midterm des

Home Toni Morrison

1

Home

Lily was Frank’s way to find a home but, of course, it does not work.

The second woman instrumental in Frank’s backstory is his grandmother Lenore. When the children come live with her, they hope to find a home but instead find hostility. Morrison gives us a chance to see her Lenore’s backstory in this chapter.

Lenore’s first husband is shot and killed after a white man is jealous of the gas station that he owns. This happened quite a lot in this time period. Blacks would become successful as entrepreneurs and sometimes whites would get jealous and commit violent acts against them. Violence is another characteristic of the Southern Gothic.

2

Home

She does marry again but she is haunted by the death of the first husband. Also, her marriage is not legal because she does not have a birth certificate, so it prevents her from getting a marriage certificate. This happened to many black people born at the turn of the century because most births at that time were home births.

When the children move in, it is if her peace has been destroyed, and she has to deal with children again. When Cee ran off with a boyfriend that she disapproved her, the marriage ends just the way Lenore felt like it would. Both Frank and Cee leave Lenore to find a home but never truly having one. Morrison does give us the story of Lenore to illustrate how her backstory influenced who she is.

3

Home

Korea is a major part of Frank’s story. He left an emotional part of himself in Korea that he has to piece together. Korea is introduced as a brutal cold and unfeeling place. From the beginning of the narrative, he keeps remembering seeing a young Korean child coming up to soldier looking for food. The soldier shoots the young girl. For most of the narrative, he thinks it is an anonymous soldier. He also thinks the soldier was tempted from the young and that is why he shoots her.

He is also remembering the death of his friends. They have a violent death. What Morrison is illustrating is the horror of war on the soldier.

4

Home

Morrison illustrates how the soldier never can let go of what has happened.

In his journey home to get to Cee, he is constantly being bombarded with memories, but he is determined to get to Cee. Trauma is a major part of Frank’s story.

5

Home

Frank lives with the trauma he suffered during the war. He has blackouts and is haunted by awful memories. He does not just want to rescue Cee, but he hopes that he can heal himself through healing her. Frank has not done well in dealing with his trauma. He has used drink and repressed his memories and nightmares.

6

Home

Korea has a lot of the core trauma of the traumatized, but he has been traumatized since his family was forced to move by a white mob.

Cee has also been traumatized, and it comes to a head in the doctor’s office. We are not given a reason but the doctor plans on sterilizing Cee to solve a health problem,

7

Home

Again, this is connected to our discussion concerning eugenics. Many black women were forcibly sterilized. Cee is almost dead by the time Frank rescues her. He wrestles with himself about what would happen if he lost Cee. In some way, Frank needs to find redemption by rescuing Cee.

8

Home

Cee’s trauma is different than Frank’s because it is to the body and keeps her from permanently having children. Cee has the scars on her very body of her trauma. Cee begins to heal through the community of women.

9

Home

Frank’s trauma gets worse when he goes back to the memory of the Korean Girl. All of a sudden, he realizes very clearly the memory. During the Korean and Vietnam War many children were left looking around for food. Because they were exposed to all kinds of behavior, they would approach soldiers.

10

Home

This young girl was a toddler and went up to Frank and touched his private parts so Frank would give her food. This seems to have happened more than once. It is shocking to the reader first that the young girl has learned to sexualize herself and refer to his private parts as yum yum in order to survive.

11

Home

Secondly, a character we have connected to could have abused a young girl. Frank clearly was not in his right mind and maybe did not know what he was doing. When Frank finally gets to a sense of himself, he instantly shoots the young girl.

Frank realizes that he is the shooter.

12

Home

This presents a problem for the reader because now they do not know how to take the character of Frank. We have connected to him through the novel and now we know that he has done these horrible things. How are we suppose to process who he is after this news?

13

Home

Morrison could be using this to show about the dystopian world of war—that no one is in their right mind when they are in the thick of war. Is this enough to explain and understand Frank’s actions? Frank now must with his own demons and somehow find redemption.

14

Home

Cee finally recovers with the help of the women of the community. Morrison really wanted to illustrating the healing women of the black community.

At the end of the narrative the siblings learn about the man who they saw buried at the beginning.

15

Home

They find out that the man died when a group of white men forced the father and his son to fight each other until one died. The father told the son to kill him so he could live. The community helped the son get away and buried the father. The siblings decide to give the man a proper burial and through this Frank starts to find redemption.

16

17