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Critical essays on Toni Morrison's Sula
Themes in Toni Morrison's beloved
Critical essays on Toni Morrison's Sula
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Rebollo Page 1 When one is confronted with a problem, we find a solution easily, but when a society is confronted with a problem, the solution tends to prolong itself. One major issue that is often discussed in today’s society that has been here for as long as we’ve known it, is racism. Racism is also a very repetitive theme in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Almost every character has experienced racism whether it be towards them or they are the ones giving the racism in this novel. Racism is a very controversial topic as many have different perspectives of it. In Toni’s novel, three characters that have very distinct perspectives on racism are Macon Dead, Guitar, and Dr. Foster. These characters play vital roles throughout the novel. Macon Dead is the father of the main character, Milkman Dead. He is portrayed to be wealthy, something abnormal during the setting of the novel. Macon is fully aware of racism but isn’t concerned about it or doesn’t see the significance of it. On page 71, Macon is shown to be disgusted when Dr. Foster checks the skin complexion of his granddaughters as for him it doesn’t mean much. Macon is too preoccupied with getting ahead financially in order to put importance on racism. On page 21, Macon charges Guitar’s mother rent money that she is Foster is a character that is introduced early in the book that has a very different perspective when compared to Guitar and Macon Dead. Dr. Foster is an educated African American which was rare in the setting of this novel. He was well respected by many people. On page 71, they show his view on racism. It happens to be that Dr. Foster is a self-hating racist. He hates his own race. He goes to the extent that all he cares about when delivering his grandchildren is their skin complexion. He describes everyone else that is a part of his race to be cannibals. Macon tells Milkman that if he were Fosters son, Foster would have disowned him because of the complexion of his skin
The book called Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, deals with many real life issues, most of which are illustrated by the relationships between different family members.
When William first got into the taxi cab, he disregarded the cabdriver, Fekadu, but then when William actually studied his features, William thought of him as being "a black man with a violent history” because of the scar of the back of his neck (55). Even though William knew nothing about this man or the truth behind the scar on his neck, William stereotyped him like another person would: an African American who lives a malicious life.
In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the character of Milkman gradually learns to respect and to listen to women. This essay will examine Milkman's transformation from boy to man.
In Song of Solomon, through many different types of love, Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's romantic love, and Guitar's love for his race, Toni Morrison demonstrates not only the readiness with which love will turn into a devastating and destructive force, but also the immediacy with which it will do so. Morrison tackles the amorphous and resilient human emotion of love not to glorify the joyous feelings it can effect but to warn readers of love's volatile nature. Simultaneously, however, she gives the reader a clear sense of what love is not. Morrison explicitly states that true love is not destructive. In essence, she illustrates that if "love" is destructive, it is most likely, a mutation of love, something impure, because love is all that is pure and true.
Perhaps Guitar Bains’ defining characteristic is his firm sense of justice. From the beginning of the novel he demonstrates his devotion to morality. Guitar speaks to Milkman about a fight between Milkman and his father, he expresses the feelings of guilt he had after killing a doe: “When I got up to it…I saw it was a doe. Not a young one; she was old, but she was still a doe. I felt… bad. You know what I mean? I killed a doe. A doe, man” (Song of Solomon, 85). Guitar feels that it is wrong for the strong to fight the weak, whether be it Macon Dead striking Milkman’s mother or Guitar shooting a doe. Milkman’s sense of justice and his distain of the Caucasian race find their roots in his father’s death. After Guitar’s father is cut in half in a workplace sawmill accident, the white sawmill owner gives his mother $40 dollars and the children candy as compensation. This demonstration of the low value many whites placed on African-Americans plants a seed of hatred in Guitar. He can’t even eat sweets without becoming sick with the thought of his father’s death, as he explains to Milkman: “Since my father got sliced up in a sawmill and his boss came by and gave us kids some candy” (Song of Solomon, 61). Although his sense of justice never truly decays, as the novel progresses it is twisted and poisoned by his hatred for white people and begins to manifest itself in a far more sinister way: Milkman belongs to an organization named The Seven Days, which kills white men and women in retaliation for the often unpunished killing of blacks. “I suppose you know that white people kill black people from time to time…I had to do something. And the only thing left to do is balance it; keep things on an even keel…There is a society....
Freedom is heavily sought after and symbolized by flight with prominent themes of materialism, classism, and racism throughout Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon. The characters Milkman and Macon Dead represent these themes as Macon raises Milkman based on his own belief that ownership of people and wealth will give an individual freedom. Milkman grows up taking this idea as a way to personally obtain freedom while also coming to difficult terms with the racism and privilege that comes with these ideas and how they affect family and African Americans, and a way to use it as a search for an individual 's true self. Through the novel, Morrison shows that both set themselves in a state of mental imprisonment to these materials
In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.
Several passages found throughout "Sonny's Blues" indicate that as a whole, the neighborhood of Harlem is in the turmoil of a battle between good and evil. The narrator describes Sonny's close encounters with the evil manifested in drugs and crime, as well as his assertive attempts at distancing himself from the darker side. The streets and communities of Harlem are described as being a harsh environment which claims the lives of many who have struggled against the constant enticement of emotional escape through drugs, and financial escape through crime. Sonny's parents, just like the others in Harlem, have attempted to distance their children from the dark sides of their community, but inevitably, they are all aware that one day each child will face a decisionb for the first time. Each child will eventually join the ranks of all the other members of society fighting a war against evil at the personal level so cleanly brought to life by James Baldwin. Amongst all the chaos, the reader is introduced to Sonny's special secret weapon against the pressures of life: Jazz. Baldwin presents jazz as being a two-edged sword capable of expressing emotions like no other method, but also a presenting grave danger to each individual who bears it. Throughout the the story, the reader follows Sonny's past and present skirmishes with evil, his triumphs, and his defeats. By using metaphorical factors such as drugs and jazz in a war-symbolizing setting, Baldwin has put the focus of good and evil to work at the heart of "Sonny's Blues."
In Song of Solomon Toni Morrison tells a story of one black man's journey toward an understanding of his own identity and his African American roots. This black man, Macon "Milkman" Dead III, transforms throughout the novel from a naïve, egocentric, young man to a self-assured adult with an understanding of the importance of morals and family values. Milkman is born into the burdens of the materialistic values of his father and the weight of a racist society. Over the course of his journey into his family's past he discovers his family's values and ancestry, rids himself of the weight of his father's expectations and society's limitations, and literally learns to fly.
Then, in the play, Wilson looks at the unpleasant expense and widespread meanings of the violent urban environment in which numerous African Americans existed th...
Throughout the first chapter of Song of Solomon, readers are introduced to one of the main characters, Macon Dead, and the environment in which he lives in. Concentrating on the personal problems of Macon rather than detailing the world around him, author Toni Morrison shares readers a glimpse of the society and the racial segregation that inhabits the world around Macon during the first few pages of her novel when chronicling the history of the local hospital’s home. In the description of the street in which the hospital stands, Morrison reveals a conflict between the caucasian and african american populations on “Not Doctor Street, a name the post office did not recognize.” While african americans had gifted the institution’s road the title
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Milkman lives in a time of racism where personal/individual freedom for blacks is very hard to come by. Milkman now desires to gain his own freedom from his father and mother, Macon Sr and Ruth. For many years, Milkman’s parents have controlled his childhood and he has become more like his parents. As time passes Milkman becomes closely associated with his father since he is dependent on him for a job he lacks his own identity. This desire to find his own community follows with finding his own identity. Before his trip the community pegs Milkman with his father’s reputation of greed, which he hates. Milkman feels a need to break away from this shadow. He witnesses his aunt Pilate’s social autonomy and strong
Racism is everywhere; it is all around us and at most times it resides within us. Racism basically refers to the characterization of people (ethnicity based) with certain distinct traits. It is a tool with which people use to distinguish themselves between each other, where some use it to purposely inflict verbal, physical or mental attacks on others while some use it to simply distinguish or differentiate from one another. It all depends on the context in which it is used. The play Fences by August Wilson, takes place during the late 1950’s through to 1965, a period of time when the fights against segregation are barely blossoming results. The main protagonist, Troy Maxson is an African American who works in the sanitation department; he is also a responsible man whose thwarted dreams make him prone to believing in self-created illusions. Wilson's most apparent intention in the play ‘Fences’, is to show how racial segregation creates social and economic gaps between African Americans and whites. Racism play a very influential role in Troy’s but more importantly it has been the force behind his actions that has seen him make biased and judgmental decisions for himself and his family. Lessons from the play intend to shed light on how racism can affect the mental and physical lives of Troy Maxson and his family.
Within "The Site of Memory", Toni Morrison highlights the continuous display of the black humanity through the history of Black literature and its 's social changing powers. She then goes on to explain the tools and techniques of doing so. Morrison even warns against the mixing of facts and truth. Finally, Morrison discusses what the site of memory really is and its spark to the imagination.