Toni Morrison Research Paper

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Toni Morrison, an African American novelist born in 1931, has since produced nine novels from 1970 onward and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Many of Morrison's work explores a common theme pertaining to the African American "black" identity in society. Common literary devices can be repeatedly spotted in all Morrison's work, which are mostly satires that mocks the American society. Morrison's work mostly focuses on the "black" community suppress and influence by a more dominating white culture and challenges faced by the independent females within the community by using literary devices such as grotesque, magical elements, and sexual overtone. As a female African American write, all of Morrison’s works focus on the “black community”…show more content…
Sula, tells the story of a women growing in the black community of Chicago, the same setting as The Bluest Eyes. Beloved is a work that included the extended meditation on the violence in slavery and of the meaning of recovery from slavery; hence, the book criticizes the institution of slavery in American society (Cassidy, Thomas). Right versus wrong is one of the major theme, it can be traced all the way back to the childhoods of Sula and Nel. The two girls, Sula and Nel, played with Chicken Little, a young boy from the neighborhood, but Sula accidentally drowns him while swinging him around by his hands and threw him into the water. The two girls decided not to tell anyone about what had happened. So Sula goes through life believing that she is evil because of the incident, whereas Nel felt she is good because it was not she did not caused the death of Chicken Little. Both women’s lives are clearly shaped by their own perceptions of themselves. Sula is wild and unconventional, while Nel is the picture composure and purity as an adult. Nel goes to visit the grave of Sula, after a discussion with Chicken Little’s grandmother and comes to terms with the past. Nel remembers that Sula was scared and remorseful over the incident. Sula did not wanted the Chicken Little to die nor killed him purposely, but blamed herself fully for the accident for her entire life. Nel did not tried to change Sula's thinking and inwardly rejoiced at the death, proving the cruelty and evil in her heart. Sula lived a more honest life than Nel, accepting herself as evil and lived accordingly. Unlike Sula, Nel lived a hypocritical life, pretending to be good and pure. At the end, she faces the falseness of her life and embraces the dead Sula as her best friend and judges Sula to be good, in spite of the opinion of the community. The presence and absence of family and friendship is another theme in Sula. The
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