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Toni Morrison
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Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was one of the premier African American writers. Her books were about race, gender, and the history of America. Her best-known book Beloved, which she won the Novel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize. Toni Morrison was from Lorain, Ohio, so you may wonder why we are studying her in a Southern Gothic class. First, Morrison’s father was from Georgia. Secondly, the text qualifies as Southern Gothic because it is set in the South with Gothic characteristics which enables it to be considered Southern Gothic Literature.
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The following are themes of the story:
African American people in the 50’s
Eugenics Movement
Facing the Truth
Haunted by the past
Isolation
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Themes continued:
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Community
Being saved and saving oneself
Trauma
Violence
War and the veteran
These themes coincide with the Southern Gothic ideology.
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Morrison illustrates the problematic life of blacks in the Deep South from the very beginning of the book, which is set in Georgia in the fifties. She opens the book with a scene that shows Frank and Cee as children. This childhood incident will bookend the beginning and ending of the book. The children watch as a black man is buried by the community. The children do not know what is going on, but they do notice that the community is distressed by the incident.
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Then, the narrative shifts to the present and Frank, who is in a psychiatric ward. Frank was in the Korean War and is now being forced to be in the psychiatric ward of a hospital because of his “mental problems.” Confinement is a major Southern Gothic characteristic. This is clearly what is happening with Frank’s inability to leave the hospital. His connection to Cee makes him realize he must leave and return home even if he has to run away.
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Frank does not know why he is held captive. Captivity is a major symbol of Sothern Gothicism, especially by unnamed people. It helps one see the victim as a true victim. It also may make you distrust the narrator because the author already presents him as possibly having a mental defect. The reader does not know whether to trust him or not. An unreliable narrator is also a characteristic of Gothicism. Through Frank Morrison is dealing with the return of the black soldier.
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Morrison chooses a war that does not get as much attention, and that is the Korean War. Most people have heard about the veterans of the Vietnam War, but the Korean War was not dealt with as much. So, Morrison wants to deal with blacks in the fifties along with the returning veteran and his psychological issues.
The idea of home starts to come into focus with Frank. Frank does not have a home, which is analogous to blacks not having a home.
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We find out from Frank’s childhood that he never had a real home as a child. His family was forced to move by a white mob into his grandparent's home. Frank and his sister were psychologically abused by their grandmother. Frank and Cee had only each other and felt very unloved growing up. So, in many ways, they never had a home. The reader finds out that Frank was arrested for vagrancy and put in the psychiatric ward. We now know that his place in the ward was racially motivated.
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Many times, till the seventies, if black people were walking around and sitting on a bench, they could be arrested for vagrancy. This illustrates the racial victimization of blacks.
Frank manages to escape the ward and is given the address of a reverend who can help him. His escape is premeditated on trying to rescue his sister Cee, whom he feels is endangered. Cee is the only person who connects him to some sense of stability.
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He finds a resting place at the Reverend’s place. As he rests, his mind goes back to Lilly, an ex who constantly stays in his mind. This connects to many soldiers who constantly thought of real women in their lives or had posters of women in their barracks, and these women helped them get through the difficulty.
The other issue with Frank is that he feels something happened in the war that he cannot remember, but it affects him subconsciously.
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As we discuss Frank, we now move to Cee. Cee is even more adrift than Frank. Even though the military has had some issues, it did give Frank stability for a while. She is struggling financially and has been dumped by her no-good husband. She cannot bear to return home and back to the repression of her grandmother. She gets a clerical job with Dr. Bauregard. Cee feels like she can create a life for herself by working for the white doctor.
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Cee is surrounded by books in the doctor’s medical office, but these books are on Eugenics and race. Eugenics was a theory that came to be in the early twentieth century. It basically espoused that women who would give birth to children with undesirable traits should be sterilized. This could be birth defects, mental issues, and physical problems. Some even felt that the process should be used to keep down minority populations.
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Most people link eugenics with a racial superiority ideology, but there were well-known blacks who agreed with the theory, such as W. E. B. Dubois. Dubois did not believe in the racial aspect, but he did believe that certain traits, such as mental and physical disabilities, did bring down the potential of the black race. He did not believe in forced sterilization of black women but felt that if you knew that these issues ran in your family, you, on your own, would choose not to have children.
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Morrison is dealing with the racial aspects of the eugenics movement and its impact on black women. Even though it was not the law of the land, there were many times during this period, early to mid-twentieth century, that black women were sometimes sterilized without their knowledge. Morrison is looking at that aspect of the Eugenics movement in this book. Cee is very naïve because she depends on her brother and then her husband. She has no history of living independently and making her own decisions.
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Cee’s dependence on Frank was established when they were children. Frank was always there for his sister and ensured she had what she needed until he went to the military. Then she was left on her own. Cee never developed her own self-confidence and is just starting to have autonomy over her own life.
Morrison brings in the characters Lily and Lenore to help understand the characters of Frank and Cee.
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Lily is a woman with whom Frank was involved at one time. She and frank had problems in their relationship because he would rely on her to run the household. He seemed not to want to build a future with her. Lily wanted a stable job, a house, and a family life. Lily understood that the War haunted him, but his lack of enthusiasm for life was still getting to her, even though she loved him. Lily’s dressmaking business started to really pick up and she wanted her own shop. As her ambitions grew, she realized that Frank was lacking ambition.
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She felt he had a combination of need and lack of responsibility. End of notes for the first half of novel. Continue to the next half on the second PowerPoint.
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