Toni Morrison was originally born as Chloe Anthony Wofford. She was born in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931. She was the second of four children by her parents George Wofford and Ramah Willis Wofford. Her parents migrated to the North to escape racism from the South. Her father worked three jobs for seventeen years to support the family. Her mother was an ongoing church woman and sang in the choir. Her mother always sang old songs and tales of Southern black Folklore.
Lorain, Ohio was a very integrated town with Europeans, Mexicans, and Souther black people. Morrison attended an integrated school and was the only black girl in her first grade class who could read. She had many white friends, and she didn't experience discrimination until she started dating. She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949. Her favorite authors were the Russian writers Tolstoy, and Dostoyevski, French author Gustave Flaubert, and English novelist Jane Austen.
Toni Morrison studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities. In college she changed her name to Toni because a lot of people couldn't pronounce her name. She joined the Howard University Players, a repertory company, with whom she traveled and did several tours throughout the South. During the tours she saw for herself why her parents escaped the South. She worked as a professor at Texas Southern University, Yale, and Princeton.
After graduating Toni fell in love with Harold Morrison. They ogt married in 1958 and had their first son together in 1961. Toni continued to teach while raising her son, and she also joined a small writing group as an escape from an unhappy married life. Each week everyone in the group was required to bring a short story or a poem to discuss, however, one week Toni Morrison had nothing to bring so she quickly wrote a story about her childhood friend who wanted blue eyes. She put it away for a while thinking she was done with it. While she was pregnant with her second son, she divorced her husband, and moved back to Lorain with her parents.
In 1964 Morrison got a job as an associate editor in Syracuse, New York. While she was at work her sons were being taken care of by the housekeeper, and when she would come home she would cook dinner and play with her sons. She began writing while her sons were sleeping. She started working on the story about her friend that she put away for a few years. She wrote based on her childhood memories while also adding her imagination so that the characters each had a life of their own. She really enjoyed writing and thought everything else was boring in comparison.
In 1967 Morrison was transferred to New York and became a senior editor. While she was editing books by black American authors such as Muhammad Ali, Andrew Young and Angela Davis, she was also sending her own novels to different publishers. Her first novel,The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Shortly after she began writing her second novel, Sula, which was published in 1973. From 1976-1977 she was visiting a lecturer in New Haven , Connecticut. She was also writing her third novel, Song of Solomon, which she focused on the power of men due to inspiration from her two songs. The novel was published in 1977. Her fourth book, Tar Baby, was published in 1981. In this novel she focused on the relationships between black and white people.
In 1984 Morrison started writing her first play, Dreaming Emmett. It was based on the true story of Emmett Till. The play premiered January 4, 1986 at the Marketplace Theatre in Albany, New York. Morrison's next novel, Beloved, was published in 1987. This novel was influenced by a published story about a slave named Margaret Garner. In 1851 Margaret escaped from Kentucky and moved her children to Ohio. When she was about to be re-captured she tried to kill her children because she didn't want them to live the life she had to live. She only succeeded in killing one of her children, and she was put in prison for doing so. While she was in prison she still had no regrets. In 1988, Beloved, won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.
In 1987, Morrison was named the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the council of Humanities at Princeton University. She was the first African American woman to hold a named chair at an Ivy League University. Morrison taught creative writing and participated in the African-American studies, American studies and women's studies programs. Her next novel, Jazz, was published in 1992. This novel was about life in the 1920's. Toni Morrison received the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. She was the first African American woman to do so.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Blog Entry #3
"A poisoned silence floated through the rooms like a big fishnet that Violet alone slashed through with loud recriminations. Joe's daytime listlessness and both their worrying nights must have wore her down. So she decided to love--"(5).
Violet is one of the main characters in the novel Jazz. Her husband had an affair with an 18 year old girl without Violet knowing about it until he decided to kill the young girl. This of course made their relationship worse than it already was. Because they had been married so long, the relationship was changing, and slowly fading. The death of Violet's husband Joe's mistress, only made things more difficult. When the narrator says 'a poisoned silence' she is setting a tone that the reader can almost feel. Poison is something that can kill someone, this means that the silence had the ability not to necessarily kill Violet, but 'wear her down.' Floating has a good connotation. When something floats its light as a feather, and relaxing, so when the narrator says 'a poisoned silence that floated through the rooms' means that the although the silence is strong and can kill, it softly floats through each of the rooms creeping up on Violet making her mind go crazy and think crazy thoughts. 'A big fishnet' is something used to catch fishes, so the silence captured Violet but she 'slahsed' through them implying that she fought through the silence with loud accusations. Joe's 'listlessness' means that he has no interest in anything, and because they both worry at night all of this weakens Violet. Despite all of this, she thinks that 'to love' might be the cure to this problem. In Paradise, on of the preachers stated that love was a privilege, something you had to learn..whereas here, Violet thinks love will cure her problem....
"Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half...[B]elow is shadow where any blase' thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women. A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel in on things" (7).
The setting of this book takes place in New York. The narrator seems to love New York. 'The daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half' implies that there's a light side to the city and a dark side. The dark side portrays 'blase' meaning anything unimpressive that happens such as: 'clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women.' This means that none of those things are impressive to the people in New York. It's funny how a city like that makes the narrator 'dream tall and feel in on things.' In the novel Paradise, although it was a small town with only black people, only the elderly loved it, while the younger wanted to venture out and explore. Whereas here, the people such as the narrator, seems to love New York and not want to leave.
"The young are not so young here, and there is no such thing as midlife. Sixty years, forty, even, is as much as anybody feels like being bothered with. If they reach that, or get very old, they sit around looking at goings-on as though it were a five-cent triple feature on Saturday" (11).
Living in New York city implies that the youth grow up quickly and probably don't have much of a childhood. Instead of enjoying life as an old person they dont even feel like enjoying them. Forty-sixty years is not even that old, but because of the life that these people live, it seems old to them. In the book Paradise the elderly gave back to the community by sharing old stories and wisdom. Instead, these elderly people 'sit around looking at goings-on.'
"This notion of rest, it's attractive to her, but I don't think she would like it. They are all like that, these women. Waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts. But they wouldn't like it. They are busy and thinking of ways to be busier because such a space of nothing pressing to do would knock them down" (16).
It seems as though women are stereotyped as complaining about how much they want rest but when they get rest they end up not knowing how to control it. When the narrator says 'waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts' meaning they don't want to face themselves. If they have nothing to do, they won't know what to do.
"It was a randy aggressiveness he had enjoyed because he had not used or needed it before. The ping of desire that surfaced along with his whisper through the closing door he began to curry. First he pocketed it, taking pleasure in knowing it was there. Then he unboxed it to bring out and admire at his leisure. He did not yearn or pine for the girl, rather he thought about her, and decided" (29).
The narrator is describing Joe's feelings towards his 18 year old mistress Dorcas. His 'randy agressiveness' was like a forceful energy that he used to pull Dorcas in. He never needed to pull Violet in because he never had to. When he 'curried' his desire, he disciplined it. When it says he 'pocketed it' its implying that he kept it there just so it could be there without him having to acknowledge that it was there. He was able to love his desire whenever he wanted. When it says he did not 'yearn or pine for the girl' its implying that he did not actually desire her, things just kind of happened. This is similiar in the book Paradise because one of the men did not really desire Consalata, he just kind of decided on her and things lead to another. That man was also married to another woman as well. Morrison could be trying to state that even though men seem to be "good" men, they are still men, and men do things not meaning to hurt others intentionally..they just do things not knowing why they're doing it..
Violet is one of the main characters in the novel Jazz. Her husband had an affair with an 18 year old girl without Violet knowing about it until he decided to kill the young girl. This of course made their relationship worse than it already was. Because they had been married so long, the relationship was changing, and slowly fading. The death of Violet's husband Joe's mistress, only made things more difficult. When the narrator says 'a poisoned silence' she is setting a tone that the reader can almost feel. Poison is something that can kill someone, this means that the silence had the ability not to necessarily kill Violet, but 'wear her down.' Floating has a good connotation. When something floats its light as a feather, and relaxing, so when the narrator says 'a poisoned silence that floated through the rooms' means that the although the silence is strong and can kill, it softly floats through each of the rooms creeping up on Violet making her mind go crazy and think crazy thoughts. 'A big fishnet' is something used to catch fishes, so the silence captured Violet but she 'slahsed' through them implying that she fought through the silence with loud accusations. Joe's 'listlessness' means that he has no interest in anything, and because they both worry at night all of this weakens Violet. Despite all of this, she thinks that 'to love' might be the cure to this problem. In Paradise, on of the preachers stated that love was a privilege, something you had to learn..whereas here, Violet thinks love will cure her problem....
"Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half...[B]elow is shadow where any blase' thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women. A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel in on things" (7).
The setting of this book takes place in New York. The narrator seems to love New York. 'The daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half' implies that there's a light side to the city and a dark side. The dark side portrays 'blase' meaning anything unimpressive that happens such as: 'clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women.' This means that none of those things are impressive to the people in New York. It's funny how a city like that makes the narrator 'dream tall and feel in on things.' In the novel Paradise, although it was a small town with only black people, only the elderly loved it, while the younger wanted to venture out and explore. Whereas here, the people such as the narrator, seems to love New York and not want to leave.
"The young are not so young here, and there is no such thing as midlife. Sixty years, forty, even, is as much as anybody feels like being bothered with. If they reach that, or get very old, they sit around looking at goings-on as though it were a five-cent triple feature on Saturday" (11).
Living in New York city implies that the youth grow up quickly and probably don't have much of a childhood. Instead of enjoying life as an old person they dont even feel like enjoying them. Forty-sixty years is not even that old, but because of the life that these people live, it seems old to them. In the book Paradise the elderly gave back to the community by sharing old stories and wisdom. Instead, these elderly people 'sit around looking at goings-on.'
"This notion of rest, it's attractive to her, but I don't think she would like it. They are all like that, these women. Waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts. But they wouldn't like it. They are busy and thinking of ways to be busier because such a space of nothing pressing to do would knock them down" (16).
It seems as though women are stereotyped as complaining about how much they want rest but when they get rest they end up not knowing how to control it. When the narrator says 'waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts' meaning they don't want to face themselves. If they have nothing to do, they won't know what to do.
"It was a randy aggressiveness he had enjoyed because he had not used or needed it before. The ping of desire that surfaced along with his whisper through the closing door he began to curry. First he pocketed it, taking pleasure in knowing it was there. Then he unboxed it to bring out and admire at his leisure. He did not yearn or pine for the girl, rather he thought about her, and decided" (29).
The narrator is describing Joe's feelings towards his 18 year old mistress Dorcas. His 'randy agressiveness' was like a forceful energy that he used to pull Dorcas in. He never needed to pull Violet in because he never had to. When he 'curried' his desire, he disciplined it. When it says he 'pocketed it' its implying that he kept it there just so it could be there without him having to acknowledge that it was there. He was able to love his desire whenever he wanted. When it says he did not 'yearn or pine for the girl' its implying that he did not actually desire her, things just kind of happened. This is similiar in the book Paradise because one of the men did not really desire Consalata, he just kind of decided on her and things lead to another. That man was also married to another woman as well. Morrison could be trying to state that even though men seem to be "good" men, they are still men, and men do things not meaning to hurt others intentionally..they just do things not knowing why they're doing it..
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Blog Entry #2
"Foolish and maybe even dangerous. He wondered if that generation--Misner's and K.D.'s--would have to be sacrificed to get the next one" (94).
One of the characters, Steward, worried about what the younger generation had to offer to Ruby. He did not think they were trained like his generation. When he calls them 'foolish and dangerous' he's implying that the decisions that they make our foolish and dangerous, and could affect Ruby in a non positive way. When he says 'sacrificed to get the next one' he's wondering if they'll go through anything tragic that the next generation will overcome. He's in fear of what Ruby's younger generations will become.
"And his cold, rheumy eyes would have narrowed at the sight of the Oven. No longer the meeting place to report on what done or what needed; on illness, births, deaths, comings and goings. The Oven that had witnessed the baptized entering sanctified life was now reduced to watching the lazy young" (111).
The leader of the men who founded Ruby, and created the Oven, which was an Oven where the whole town cooked, had meetings, relaxed, laughed, celebrated life, and death. The Oven was the center of Ruby's universe. Now that that that generation was gone, and the younger generation was lazy and didn't like to work for anything, the leader would have been disapointed. He would have been disapointed in what was being created. He would have expected more from the descendents of Ruby. 'Cold, rheumy eyes' would create the visual of his thoughts without him saying a word. They would have the look of disapointment, which is why the author chose the word 'narrow,' instead of wide because the word narrow is implying that his eyes would be going into a squint of disapointment instead of trying to open them wide and see the accomplishment.
"And just as Big Papa foretold it, if they stayed together, worked, prayed, and defended together, they would never be like Downs, Lexington, Sapulpa, Gans where Colored were run out of town overnight..." (112).
Big Papa was the leader of the men who founded Ruby. Downs, Lexington, Sapulpa, Gans, were towns that were the complete opposite of Ruby. In Ruby, there were no white people, only dark African Americans. Big Papa wanted his people to stay together, and not ruin Ruby. He wanted Ruby to be different than other African American towns. Although all of the people were not related, 'staying together, working together, and praying together,' would bring them closer to one another like a family so that Ruby would be a loving town without jelousy and hate.
"Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it" (141).
One of the people in Ruby believed that Love was not as sacred as it is portrayed to be. He believed it was education related. He gives Love a bad conotation. A gift is something someone cherishes, keeps forever, appreciates, and is thankful for. In his eyes people were fools if they even considered Love a 'gift.' A diploma is something a student receives for completing all of the requirements for their goals of education. In this case, Love is a diploma. He portrays Love as if it is only received when a person has completed their share of hard work inorder to receive it.
"Consalata looked at them through the bronze or gray or blue of her various sunglasses and saw broken girls, frightened girls, weak and lying' (222).
Consalata is the oldest woman living in the Convent. The Convent is where broken women go to run and hide from the outside world. Although all of these girls had different personalities, they were all the same. They were broken because of what they each had experienced individually, they were weak because they could not live anywhere outside of the Convent. 'Broken' implies that their souls were damaged, but can be mended seeing as broken is not a permanent thing. 'Frightened' implies that they are more than scared, but being frightened is never a permanent thing either, it can be cured with trust and security, which is what all of these girls do not give or receive to others outside of the convent. 'Weak' is the opposite of strength, the cure is to repliminish the soul so that it can continue, and grow. These girls needed repliminishing and believed they could get it from the convent. They needed their souls to have strength so that they could leave and continue their lives in the world outside of the convent. 'Lying' is caused whenever someone feels they need ot protect themselves or others, and in this situaion these girls felt as if they needed to protect themselves by lying because trust was absent from their lives.
One of the characters, Steward, worried about what the younger generation had to offer to Ruby. He did not think they were trained like his generation. When he calls them 'foolish and dangerous' he's implying that the decisions that they make our foolish and dangerous, and could affect Ruby in a non positive way. When he says 'sacrificed to get the next one' he's wondering if they'll go through anything tragic that the next generation will overcome. He's in fear of what Ruby's younger generations will become.
"And his cold, rheumy eyes would have narrowed at the sight of the Oven. No longer the meeting place to report on what done or what needed; on illness, births, deaths, comings and goings. The Oven that had witnessed the baptized entering sanctified life was now reduced to watching the lazy young" (111).
The leader of the men who founded Ruby, and created the Oven, which was an Oven where the whole town cooked, had meetings, relaxed, laughed, celebrated life, and death. The Oven was the center of Ruby's universe. Now that that that generation was gone, and the younger generation was lazy and didn't like to work for anything, the leader would have been disapointed. He would have been disapointed in what was being created. He would have expected more from the descendents of Ruby. 'Cold, rheumy eyes' would create the visual of his thoughts without him saying a word. They would have the look of disapointment, which is why the author chose the word 'narrow,' instead of wide because the word narrow is implying that his eyes would be going into a squint of disapointment instead of trying to open them wide and see the accomplishment.
"And just as Big Papa foretold it, if they stayed together, worked, prayed, and defended together, they would never be like Downs, Lexington, Sapulpa, Gans where Colored were run out of town overnight..." (112).
Big Papa was the leader of the men who founded Ruby. Downs, Lexington, Sapulpa, Gans, were towns that were the complete opposite of Ruby. In Ruby, there were no white people, only dark African Americans. Big Papa wanted his people to stay together, and not ruin Ruby. He wanted Ruby to be different than other African American towns. Although all of the people were not related, 'staying together, working together, and praying together,' would bring them closer to one another like a family so that Ruby would be a loving town without jelousy and hate.
"Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it" (141).
One of the people in Ruby believed that Love was not as sacred as it is portrayed to be. He believed it was education related. He gives Love a bad conotation. A gift is something someone cherishes, keeps forever, appreciates, and is thankful for. In his eyes people were fools if they even considered Love a 'gift.' A diploma is something a student receives for completing all of the requirements for their goals of education. In this case, Love is a diploma. He portrays Love as if it is only received when a person has completed their share of hard work inorder to receive it.
"Consalata looked at them through the bronze or gray or blue of her various sunglasses and saw broken girls, frightened girls, weak and lying' (222).
Consalata is the oldest woman living in the Convent. The Convent is where broken women go to run and hide from the outside world. Although all of these girls had different personalities, they were all the same. They were broken because of what they each had experienced individually, they were weak because they could not live anywhere outside of the Convent. 'Broken' implies that their souls were damaged, but can be mended seeing as broken is not a permanent thing. 'Frightened' implies that they are more than scared, but being frightened is never a permanent thing either, it can be cured with trust and security, which is what all of these girls do not give or receive to others outside of the convent. 'Weak' is the opposite of strength, the cure is to repliminish the soul so that it can continue, and grow. These girls needed repliminishing and believed they could get it from the convent. They needed their souls to have strength so that they could leave and continue their lives in the world outside of the convent. 'Lying' is caused whenever someone feels they need ot protect themselves or others, and in this situaion these girls felt as if they needed to protect themselves by lying because trust was absent from their lives.
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