott, Carter also pressured the Soviets to back out on the Afghanistan war, by cutting off their trade supply of the goods they needed, such as grain and technology.
Sellin, Thorsten. "Race Prejudice in the Administration of Justice." American Journal of Sociology 41.2 (1935): 212. Print.
In Toni Morrison’s Sula, the theme of race appears in at least every paragraph of the book. This book encompasses the years 1919 to 1965, which includes some very prominent racial demonstrations in history. Morrison portrays race in three contrasting aspects, which are, the division of the black community of Bottom and the white community of Medallion, the viewpoint black people had of white people and the viewpoint white people had of black people.
Taylor, Troy. Weird Illinois: Your Travel Guide to Illinois' Local Legends and Best Keep Secrets. New York: Sterling Publications, 2005. Print.
Samuel C. Heilman, Portrait of American Jews, The Last half of the 20th Century (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 1998), 4.
Smolowe, JillWillwerth, James. "Waiting For The Verdicts." Time 142.26 (1993): 48. MAS Ultra - School Edition.
Morrison's powerful language lends depth and detail to every scene. She shows the pain and bewilderment of Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola over the blue-eyed blond ideal of beauty that is even perpetuated by their parents when they are given dolls that fit this mold. She brings to life the upper class "colored people" who were "neat and quiet" and who looked down on "niggers" who were "dirty and loud" (71), with language that flows like molasses on a warm day. "They come from Mobile, Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Merdian. And the sound of these places in their mouths make you think of love" (67).
Thesis: In Beloved, Toni Morrison talks about family life, mother-daughter relationships, and the psychological impact from slavery.
Throughout Toni Morrison’s controversial debut The Bluest Eye, several characters are entangled in the extremes of human cruelty and desire. A once innocent Pecola arguably receives the most appalling treatment, as not only is she exposed to unrelenting racism and severe domestic abuse, she is also raped and impregnated by her own father, Cholly. By all accounts, Cholly is detestable and unworthy of any kind of sympathy. However, over the course of the novel, as Cholly’s character and life are slowly brought into the light and out of the self-hatred veil, the reader comes to partially understand why Cholly did what he did and what really drives him. By painting this severely flawed yet completely human picture of Cholly, Morrison draws comparison with how Pecola was treated by both of her undesirable parents.
Rice, Herbert William. Toni Morrison and the American Tradition: A Rhetorical Reading. New York: P. Lang, 1996.
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about the racism of lighter colored blacks against darker colored blacks and rich blacks against poor blacks. Along with racism within the black community, sexism is exemplified both against women and against men. As Morrison investigates the racism and sexism of the community of Lorain, Ohio, she gives the reader more perspective as to why certain characters do or say certain things.