Character and plot Essay

Discuss the ways in which Arthur Miller uses the characters of Alfieri to highlight cultural differences and to develop the audience’s understanding of theme, character and plot. Arthur Millers ‘A View from The Bridge’ uses a character called Alfieri to introduce characters, the plot and theme of the story. Alfieri is an Italian American meaning he was born in Italy and immigrated to American to work. . He is a man of his 50’s and in this story, not only does he play the role of a character, but also a narrator. He makes us aware of the cultural differences between American and Italian culture through his opinions. He works as a lawyer; from this we can immediately tell he is educated and very wise. The immigration law changed in 1921-1924. This law only allowed people from Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia to migrate to America. This resulted to illegal immigration. ‘A view from the Bridge’ is about the movement of immigrants migrating from Italy to America. They moved because of the ‘American Dream’s which was people from other countries going to America to start a new life and earn a good living full of opportunities. The Italian migration happened mainly between 1820-1920. More than 4 million Italian people moved to America. Brooklyn Bridge and its surrounding areas are used as the setting of the play. The word Gullet is used by Alfieri to describe the place where they live. The word is a metaphor and it creates an atmosphere that is not very pleasant to live in. Alfieri’s first speech introduces the background information of Italians. Italians would hardly ask a lawyer for help because in Italian culture lawyers are not good news, they are considered to be connections to disasters. The honest and trustworthy Italians can be quite revengeful. They solve their own situations by taking matters into their own hands. Although Italians are settling into America their two cultures remain diverse. Repetition of the words Distrust, Law and Justice by Alfieri signifies them and the even suggests that the plot is based on these words. Alfieri understands both Italian and American culture and can conclude in his last speech how he feels about Eddie and what he has done. From the start Alfieri hinted that the ending of the play wasn’t going to be a happy one. He says â€Å"†¦ and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. † From that, we can sense doom and that is why this play is a Greek tragedy. Eddie, Catherine, Marco use a lot of slang type sentences where as Alfieri uses long, well punctuated and sophisticated sentences. This linguistic technique makes the audience understand what is happened if they do not follow what Catherine, Eddie, Beatrice, Marco and Rodolpho are saying. The use of short, simple sentences spoken by the other characters makes the situation more realistic, makes the audience awake because it is very fast and the characters speak more often. Arthur Miller also uses a lot of exclamation marks so that the sentences are more interesting and so that the actors know when to shout or act exaggerated, this is a very good technique. With the use of exclamation mark the sentence gets energy. There is more attention than if there were long sentences. In the play there are four main characters. Eddie (a protagonist), Catherine, Beatrice and Alfieri. Eddie, a protagonist, meaning that he commits an offence without knowing it; he then learns his fault and usually results in death or suffering. He gains Alfieri’s sympathy towards the end of the play. Eddie loves Catherine not only as a niece but also as a daughter and a friend and Alfieri knows this. Eddie was over protective and loved Catherine too much which proved to be fatal. Alfieri knows that Eddie does not want to any one to take her away from him, but on the other hand, she does not belong to him. He says â€Å"And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! † Marco kills Eddie in Act 2. We do not know if he intended to or if it was for self-protection but in a way, this is revenge. When he was talking to Alfieri, he says â€Å"In my country he would be dead by no. He would not live this long. † Alfieri understands how he feels but tells him not to kill. He is in America right now and such a deed can result to a life sentence. He says â€Å"To promise not to kill is not dishonourable. † Italians are not as civilised as Americans but this is one of the cultural differences between the two diverse cultures. Arthur Miller includes many stage directions leaving the director making up more of their own directions. Alfieri plays the part of a character and a narrator making him â€Å"A view from the bridge† because he is looking and dealing with the situation and also telling the story as if it happened yesterday, this helps him to tell the story and give opinions making the audience aware, have a better understanding of the play, the characters and the plot. The moral of this story suggested by Alfieri is â€Å"we should be satisfied with half if not the whole amount. â€Å"

Performance Appraisal and Its Negative Feedback Essay

A performance appraisal system had been established in that firm several years ago. The management with the help of consultants, conducted several innovative experiments and introduced many improvements in their existing system. The company believes that the system of performance appraisal is a strong tool and if it is wrongly rated, the results may mar . It printed on the format , a flowchart with full details mentioning dates and months for execution. At first ,it would go to the appraisee who would write down, if any, all his non-routine and excellent achievements in the self-appraisal column. Then the rather, his immediate boss ,would put his remarks on this and would rate the appraise by ticking ‘outstanding, good,fair and unsatisfactory’ on the columns of quality of output, job knowledge, decision-making, communication skills, human relations, planning and organizing, creativity and initiative, leadership, time management etc. The reviewer would thoroughly review column by column and would give his opinion. Before it was sent to the top management for better transparency, the signature of the appraisee was obtained. This system was in vogue and the management took pride in this modified system, which resulted in retention of employees. The blank form was given to SD Misra ,Manager (HR),a very sincere and a highly dedicated employee, who had achieved ‘outstanding’ rank for the last six years, for writing in the self-appraisal column. He did certain critical jobs during the year and wrote three. One, the industry suffered a scarcity of water during summer, which affected their industrial canteen also. Misra who was in-charge of the canteen, went to the small dam from where they receive water. He found the pipeline supplying water to the industry’s main pump during night time everyday. One night, he went along with his assistant and observed to his surprise that the employee of the dam has closed the valve of their pipeline and had opened another valve for supply of water to another company. They caught that person and stopped this malpractise and continued to visit that place during nights for more than a week. The problem of scarcity of water was solved with this initiative. Two, there was an accident just outside the factory’s gate where one of the employees was killed by a speeding lorry. It was about 2:15 p. m. when Misra received this sad news. He rushed to the spot and identified the employee. The doctor of their first-aid was brought who declared the employee dead. He took the responsibility of breaking this news to his family staying at a village at a distance of 12 kms. He met the police, who had already reached the accident spot, and ccompletely involved himself in the whole job of police formalities, post-mortem of the body. Due to some politician’s interference, the family members refused to accept the body till the management promised a job for one of the family members of the deceased. Misra made successful negotiations with the family, which gave up its agitation and accepted the body for the cremation. He received two appreciation letters from MD for these two successful achievements. Three, once Misra arranged a meeting for finalizing a three-day in-house training programme at one of their group companies,73 kms away. He was to go three along with his three colleagues. The driver was told to make jeep ready. Next morning, there were to start by 7 a. m. and all four were present. The driver phoned saying that his daughter was sick and he could not come to duty. Misra was firm in his resolve that â€Å"Our programme goes on as usual and there shall be no postponement. Misra said that he is going to drive the jeep and said †One employee cannot disturb any of our scheduled programmes†. He drove the jeep to and fro and finished the job successfully. Having written these three achievements in the self appraisal column,he handed them over to his immediate boss, KM Singh, Sr. Manager(HR),in a confidential envelope. KM Singh, who is known to be a procrastinator and lethargic, kept pending all appraisal forms till last day. Further, he had three enquiry reports for study and comments. Out of these, one was a case of suspension pending enquiry. He had kept pending all these reports and appraisals, which had now become urgent. His boss was pressurizing him to complete this jobs immediately. KM Singh took up the suspending pending enquiry case first . It took more than a day. He then began rating nine appraisals and completed the job without any concern for the consequences. The form, with comments of the rater and the reviewer, came back to Misra for his signature. He was shocked and reacted very sharply. It was an ‘unsatisfactory’ appraisal which he had seen for the first time. The cool and gentle Misra lost all his patience. He now began thinking. KM Singh wanted to promote his junior, Srivastav, and had deliberately spoiled his appraisal.

Evaluate the organizations innovation strategy Essay

Evaluate the organizations innovation strategy - Essay Example The retailer knows the danger of clogging up drains with grease and that is why it adopted bio-diesel made from waste brown cooking grease in its stores. The company saves an enormous portion of cash from green produce grown in United States. The production is made possible by Wal-Mart’s interaction with local suppliers and growers that fill its grocery stores with products on the prompt basis. The company’s innovation technology features other eco-friendly products such as organic cotton for making clothes. The strategy has enabled the company to save on cash and create a safe environment for its customers (Hurst, 2012). The innovation strategy has also led to high productivity, competitive positioning, and quality. Wal-Mart retains its market share in the retail industry and as the leading retailer in United States. The goal of the Wal-Mart is to change the world through eco-friendly innovations, and it has sustained the company in the market for the last

Drug testing ( stated int he attachment for more info) Research Paper

Drug testing ( stated int he attachment for more info) - Research Paper Example Mandatory testing has been done especially in industries of public transport and those involving public safety. Many organizations insist on drug testing before recruiting employees. In the contemporary era, it has become a necessary procedure of employment, to the extent that any job candidate that does not wish to donate himself for such test is ‘ab initio’ disqualified for the job. Hence, it becomes questionable if the organization is not using the employees as means to an end. The ethical issue of drug testing in selecting lies in the principle of privacy. The ethical principal of privacy states that the individual have the right to his private life without any interference whether from another individual and the state. Universally, the individual is imbued with the natural right to his privacy. This simply means that no body, whether corporate or individual has the right to probe the privacy of an individual. Some people argue that this right is not absolute; that when the issue in question affects the general public, the right might be re-considered. This might be the caveat in which the principle of drug testing in selection rests. Another ethical principle that sequels the right to privacy is the principle of autonomy. Every individual has autonomy as a person. The autonomy which an individual has is assumed to be above any other issue. The principle of autonomy which the individual has stems from the ethical principle of Human Dignity and right in the community. The conflict is indeed between the organizations goal to make money through business and the employee’s right to his private life. Is it morally right for the organization to invade the privacy of the employee’s to maximize profits? There are many voices in this regard. Hence, the nagging issue is the ethical principle in various workplaces can be

Viking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Viking - Essay Example Simpson (1967, p11) propounds, "In medieval Scandinavian languages, a vikingr is a pirate, a freebooter who seeks wealth either by ship-borne raids on foreign coasts or by waylaying more peaceful seafarers in home waters. There is also an abstract noun viking, meaning 'the act of going raiding overseas'". This definition hints to the historic approach of delineating the term Viking by referring to them as the looters and raiders of the lands of Scandinavia. It takes one to an era in history when Europe was under constant attack of these raiders often referred to as Vikings. These people were pirates by nature and looted the wealth of most of the British coastal lands including England, Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands etc. However, this approach does not identify all of the people from Scandinavia as the Viking, rather it points to certain activities as raiding, pirating and plundering to identify them. Hence, a Viking according to this definition is a person engaged in brutal attac ks at the foreign lands by the seaways in the quest of wealth contained in those areas. Gibson (1987, pp11-15) also relates to the word 'Viking' as those pirates who were born to fight, made to break and fostered for bloodshed. Hence he refers to the era when a great part of Europe was under the raid of the Vikings coming mainly from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He says, "The Vikings are a mighty nation with huge bodies and great courage. They do not know the meaning of the word defeat, they never turn their backs on their enemies, but slay or are slain". This definition is a bit closer to the one presented at first and only different in the sense that it ties the term not with individuals but with a nation or a race of people with regard to the historical event during 750 and 1066 C.E. Gibson (1987) signifies the term Viking with those sturdy people of Scandinavia who were fearless and stood bravely in the face of war and death. They considered warfare as a symbol of courageousness and even associated these feats with their religious faiths. The connection between these two definitions is that both relate to history and illuminate the term in its specific context. The same people and the same individuals indulged in raiding Europe in retrospective. Whatever might be their objectives, circumstances and consequences; they were driven by the availability of wealth in specific areas of Europe leading them to brutal invasions. After having learnt the basic definition of the word Viking or assessing the idea encompassed with its usage, one also comes across some contradictory views on its illustration. Goldsmith (2004) illuminates that the word 'Viking' is misunderstood many times owing to the history that encompasses the word. She says that some might associate the term with violence, brutality and savagery, while in the linguistic sense it means simply a 'merchant or a warrior'. Therefore, the term 'Viking' simply means someone who travels or an alien. In other words, she attempts to state that the word does not necessarily indicate someone brutal or vicious. It simply signifies that if the term 'Viking' is to be taken in pure linguistic form, irrespective of the history associated, it plainly refers to a traveller rather than a brutal tribesman or a raider of North. Conclusion All the above-mentioned definitions and approaches concerning the term Viking, apart from its linguistic sense, refer to the tribesmen of North who were mainly

Compare and Contrast the Shang and Zhou Dynasty Research Paper

Compare and Contrast the Shang and Zhou Dynasty - Research Paper Example The Shang and Zhou dynasties cover the era between 1700 and 250 BC. They were famously known for their use of bronze and jade, and for their well-trained armies and constant use of human sacrifice. One may wonder: what made the two communities rich, strong and powerful? What still make these communities to be heard in the society? These two dynasties of China are the first dynasties for which there are several historical records. Historically, Shang is the first dynasty in China. Shang dynasty emerged after the Xia dynasty of which history slightly touches on and before the Zhou dynasty. This discourse will try find out the historical background of Shang and Zhou dynasties while exploring several happenings during their dynasties. These two dynasties started as semi nomadic tribes that habituated the western side of Shang kingdom. Their nomadic lifestyle prepared them to work with different people who had different cultures. Somewhere around 1040 B.C Zhou conquered Shang during a war fare. To their advantage, Zhou got loyalty of the disaffected cities. Therefore, the Shang collapsed their morals; Zhou took advantage of this and took over Shang dynasty. This made Zhou adopt Shang lifestyle to an extent of applying Shang artisan techniques. Due to their nature of artistic lifestyle, Shang dynasty was well known to practice their art work in a distinctive manner. They majorly got engaged in bronze casting where ceramics were modeled and were used to serve food and wine to their ancestors back in those days. Another distinctive lifestyle is their fully developed writing structure. The state of development and complexity in most of their writings explicitly portrayed early development period which is not attested up to today (Dani 1996). The most discussed distinctive and characteristic image was decoration which was majorly done to the bronze vessel known as taotie. Based on ancient dynasties, the Zhou who had adopted Shang lifestyles and dynasty devised

Organisational Behaviour and Its Practical Relevance Essay

Organisational Behaviour and Its Practical Relevance - Essay Example Globalization, liberalization and privatization have caused immense changes in the business sector and organizations forced to change their behaviour and strategies in accordance with the demands of the modern world. Outsourcing and offshoring like business strategies were established in the current business world even though such strategies were not there even in the distant dreams of the business Gurus, a couple of decades before. Motivational theories and human resource management principles also undergone drastic changes because of the huge diversification and internationalization of business happened in the present century. This paper discusses the current organizational behaviour in general and the topics such as motivation, diversity and psychological contract etc in particular to learn more about the current trends in organizational behaviour. It is crucial for the development of an organization to develop and maintain a motivated team of professionals. The psychological and sociological theories of human life have undergone drastic changes because of the rapid changes in life philosophies and life styles. Most of the traditional theories with respect to motivation has been changed a lot in order to accommodate new things suitable for the needs of the modern generation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational theories were developed as part of the modification process of the organizational behaviour.

International business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

International business - Essay Example Partly, this may be because not all those who use the term distinguish it clearly enough from the popular notion of internationalization. Some writers, in fact, use the two terms interchangeably (Ibid.). Literature shows there is no single agreed definition of globalisation, but that it may be the concept of the 1990s. According to Sklair’s (1999) research, its importance is much exaggerated, but most books suggest it is an idea whose time has come. To sort out all these ideas, globalisation as a concept makes use of Sklair’s (1999) taxonomy of perceiving globalisation in this paper towards the end. Each model is briefly discussed and analyzed from the point of view of sociology. The discussion tapers with a summary of these models, and as presented by Sklair (1999) makes note that they are dominated by European European-North American literature devoid of views from Asia. However, these are only done after discussions in light of how globalisation as a phenomenon has prevailed in the new millennium. What follows are how globalisation has visited the new millennium politically, economically, socially or otherwise. Globalisation, interpreted as global economic integration, is argued, as not being recent since there have been periods of globalisation over many centuries. (IPS, n.d.) It is only that there is now the increasing speed of movement of goods and services, people, capital and technology being experienced around the world. Specifically globalisation in the new millennium is marked by accelerated reduction in transport and communication costs, greater international specialization because of liberalization of trade, increasing trade in services due to the digital revolution, and increasing integration of major emerging markets into the world economy. (IPS, n.d.) . Politically, Macedo (n.d.) would add, the increasing alignment of cultural standards and standards of consumption; the weakening of

Marketing Principles and Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Marketing Principles and Practice - Essay Example The company satisfies customers and gives back to the community and the environment. Also, Starbucks persists to be profitable and it is expected to do well at least in the near future. They live by a strict, slow growth policy completely dominating a market before setting its sights further abroad. This strategy has gained them the advantage of being one of the fastest growing companies in the country amidst rivals trying to compete in the market. The strategy for Starbucks is formulated based on the visions of Shultz which aims to reinforce the caring, philanthropic image of the corporation show concern for its employees and society. These values today make Starbucks a leading organization in the country. Starbucks’ core identity is the business that it does i.e. Selling Coffee. It is basically known for its fine blended premium coffee and coffee related products. This image is actually discouraging for non-coffee drinkers since they would not go to Starbucks. However by developing new and exciting products, it aims to diversify its product range to juices and other edibles to widen its customer base. The company was started by three Seattle entrepreneurs in 1971 selling of whole bean coffee in one Seattle store. A marketer, Howard Schultz, was hired to be the manager of retail and marketing who brought new ideas to the owners, but was turned down. Schultz in turn opened his own coffee bar in 1986 based on Italian coffee cafes, selling brewed Starbucks coffee. By 1987, Schultz had expanded to three coffee bars and bought Starbucks from the original owners for $4 million. His intention for the company was to grow slowly with a very solid foundation. He wanted to create a top-quality management team which he did by buying off top executives from other well-known corporations. The company suffered losses for the first two years, but Schultz stood his ground and did not surrender his long term integrity and

Environmental Science assignment week 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental Science assignment week 3 - Essay Example The focus is on the environment and how tradition crude oil refinery relates to global warming and the overall pollution of the planet. This particular episode focuses on two alternate means of power, the Solar Tower and JET. IT discusses why these power producers were made, how they work, and how they will benefit the planet. Both of these power producers were very experimental at the time they were built and the series urges the future experimentation and development of alternate power sources to ensure a safe and profitable future for the world. The content of the documentary pertained to the entire purpose of the textbook. Preserving the environment and preventing pollution damage is the focus of the textbook as well as this documentary. They both were created to promote awareness and to educate others of the current state of our environment and how we can improve and maintain a healthy planet. I would definitely recommend this series to classmates. I didn’t know such alternate forms of generating power existed and I think that this would be eye opening for my peers as well. I think that most people know little to nothing about alternate ways of generating power, and therefore there is little push from consumers for alternate power sources. I think that series like this one serve a great purpose in promoting awareness and education about our environment and alternate power sources. I found the documentary on global diming to be extremely frightening. I think that most citizens feel that they can rest easy because there has been an understanding that if we stop polluting now, we can stop any further global warming and be left with only a slight change in temperature, but this documentary proved that these originally beliefs are completely wrong. The fact that global warming and global diming are two competing effects has hidden the truth of how hot the earth actually is. This makes all original

Effects of Television as Mass Media on Children of 10 Years Essay Example for Free

Effects of Television as Mass Media on Children of 10 Years Essay Introduction Mass media is a collective term that refers to all the media technologies whose sole intention is reaching a vast audience through mass communication. There are two major categories of mass media, which are, broadcast media and print media. Transmission of information by broadcast media is via electronic means while transmission of information by print media is via physical means. Broadcast media comprise of radio, film, CDs, television, and many more. Print media comprise of magazines, newspapers, newsletters, leaflets, books, pamphlets and brochures. â€Å"Effect† is a term that refers to something produced by a cause. It can also be referred to as a consequence. This research paper seeks to investigate both positive and negative effects of mass media on children. Possible solutions to address or mitigate the negative effects of mass media will also be highlighted. Differential Effects of Mass Media on Children The mass media, particularly, broadcast media, significantly affects childhood development in that, it provides information-seeking and modeling opportunities outside school and family. It has been estimated that the average American child watches more than 20, 000 television commercials annually. According to statistical data collected in the year 2000, children aged between the ages of two and five spent 40 hours watching television on a weekly basis. Those between six to eleven years spent 50 to 60 hours weekly watching television. These findings clearly show that mass media plays an essential life in shaping a child’s beliefs, behaviors and attitudes (Bento, 2004). Among the key manifestation of the negative effects that media has on children is their declining lifestyle quality and changing mental set up. Instead of investing their time in studying, reading good books, engaging in social activities, and exercising, children choose to spend their evenings watching movies or glued to the television sets. With increasing technological advancement, the Internet can easily be accessed, even by small children. This exposes such children to things that they do not necessarily need to know and may not understand. The reading culture is gradually fading and substituted by mass media. This poses a negative effect on school performance as well as learning problems. Children are increasingly reporting low academic grades and problems in learning due to overindulgence in mass media (Matthew Jesse, 2008) Food advertising in broadcast media such as televisions has been linked to rising cases of childhood obesity. There is a strong relationship between an increase in non-nutritious food advertising and childhood obesity. It is extremely hard for children below the age of six to differentiate between advertising and programming. Those below the age of eight do not comprehend the fact that the main intention of advertising is to persuade the audience to purchase a given product. Therefore, non-nutritious or junk food advertising directed to children may turn out to be exploitative. A single commercial exposure can go a long way in influencing product references among children. Additionally, the remarkable ability of children to remember the content from various advertisements increases their likelihood to indulge in unhealthy eating habits such as over-consumption of unhealthy fast foods, which results to heightened rates of childhood obesity (Munni Ram, 2010). Body image problems and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa are also directly linked to mass media. This is especially the case with teenage girls. The mass media ads portray models with unrealistic images. More often than not, the models appear to have extremely thin waists and figures that are unattainable. In the attempt to look like the models seen in televisions, teenage girls may starve themselves and even develop unhealthy eating habits such as binging. This results to development of eating disorder. Mass media tends to dictate various aspects including the ideal image or the definition of beauty. Children blindly imitate the glamour models portrayed in mass media without being careful enough to differentiate between wrong and right. Several young girls have developed self-esteem issues due to failure to match up to the image and beauty standards dictated by the media (Page Evra, 2004). A negative effect of mass media that is worth noting is with respect to sexuality. Mass media may prompt children to engage in sexual activities at an early age. Research has indicated that children are exposed to approximately 14, 000 sexual references annually in televisions. Out of these references, only 150 of them address issues of abstinence, sexual responsibility, or contraception (Preiss, 2007). This implies that sex is portrayed as a fun activity, which prompts children to have an urge to try it out. Overexposure to sexual content in videos, games and television programming is strongly linked to increasing rates of teen pregnancies. A similar case applies to substance abuse, which is highly depicted in movies that children watch. Out of curiosity, such children begin trying out different illegal drugs and substances seen in media sources. Positive Social Effects of Mass Media Despite the mentioned negative effects, there are a number of positive social effects of mass media on children. Mass media plays a major role in enhancing positive child development. For instance, various educational programs aired in televisions may serve to increase children’s knowledge and understanding of various life aspects. Positive role models portrayed in the mass media can also serve as a positive social developmental tool for children and young adults. Qualitative research studies have shown that one way in which televisions enhance development in children is portraying positive role models of collaboration and development as a responsible manner of acting (Preiss, 2007). It is therefore evident that televisions can serve as a means learning of positive reinforcement in children. Mass media has also played a major role in enhancing socialization among children. With advanced technology, children can easily access the internet, which is a major socialization tool. The internet serves as an effective means of communication among individuals regardless of their geographical locations. The internet can also serve as a good source of knowledge on various aspects. By using search engines such as Google, children can increase their knowledge and understanding of various subjects learnt in school. The internet provides a vast range of information on various topics and fields of study. Therefore, it is an excellent research tool that can be utilized positively by students (Munni, 2010). Mass media programs can serve as a means of minimizing the effects of stereotyping among children. These programs often portray cast members from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Hence, children learn to appreciate cultural diversity from a tender age. Mass media therefore serves a means of increasing the preparedness of children for adolescence. Constructive utilization of mass media can play a significant role in helping children and young adults to learn socially appropriate means if solving conflicts, knowing their rights and protection from harm. Mass media can also serve as a tool for promoting health lifestyles and eating habits in children (Page, 2004). Possible Solutions Parental control is one of the possible solutions to preventing the negative influence of mass media on children. Parents should take charge of the content that is accessible to their kids. They should prevent their kid from watching programs aimed at promoting violence, substance abuse as well as those containing sexually explicit content. One workable way is switching off the television or changing channels during certain programming and adverts that are meant to exploit children. Parents should help their children understand the difference that exists between actual reality and fantasy world. This is especially with respect to images and beauty expectations dictated by the mass media. Parents should let their children know the essence of loving oneself and appreciating oneself. This is a good step toward helping such kids to build on their self-esteem and confidence (Debra, 2003). Practitioners should conduct research and provide relevant empirical evidence showing the impact that mass media has on increasing the rate of childhood obesity. Laying emphasis on this subject will shed light on different kinds of advertising and try to limit those that encourage consumption of unhealthy foods. In addition to practitioners, researchers also have an important role to play. There is the need for conducting further research on the negative consequences of mass media and how to combat them. Research should also focus on ways of promoting the positive contribution of mass media to a child’s social development (Bento, 2004). Rather than letting children invest most of their time watching television and other media platforms, schools should encourage children to do assignments or further study during their free time. They should also be encouraged to take part in co-curricular activities such as games. The entertainment industry should be careful of the content that it portrays to the audience. With the help of the government, it would be possible to censure some of the programming and advertisements that pose negative effects on children. Rather than just focusing on persuasion and the profits that would be generated from products, the advertising industry should play the role of promoting adverts that lead to constructive developments. The adverts promoted should result to healthy lifestyles in children (Berulava, 2010). It is therefore evident that different stakeholders including parents, school, the government and even the entertainment industry, have a fundamental role to play in preventing the negative effects that media poses on children. The government and policy makers should work toward implementation of policies that put restrictions and control to the time specific content should be aired in broadcast media sources such as televisions. A good suggestion is for programs that contain violence or sexual content to be aired late at night when children are already asleep (Kirsh, 2006). Conclusion Childhood development is significantly affected by mass media. With advanced technology, children are continually exposed to thousands of television commercials and even sexual references. Some of the negative effects of mass media include poor performance, early onset of sex, substance abuse, and violence. Mass media may also have positive effects such as increasing knowledge and enhancing positive social development in children. Parents, government, advertising industry, practitioners, researchers, and the entertainment industry have a major role to play in prevention and management of the effects of mass media on children. References Bento, J. (2004) Meditating the negative effects of mass media on children. Seattle: Antioch University Publishers Berulava, M. N. (2010) The Nation is in Danger. Russian Education and Society, 52(3), 30-36 Debra, M. (2003) Questioning the media and reclaiming our sacred space. Paths of Learning, 15, 24 Fink, G. (2010) Stress of War, Conflict and Disaster. California: Elsevier Publications Kirsh, S. (2006) Children, adolescents, and media violence. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc Matthew, G., Jesse, S. (2008) Preschool television viewing and adolescent test scores: historical evidence from the Coleman study. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(1), 279-323 Munni, R., Ram, K. (2010) Effect of electronic media on children. Indian Pediatrics, 47(7), 561-568 Page, J., Evra, V. (2004) Television and child development. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Preiss, R. (2007) Mass media effects research; advances through meta-analysis. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Toni Morrisons Contributions to American Literature

Toni Morrisons Contributions to American Literature Chapter One: Toni Morrisons Contribution to American Literature Paradoxically, immortality is not achieved through the defeat of biological death, but rather through the indomitability of the spirit, which leaves behind the fruits of wisdom and humanity, putting forevermore things in a different perspective for generations to come. This, however, is not a smooth and linear process and nor does it leave one untransformed. Referring to the motto above, Toni Morrisons lifelong work has been an accurate reflection of her and her races upheaval. Albeit she fictionalizes her novels to a great extent, her work does not fail to constitute a palindromic iteration of her thoughts, feelings, and experiences felt both directly and vicariously. To be more precise, if we overlook the minute details of her novels, one cannot tell where her fiction ends and her life begins, or vice-versa: they read the same, regardless of whether we â€Å"read† them from fiction to reality or from reality to fiction. This mirror in which Toni Morrison sees herself and w hose projections â€Å"fall† on the surface of our own interpretations and are thusly decoded and re-encoded is not hung there for the purpose of throwing vanity glances; instead she uses it to question the endlessness of possibilities and that of answers to such broad questions as those relating to racism in the U.S. or to an idealistic state of affairs. My books are always questions for me. What if? How does it feel to? Or what would it look like if you took racism out? Or what does it look like if you have the perfect town, everything you ever wanted? And so you ask a question, put it in a time when it would be theatrical to ask, and find the people who can articulate it for you and try to make them interesting. The rest of it is all structure, how to put it together. (Rustin) Timing is of immediate importance, as Toni Morrison herself points out, especially since her debut novel appeared on the cusp of the civil rights and feminist movement: a time of great transformations and unparalleled historical significance. She times the appearance of The Bluest Eye so well that its impact reverberates strongly into the present. This is no wonder since her writing is not intended to cater for the general masses, nor does it follow the narrow furrows and strictures of fiction writing which are usually implicitly understood. The importance of her work does not only extend along the dimension of aesthetic value: her work is not cathartic in the sense of presenting true beauty loftily idealized; instead she endows her fictional voices with daring, cunning, resolve, resilience; they are often the loud or muffled voices of the surprisingly articulate and heart-rending insane, the latter perversion of mind being perceived in relation with mind-numbing senseless conformity . One may never tell where artistry begins and ends and to what extent her literary offerings will shape future mentalities, but one thing is for sure: her unquenchable thirst for racial justice and her innovative techniques will never cease to challenge our take on things. If only to weave a flimsy mesh of interpretation around Toni Morrisons undeniably invaluable contribution on American literature and beyond, a closer scrutiny of her work would be most auspicious, especially if we proceed along the lines of racial formation, the importance of family and community, identity, conformity, independence, allegiance, displacement and all the binaries therefrom. Racial Formation and Toni Morrisons Literary Manifest Racial formation never has never been and never will be (one could safely imagine) a smooth and linear phenomenon of innocuous application. Not only that, but never has there been a time in American history when race wasnt a troublesome matter, from the initial clash between the early settlers who achieved the â€Å"conquest of paradise† and the native population, through every aspect of affirmative action, to present frictions with and around immigrants and the border (i.e. with Mexico), all still wrapped in the warm blanket of the American covenant. The exodus of people crossing the ocean has always been a defining feature of the rugged American fabric and trouble and tension an inherent aftermath, for as Thomas Sowell puts it:    The peopling of America is one of the great dramas in all human history. Over the years, the massive stream of humanity—45 million people—crossed every ocean and continent to reach the United States. They came speaking every language and representing every nationality, race, and religion. (qtd. in Girgus 64) Even though noble rank has been outlawed by the very Constitution of the United States, this does not necessarily ensure the homogeneity of multiethnicity. The social tension described by American sociologist Thomas Sowell and quoted by Sam B. Girgus in â€Å"The New Ethnic Novel and the American Idea† is that caused by the conflicting values brought to the American land, together with languages, customs, and, more importantly, creeds and moral values that this veritable Tower of Babel is still finding very difficult to take in and transform into a meld of acceptable conformity. A tendency existed and steeply evolved in the not very long course of American history to assert the superiority of the Aryan waspish faction of the American nation over all other non-Aryan groups. Since the budding nations ideals have always been slightly adumbrated by the skulking presence of slavery, the African-American paradigm of socio-cultural and political struggle has been conferred upon speci al significance and attention. As such, the status of African-Americans has undergone severe and painful shifts, from the moment they were brought to America as slaves, until at least quite recently. These days, the life of African-Americans in the United States is undoubtedly improved, a fact which can easily be proven by the recent election of the first â€Å"black† president in the entire history of this country. Not only at the highest level, but in all walks of life evidence exists of inclusion in the earnest of members of society belonging to the African-American race.   Albeit banned on some level for instance Executive Order 8802 issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt banned outright discrimination in the case of jobs related to the federal government and defence contractors open discrimination continued throughout the decades, the segregation and gerrymandering trailing for many decades. Several boiling pressures, however, undermined these discriminatory tactics, such as the Brown vs. Board of Education of 1954 or the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. These and other actions precipitated the adoption of affirmative action, a bomb which exploded in the face of Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, who had to make efforts to redress these social injustices through as some like to call it â€Å"positive† or â€Å"reverse† discrimination, in spite of Martin Luther King Jr.s dream, a veritable gem of rhetoric. His world-famous 1963 I Have a Dream speech is a watershed moment not only for the Civil Rights Movement a cause that i s brilliantly, persuasively and most important, peacefully championed but for every group that during the course of (American) history had been discriminated against. In it he advocates equality and fraternity, the vital prerequisites of coexistence in a sphere so decidedly multiethnic that, as Herman Melville phrases it, â€Å"You can not spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.† (qtd. in Girgus 65). The attitude taken by American people concerning the preference for or against affirmative action is linked to what everyone was educated to believe. The factor that leaves the greatest imprint on our mind is education and the vehicles for achieving this, such as literature, films, and other media, to say nothing of standardized school curricula and society at large. It is the first of these vehicles that will be investigated in what follows, tracing Toni Morrisons efforts as an epitomic endeavour, in order to isolate its influence on our belief system, values and life choices. Significantly, an original national literature was the first mark of Americas declaration of independence from Europes influence and the African-American one the declaration of independence from â€Å"white† hegemony. Benjamin Franklin believed that â€Å"A good example is the best sermon† (qtd. in Marcovitz 55), while Emerson, the father of transcendentalism urged the American people to be self-reliant above all. Though a maverick at heart throughout his entire glorious existence which, while dappled with tragedy, his work has been no less prolific in spite of all his hardships and his originality, humour and unmatched industriousness Mark Twain, The Father of American Literature, has been a most controversial and compliant figure (only in the sense of providing such an inspiring string of examples in the sense of self-reliance) in his time and continues to be so even today. If at first his masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was criticized for the language and subject matter by both his contemporaries and later admirers (Ernest Hemingway would provide a notable example) for being trite and vulgar and even excoriated by public libraries such as the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts or New Yorks Brooklyn Public Library, recent controversy has been focused around racial matters. Critics are split between those regarding the portrayal of Jim as disparaging and as a consequence offensive and those who find Jims superstitious behaviour to be an indication of an alternative perception of our bond with nature, or a more powerful connection with our spiritual side, to say nothing of the steep dissonance between the Waspish past and the politically correct present. In Toni Morrisons Playing in the Dark, Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is analysed from the perspective of the importance of the Africanist presence, a presence much silenced and only timidly analyzed for decades. Discussed in terms of socio-historic development, the distinction between â€Å"black† and â€Å"white† themed by Twains novel reaches a peak in the mid-nineteenth century, as evidenced in Toni Morrisons interpretation. This can be verified by the juxtaposition between Jims utter love for his masters and the â€Å"baroque† (Morrison 57) torture Huck and Tom subject him to. The â€Å"white† line of argumentation is brilliantly outlined in Mark Twains masterpiece and shrewdly detected by Morrison, who finds Jim â€Å"unassertive, loving, irrational, passionate, dependent, inarticulate†, which is exactly how the â€Å"others† are perceived. The religious, scientific, political, cultural and societal practices were so fas hioned around the time when Mark Twain lived as to legitimate slavery and abuse. Starting from the assertion that white people around Jim seek forgiveness and supplication veritable keystone concepts in Christian religions which, however, did not extend to everyone, considering the hovering doubt about the existence of the soul of the â€Å"others†, they (i.e. religions through their cloistered leaders) instead providing convenient ways for turning a blind eye on slavery and even extermination on condition that he accept his inferiority. Thus, she argues, only a representative of the African-American race could have been painfully humiliated by children after being presented as a father and an adult, while no one, not even a white convict, could have been submitted to this kind of treatment. Toni Morrisons discourse is by no means vituperative: she does not intend any reversed oppression through her writing, either in Playing in the Dark or in any of her works of fiction. However, her writing is so compelling that when Beloved does not win her the National Book Award, as many as forty-eight African-American authors and critics write to the New York Times claiming her literary prowess, which afterwards earns her the laurels of the Pulitzer Prize, and rightly so. Her lack of bias is evident when she praises the former President Bill Clinton calling him the â€Å"first black President, since he displayed almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonalds-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas† (Cooke), while her discursive equanimity can be traced from the way she analyses the Africanist presence in literature and the way it is regarded from the perspective of its relationship to mainstream literature and criticism: Like thousands of avid but nonacademic readers, some powerful literary critics in the United States have never read, and are proud to say so, any African-American text. It seems to have done them no harm, presented them with no discernible limitations in the scope of their work or influence. I suspect, with much evidence to support the suspicion, that they will continue to flourish without any knowledge whatsoever of African-American literature. (Playing in the Dark 13) While she does not wish to challenge or criticise anyone for their views and choices, Toni Morrison cannot bear to look the other way when the literary Jim Crow era is still so fiercely enforced. That it might be convenient for anyone to ignore any slice of reality or exclude any of the fibres in the fabric of a nation is quite obvious, and while this approach does not impair our intellect, it does however limit our understanding. This selective interpretation of things which leaves Africanist representation in a cone of darkness is especially significant, since it underpins racism and it bolsters its moral justification, especially along the lines of racial formation: a deeply-seated phenomenon which pervades every aspect of life in America and a very hurtful process for those slighted by it. The relevance of racial formation is underscored throughout Toni Morrisons work and, in their extensive study entitled Racial Formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s, Michae l Omi and Howard Winant, the two American sociologists who developed racial formation theory, argue that race is an artificial concept, because the bases according to which any particular individual can be labelled as â€Å"white†, â€Å"black†, and so on, may start from certain biological traits, but race transcends these. To illustrate the point, a person of â€Å"mixed blood† is considered from the point of view of North American and then Latin American racial identification whereby the same categorization would have the same individual first â€Å"black† and then unable to â€Å"pass† as â€Å"black†. At the other extreme, Brazilian legislation is willing to accept the assignation of several racial categories to various members of the same family. In addition to being intricate and far-reaching, these considerations help provide grounding for our study of Toni Morrisons work and its impact on American literature and even life in America and also help account for the perception of other races by the early settlers, whose religious and even scientific tenets had to be broached to accommodate these â€Å"new† categories, such as the â€Å"noble savage,† and dispute the very existence of their soul. This blatant dismissal of a persons soul based solely on the abstract and arbitrary consideration of race is an outrage that Toni Morrison starkly exposes in Beloved, about which Susanna Rustin comments the following in â€Å"The Guardian†: It is a novel of unspeakable horrors. But even more than the physical brutality, Morrison confronts us with the irreparable harm done by what Margaret Atwood described in a review as one of the most viciously antifamily institutions human beings have ever devised, a system that sought to deprive human beings of what it is that makes them human. (Rustin) Sethe, her heroine, learns the truth and is shocked to realise that her masters, whom she is so devoted to, are taught to distinguish between her human and animal characteristics, which means, in other words, that she is but a soulless beast of burden. Thats when I stopped because I heard my name, and then I took a few steps to where I could see what they was doing. Schoolteacher was standing over one of them with one hand behind his back. He licked a forefinger a couple of times and turned a few pages. Slow. I was about to turn around and keep on my way to where the muslin was, when I heard him say, No, no. Thats not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And dont forget to line them up. I commenced to walk backward, didnt even look behind me to find out where I was headed. I just kept lifting my feet and pushing back. When I bumped up against a tree my scalp was prickly. [] Flies settled all over your face, rubbing their hands. My head itched like the devil. Like somebody was sticking fine needles in my scalp. I never told Halle or nobody. (Beloved 224) This episode in Sethes existence can never be erased nor her pain alleviated. The suffering she is caused is absolute and boundless. Her feelings of outrage surge like torrents in her brain and she feels utterly discombobulated. This memory will forever haunt her; it will shape her future and her attitude towards life, her behaviour towards her children, and it will serve as a constantly open wound. Whats even more tragic is that this mind-boggling injustice spared no one: men, women, or children. Remembering his own price, down to the cent, that schoolteacher was able to get for him, he wondered what Sethes would have been. What had Baby Suggs been? How much did Halle owe, still, besides his labor? What did Mrs. Garner get for Paul F? More than nine hundred dollars? How much more? Ten dollars? Twenty? Schoolteacher would know. He knew the worth of everything. It accounted for the real sorrow in his voice when he pronounced Sixo unsuitable. (266) Proceeding along these lines of dehumanization, monetary worth is assigned to each individual and that is the extent of ones value when assessed by the slave owner. Reality is raw, harsh, and beyond shocking, but sugar-coating it would not help if we are to learn the truth about racism and racial formation. The accuracy of Toni Morrisons writing in spite of the degree of fictionalization is the keystone of her discourse. It is her head-on confrontation of the underlying reality that lends Toni Morrison her uniqueness and that has earned her in equal measure respect and criticism. Despite the narrative voices that assert their own individuality in Toni Morrisons works, Sam B. Girgus comments on present-day African-American literary discourse, finding it too elaborate, and somewhat digressive to the detriment of thematic concerns such as the daily life, values, sorrows, tragedies, successes, woes, accomplishments, and so forth. He argues his point by referring to African-American writers Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: both Morrison and Gates typify qualities of ethnicity that are common to many of the writers in the literary and cultural renaissance under discussion. They all write in English even when extolling a particular vernacular speech, dialect, or region. They are all extremely sophisticated artists who use the most complex modern and postmodern techniques to convey their highly individualized visions of experience. Although rooted in ethnic communities and concrete historic situations, their works as cultural artifacts and products are nevertheless aspects of complicated technological and bureaucratic systems of cultural and social production that often differ from the language, values, and daily life of the cultures for which they speak. (Girgus 61) This may be so if we for instance pick up Toni Morrisons Pulitzer-awarded novel Beloved where we find passages of stream of consciousness, dialectal dialogue, flashbacks from the past and the conflation of past and present resulting in a destabilized horizon of racial and individual formation. Toni Morrisons formal education may have driven a wedge between herself and the culture she was born into and which she proudly represents, but she still manages to put together an incredible manifesto that reaches deeper truths and meanings with absolute valences. In her novel the three heroines mother and two daughters have overlapping individualities and they represent good and evil in equal measure. Their existences are nonlinear and they run both ways along the temporal axis. This is especially true of Sethe, the mother, whose past still haunts her and impacts greatly her present and future; an impact which extends to her family as well. The state of nonlinearity, conflation, and duality is also found in other novels, such as The Bluest Eye or Sula, in which the heroines manage to become displaced from their status, they are isolated from their respective families and friends, and are forced into pursuing painful valences of individuality. From this point of view, Toni Morrison herself manages to overreach her scope by challenging the perceptions, values, mores, and principles we are ingrained with by society and education. Agnes Suranyi, a contributor to â€Å"The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison†, edited by Justine Tally, expresses just such a view: â€Å"The borderline between decent women and man-eating prostitutes is erased; only the latter are capable of giving love to Pecola, whose quest for it elsewhere is futile.† (16-17). This view is of great significance because it epitomizes Toni Morrisons take on life: nothing in her work is â€Å"fed† to us already masticated; it is quite the c ontrary that occurs: we have to interpret the facts stated, the innuendoes, the streams of consciousness, the multifaceted and split personalities, their actions and inactions all by ourselves, through our own filters and open up to a more thorough interpretation that must override dated tenets.     Ã‚   Applying the above stated, upon perusing Toni Morrisons novel Beloved, one cannot miss the connection between melding and overlapping identities and the life of people struggling with racial formation and being forced into conformity and assimilation. This assertion is further reinforced by the fact that Sethe lived in the time of the Underground Railroad, a time which saw a sharp increase in the severity of punishments for escaping bondage. The tenseness of life on the black / white divide is passed on to later generations who carry on with their incessant frictions all the way to Martin Luther King Jr. and beyond. In a 2004 interview with Rachel Cooke for â€Å"The Observer† Toni Morrison successfully proves why the battle with racism is not yet over, in spite of all the things that have changed since the beginning of affirmative action. I dont pass without insults. Let me give you an example. I walk into the Waldorf Astoria in New York to check in. Were going to have a drink, and then my friend is going to go home. She stands behind me, as I check in. Finally, the guy says, Oh, are you registering too? He thought I was the maid. My friend was trembling with anger. It was so personal. But the irony of it was that I was on the cover of a magazine that month, and there were these posters with my face on them all over New York. (qtd. in â€Å"The Observer†) The Bluest Eye her debut novel for instance, has had its popularity delayed many a year precisely because of the stark way in which Toni Morrison approached taboo subjects and because she strived to prove that â€Å"black† did not equal â€Å"ugly†. Growing up is difficult and the girls in the novel find their race assignation which is no fault of theirs a difficult burden to carry around. They do not have the easier lives of the lighter-skinned people in their community and their perceived ugliness is a feature which gradually seeps into their consciousness to such a degree that it becomes overbearing. The validity of this externally-imposed ugliness is reinforced not only by the white members of society, but by the very families themselves. In Pecolas case, her own mother finds her daughter repulsive and troublesome, choosing to love a white child more than her own an unforgivable and heinous deed. But then the destabilization of identity is a practice quite comm on for Toni Morrison, and rightly so, because although identity is formed at an early stage in our existence, the vector of external factors leave multiple indelible marks upon the essence of our character. For Toni Morrisons characters the insurmountable obstacles they have to overcome take too great a toll on their resilience, which ultimately becomes defeated. This reciprocal allegoric relationship between private and collective (in this case racial) identity is a true-to-life representation of many generations of oppressed African-Americans and their struggles to survive in a disparaging mainstream society. In Sula, the African-American writer uses the Bottom as a twofold metaphor: on the one hand the location of this neighbourhood is on top of a hill which, as the slave owner explains to the slave, is the bottom of the world from where God is watching and from which â€Å"the blacks† took â€Å"small consolation in the fact that every day they could literally look down on the white folks† (11), while on the other we see little black girls being picked on by the most recent immigrants who themselves would endure abuse, thus continuing this loop which is closed by the proximity to God that the hills afford them. The ramifications do not stop here: it seems that in any place in the novel, any novel of Toni Morrisons, there is a starting point for a new insight, for a new interpretation, for a kernel of postmodernist truth about life and literature, for novel literary technique and what it entails for both the novel itself as a genre, as well as for the reader and his/her perception of things thats constantly being challenged, just like the readers matrix of social tenets and belief system. Possibly the best example of this is served by the story which inspired Toni Morrison to write Beloved, the story of the African-American woman who would rather kill her own daughter than suffer to have her returned to bondage. As Nellie Y. McKay, the co-editor alongside William L. Andrews of â€Å"Toni Morrisons Beloved A Casebook† states another critics point of view (i.e. Karla F. C. Holloway, writer of â€Å"Beloved: A Spiritual†), Toni Morrison really manages to come up with a fresh and reinvigorating approach   For example, with myth as a dominant feature of Beloved, Morrison not only reclaims the Garner story from those who interviewed her after her childs death and expressed enormous surprise at her calm but also, as mythmaker, achieves a complete revision of the episode. [] The oral and written history that Morrison revises, consciously and unconsciously felt, considers many aspects of each life and reflects an alternative perspective on reality. [] In addition, Morrison, like many other African and African-American writers, often defies the boundaries separating past, present, and future time. This allows her to free Beloved from the dominance of a history that would deny the merits of slave stories. As Morrisons creation, Beloved is not only Sethes dead child but the faces of all those lost in slavery, carrying in her the history of the sixty million and more. Holloway sees Beloved as a novel of inner vision: the reclamation of black spiritual histories. (15) As Morrison herself points out in the novel, the press has no interest in presenting the truth detachedly. It also does not concern itself with such â€Å"trite† topics as the abominable abuses of slavery and it does not give praise where praise is due. Instead, it engages in shameless hectoring of a mother who kills her own daughter. If taken out of context, we would expect it to do no less and, but for Toni Morrisons reframing and revamping of the story, we probably wouldnt have given the story a second thought. But we cannot be left to stand idle before such brazen hypocrisy as regarding Sethe more animal than human, and then a murderess guilty of a heinously premeditated act done whilst in full possession of her faculties. Furthermore, her case is stripped of context, just as the plethora of various other deeds similarly perpetrated as a result of extraordinary duress. This time around Morrison gives ample space to her heroine to justify her actions, while not allowing her , however, to be absolved of the guilt she must bear until the end, hence the muddled border between temporal references, actions, characters, and individualities, which again escape their expected linearity and contiguity. Perception is a fickle thing, especially when something is stretched, filtered, re-filtered, decoded and re-encoded, challenged and stereotyped and warped in every way imaginable. We cannot assert our identity as long as we are unable to find the appropriate compromise between the adoption and rejection of every aspect that is debatable and that can be transacted over this social Carrefour of exchanges. But, more importantly, we can no longer acquiesce in this moral comfort zone set out by society, which overshadows whole groups based on artificial considerations, especially when the relativism of the preceding adjective becomes too overbearing and too painful to stand. The point being made here is that while maybe artificial in essence, the segregation inflicted on these groups and others, as well (while Toni Morrison is clearly concerned with the African-American case, it cannot fail to be propitious to generalise an assertion that we should internalise already if we havent done so and apply to any case in which double standards might occur) is absorbed by those whose mental health is abused incessantly and whose resilience truly worn out and even suppressed. What Toni Morrison attempts is to sow the seeds of individual and discernible thought willing and capable enough to probe things deeper than the shallowness of their outward appearance. Toni Morrisons works are soul-wrench ing panegyrics dedicated to the memory of the former slaves and her contemporaries who were still enslaved through omission and discrimination, as well as a testimony of the noblest and most dedicated application of ones moral ideals. Chapter Two: The Importance of Family and Community in Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Sula Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company. (nobelprize.org) It is no secret or surprise that, first family and then family and community, have the greatest impact on our personality, shaping and reshaping our existence, validating and supporting our preferences and choices or going to great lengths to lay stumbling blocks in our path towards achieving these. Furthermore, the conceptions and principles professed within familial confines are based on the patterned behaviour of ones surrounding environment. This, in turn is founded on what is deemed just and acceptable behaviour leading to harmony and cooperation and is related to civic duty. According to Freuds structural model of the psyche, the development of the human psyche is a three-stage process which corresponds to the three most important stages in our existence. In the first stage, the id, our psyche is so shaped as to want nothing but to fulfil its own needs and wishes, regardless of those of everyone else. Then, as we start learning to distinguish betwee Toni Morrisons Contributions to American Literature Toni Morrisons Contributions to American Literature Chapter One: Toni Morrisons Contribution to American Literature Paradoxically, immortality is not achieved through the defeat of biological death, but rather through the indomitability of the spirit, which leaves behind the fruits of wisdom and humanity, putting forevermore things in a different perspective for generations to come. This, however, is not a smooth and linear process and nor does it leave one untransformed. Referring to the motto above, Toni Morrisons lifelong work has been an accurate reflection of her and her races upheaval. Albeit she fictionalizes her novels to a great extent, her work does not fail to constitute a palindromic iteration of her thoughts, feelings, and experiences felt both directly and vicariously. To be more precise, if we overlook the minute details of her novels, one cannot tell where her fiction ends and her life begins, or vice-versa: they read the same, regardless of whether we â€Å"read† them from fiction to reality or from reality to fiction. This mirror in which Toni Morrison sees herself and w hose projections â€Å"fall† on the surface of our own interpretations and are thusly decoded and re-encoded is not hung there for the purpose of throwing vanity glances; instead she uses it to question the endlessness of possibilities and that of answers to such broad questions as those relating to racism in the U.S. or to an idealistic state of affairs. My books are always questions for me. What if? How does it feel to? Or what would it look like if you took racism out? Or what does it look like if you have the perfect town, everything you ever wanted? And so you ask a question, put it in a time when it would be theatrical to ask, and find the people who can articulate it for you and try to make them interesting. The rest of it is all structure, how to put it together. (Rustin) Timing is of immediate importance, as Toni Morrison herself points out, especially since her debut novel appeared on the cusp of the civil rights and feminist movement: a time of great transformations and unparalleled historical significance. She times the appearance of The Bluest Eye so well that its impact reverberates strongly into the present. This is no wonder since her writing is not intended to cater for the general masses, nor does it follow the narrow furrows and strictures of fiction writing which are usually implicitly understood. The importance of her work does not only extend along the dimension of aesthetic value: her work is not cathartic in the sense of presenting true beauty loftily idealized; instead she endows her fictional voices with daring, cunning, resolve, resilience; they are often the loud or muffled voices of the surprisingly articulate and heart-rending insane, the latter perversion of mind being perceived in relation with mind-numbing senseless conformity . One may never tell where artistry begins and ends and to what extent her literary offerings will shape future mentalities, but one thing is for sure: her unquenchable thirst for racial justice and her innovative techniques will never cease to challenge our take on things. If only to weave a flimsy mesh of interpretation around Toni Morrisons undeniably invaluable contribution on American literature and beyond, a closer scrutiny of her work would be most auspicious, especially if we proceed along the lines of racial formation, the importance of family and community, identity, conformity, independence, allegiance, displacement and all the binaries therefrom. Racial Formation and Toni Morrisons Literary Manifest Racial formation never has never been and never will be (one could safely imagine) a smooth and linear phenomenon of innocuous application. Not only that, but never has there been a time in American history when race wasnt a troublesome matter, from the initial clash between the early settlers who achieved the â€Å"conquest of paradise† and the native population, through every aspect of affirmative action, to present frictions with and around immigrants and the border (i.e. with Mexico), all still wrapped in the warm blanket of the American covenant. The exodus of people crossing the ocean has always been a defining feature of the rugged American fabric and trouble and tension an inherent aftermath, for as Thomas Sowell puts it:    The peopling of America is one of the great dramas in all human history. Over the years, the massive stream of humanity—45 million people—crossed every ocean and continent to reach the United States. They came speaking every language and representing every nationality, race, and religion. (qtd. in Girgus 64) Even though noble rank has been outlawed by the very Constitution of the United States, this does not necessarily ensure the homogeneity of multiethnicity. The social tension described by American sociologist Thomas Sowell and quoted by Sam B. Girgus in â€Å"The New Ethnic Novel and the American Idea† is that caused by the conflicting values brought to the American land, together with languages, customs, and, more importantly, creeds and moral values that this veritable Tower of Babel is still finding very difficult to take in and transform into a meld of acceptable conformity. A tendency existed and steeply evolved in the not very long course of American history to assert the superiority of the Aryan waspish faction of the American nation over all other non-Aryan groups. Since the budding nations ideals have always been slightly adumbrated by the skulking presence of slavery, the African-American paradigm of socio-cultural and political struggle has been conferred upon speci al significance and attention. As such, the status of African-Americans has undergone severe and painful shifts, from the moment they were brought to America as slaves, until at least quite recently. These days, the life of African-Americans in the United States is undoubtedly improved, a fact which can easily be proven by the recent election of the first â€Å"black† president in the entire history of this country. Not only at the highest level, but in all walks of life evidence exists of inclusion in the earnest of members of society belonging to the African-American race.   Albeit banned on some level for instance Executive Order 8802 issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt banned outright discrimination in the case of jobs related to the federal government and defence contractors open discrimination continued throughout the decades, the segregation and gerrymandering trailing for many decades. Several boiling pressures, however, undermined these discriminatory tactics, such as the Brown vs. Board of Education of 1954 or the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. These and other actions precipitated the adoption of affirmative action, a bomb which exploded in the face of Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, who had to make efforts to redress these social injustices through as some like to call it â€Å"positive† or â€Å"reverse† discrimination, in spite of Martin Luther King Jr.s dream, a veritable gem of rhetoric. His world-famous 1963 I Have a Dream speech is a watershed moment not only for the Civil Rights Movement a cause that i s brilliantly, persuasively and most important, peacefully championed but for every group that during the course of (American) history had been discriminated against. In it he advocates equality and fraternity, the vital prerequisites of coexistence in a sphere so decidedly multiethnic that, as Herman Melville phrases it, â€Å"You can not spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.† (qtd. in Girgus 65). The attitude taken by American people concerning the preference for or against affirmative action is linked to what everyone was educated to believe. The factor that leaves the greatest imprint on our mind is education and the vehicles for achieving this, such as literature, films, and other media, to say nothing of standardized school curricula and society at large. It is the first of these vehicles that will be investigated in what follows, tracing Toni Morrisons efforts as an epitomic endeavour, in order to isolate its influence on our belief system, values and life choices. Significantly, an original national literature was the first mark of Americas declaration of independence from Europes influence and the African-American one the declaration of independence from â€Å"white† hegemony. Benjamin Franklin believed that â€Å"A good example is the best sermon† (qtd. in Marcovitz 55), while Emerson, the father of transcendentalism urged the American people to be self-reliant above all. Though a maverick at heart throughout his entire glorious existence which, while dappled with tragedy, his work has been no less prolific in spite of all his hardships and his originality, humour and unmatched industriousness Mark Twain, The Father of American Literature, has been a most controversial and compliant figure (only in the sense of providing such an inspiring string of examples in the sense of self-reliance) in his time and continues to be so even today. If at first his masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was criticized for the language and subject matter by both his contemporaries and later admirers (Ernest Hemingway would provide a notable example) for being trite and vulgar and even excoriated by public libraries such as the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts or New Yorks Brooklyn Public Library, recent controversy has been focused around racial matters. Critics are split between those regarding the portrayal of Jim as disparaging and as a consequence offensive and those who find Jims superstitious behaviour to be an indication of an alternative perception of our bond with nature, or a more powerful connection with our spiritual side, to say nothing of the steep dissonance between the Waspish past and the politically correct present. In Toni Morrisons Playing in the Dark, Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is analysed from the perspective of the importance of the Africanist presence, a presence much silenced and only timidly analyzed for decades. Discussed in terms of socio-historic development, the distinction between â€Å"black† and â€Å"white† themed by Twains novel reaches a peak in the mid-nineteenth century, as evidenced in Toni Morrisons interpretation. This can be verified by the juxtaposition between Jims utter love for his masters and the â€Å"baroque† (Morrison 57) torture Huck and Tom subject him to. The â€Å"white† line of argumentation is brilliantly outlined in Mark Twains masterpiece and shrewdly detected by Morrison, who finds Jim â€Å"unassertive, loving, irrational, passionate, dependent, inarticulate†, which is exactly how the â€Å"others† are perceived. The religious, scientific, political, cultural and societal practices were so fas hioned around the time when Mark Twain lived as to legitimate slavery and abuse. Starting from the assertion that white people around Jim seek forgiveness and supplication veritable keystone concepts in Christian religions which, however, did not extend to everyone, considering the hovering doubt about the existence of the soul of the â€Å"others†, they (i.e. religions through their cloistered leaders) instead providing convenient ways for turning a blind eye on slavery and even extermination on condition that he accept his inferiority. Thus, she argues, only a representative of the African-American race could have been painfully humiliated by children after being presented as a father and an adult, while no one, not even a white convict, could have been submitted to this kind of treatment. Toni Morrisons discourse is by no means vituperative: she does not intend any reversed oppression through her writing, either in Playing in the Dark or in any of her works of fiction. However, her writing is so compelling that when Beloved does not win her the National Book Award, as many as forty-eight African-American authors and critics write to the New York Times claiming her literary prowess, which afterwards earns her the laurels of the Pulitzer Prize, and rightly so. Her lack of bias is evident when she praises the former President Bill Clinton calling him the â€Å"first black President, since he displayed almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonalds-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas† (Cooke), while her discursive equanimity can be traced from the way she analyses the Africanist presence in literature and the way it is regarded from the perspective of its relationship to mainstream literature and criticism: Like thousands of avid but nonacademic readers, some powerful literary critics in the United States have never read, and are proud to say so, any African-American text. It seems to have done them no harm, presented them with no discernible limitations in the scope of their work or influence. I suspect, with much evidence to support the suspicion, that they will continue to flourish without any knowledge whatsoever of African-American literature. (Playing in the Dark 13) While she does not wish to challenge or criticise anyone for their views and choices, Toni Morrison cannot bear to look the other way when the literary Jim Crow era is still so fiercely enforced. That it might be convenient for anyone to ignore any slice of reality or exclude any of the fibres in the fabric of a nation is quite obvious, and while this approach does not impair our intellect, it does however limit our understanding. This selective interpretation of things which leaves Africanist representation in a cone of darkness is especially significant, since it underpins racism and it bolsters its moral justification, especially along the lines of racial formation: a deeply-seated phenomenon which pervades every aspect of life in America and a very hurtful process for those slighted by it. The relevance of racial formation is underscored throughout Toni Morrisons work and, in their extensive study entitled Racial Formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s, Michae l Omi and Howard Winant, the two American sociologists who developed racial formation theory, argue that race is an artificial concept, because the bases according to which any particular individual can be labelled as â€Å"white†, â€Å"black†, and so on, may start from certain biological traits, but race transcends these. To illustrate the point, a person of â€Å"mixed blood† is considered from the point of view of North American and then Latin American racial identification whereby the same categorization would have the same individual first â€Å"black† and then unable to â€Å"pass† as â€Å"black†. At the other extreme, Brazilian legislation is willing to accept the assignation of several racial categories to various members of the same family. In addition to being intricate and far-reaching, these considerations help provide grounding for our study of Toni Morrisons work and its impact on American literature and even life in America and also help account for the perception of other races by the early settlers, whose religious and even scientific tenets had to be broached to accommodate these â€Å"new† categories, such as the â€Å"noble savage,† and dispute the very existence of their soul. This blatant dismissal of a persons soul based solely on the abstract and arbitrary consideration of race is an outrage that Toni Morrison starkly exposes in Beloved, about which Susanna Rustin comments the following in â€Å"The Guardian†: It is a novel of unspeakable horrors. But even more than the physical brutality, Morrison confronts us with the irreparable harm done by what Margaret Atwood described in a review as one of the most viciously antifamily institutions human beings have ever devised, a system that sought to deprive human beings of what it is that makes them human. (Rustin) Sethe, her heroine, learns the truth and is shocked to realise that her masters, whom she is so devoted to, are taught to distinguish between her human and animal characteristics, which means, in other words, that she is but a soulless beast of burden. Thats when I stopped because I heard my name, and then I took a few steps to where I could see what they was doing. Schoolteacher was standing over one of them with one hand behind his back. He licked a forefinger a couple of times and turned a few pages. Slow. I was about to turn around and keep on my way to where the muslin was, when I heard him say, No, no. Thats not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And dont forget to line them up. I commenced to walk backward, didnt even look behind me to find out where I was headed. I just kept lifting my feet and pushing back. When I bumped up against a tree my scalp was prickly. [] Flies settled all over your face, rubbing their hands. My head itched like the devil. Like somebody was sticking fine needles in my scalp. I never told Halle or nobody. (Beloved 224) This episode in Sethes existence can never be erased nor her pain alleviated. The suffering she is caused is absolute and boundless. Her feelings of outrage surge like torrents in her brain and she feels utterly discombobulated. This memory will forever haunt her; it will shape her future and her attitude towards life, her behaviour towards her children, and it will serve as a constantly open wound. Whats even more tragic is that this mind-boggling injustice spared no one: men, women, or children. Remembering his own price, down to the cent, that schoolteacher was able to get for him, he wondered what Sethes would have been. What had Baby Suggs been? How much did Halle owe, still, besides his labor? What did Mrs. Garner get for Paul F? More than nine hundred dollars? How much more? Ten dollars? Twenty? Schoolteacher would know. He knew the worth of everything. It accounted for the real sorrow in his voice when he pronounced Sixo unsuitable. (266) Proceeding along these lines of dehumanization, monetary worth is assigned to each individual and that is the extent of ones value when assessed by the slave owner. Reality is raw, harsh, and beyond shocking, but sugar-coating it would not help if we are to learn the truth about racism and racial formation. The accuracy of Toni Morrisons writing in spite of the degree of fictionalization is the keystone of her discourse. It is her head-on confrontation of the underlying reality that lends Toni Morrison her uniqueness and that has earned her in equal measure respect and criticism. Despite the narrative voices that assert their own individuality in Toni Morrisons works, Sam B. Girgus comments on present-day African-American literary discourse, finding it too elaborate, and somewhat digressive to the detriment of thematic concerns such as the daily life, values, sorrows, tragedies, successes, woes, accomplishments, and so forth. He argues his point by referring to African-American writers Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: both Morrison and Gates typify qualities of ethnicity that are common to many of the writers in the literary and cultural renaissance under discussion. They all write in English even when extolling a particular vernacular speech, dialect, or region. They are all extremely sophisticated artists who use the most complex modern and postmodern techniques to convey their highly individualized visions of experience. Although rooted in ethnic communities and concrete historic situations, their works as cultural artifacts and products are nevertheless aspects of complicated technological and bureaucratic systems of cultural and social production that often differ from the language, values, and daily life of the cultures for which they speak. (Girgus 61) This may be so if we for instance pick up Toni Morrisons Pulitzer-awarded novel Beloved where we find passages of stream of consciousness, dialectal dialogue, flashbacks from the past and the conflation of past and present resulting in a destabilized horizon of racial and individual formation. Toni Morrisons formal education may have driven a wedge between herself and the culture she was born into and which she proudly represents, but she still manages to put together an incredible manifesto that reaches deeper truths and meanings with absolute valences. In her novel the three heroines mother and two daughters have overlapping individualities and they represent good and evil in equal measure. Their existences are nonlinear and they run both ways along the temporal axis. This is especially true of Sethe, the mother, whose past still haunts her and impacts greatly her present and future; an impact which extends to her family as well. The state of nonlinearity, conflation, and duality is also found in other novels, such as The Bluest Eye or Sula, in which the heroines manage to become displaced from their status, they are isolated from their respective families and friends, and are forced into pursuing painful valences of individuality. From this point of view, Toni Morrison herself manages to overreach her scope by challenging the perceptions, values, mores, and principles we are ingrained with by society and education. Agnes Suranyi, a contributor to â€Å"The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison†, edited by Justine Tally, expresses just such a view: â€Å"The borderline between decent women and man-eating prostitutes is erased; only the latter are capable of giving love to Pecola, whose quest for it elsewhere is futile.† (16-17). This view is of great significance because it epitomizes Toni Morrisons take on life: nothing in her work is â€Å"fed† to us already masticated; it is quite the c ontrary that occurs: we have to interpret the facts stated, the innuendoes, the streams of consciousness, the multifaceted and split personalities, their actions and inactions all by ourselves, through our own filters and open up to a more thorough interpretation that must override dated tenets.     Ã‚   Applying the above stated, upon perusing Toni Morrisons novel Beloved, one cannot miss the connection between melding and overlapping identities and the life of people struggling with racial formation and being forced into conformity and assimilation. This assertion is further reinforced by the fact that Sethe lived in the time of the Underground Railroad, a time which saw a sharp increase in the severity of punishments for escaping bondage. The tenseness of life on the black / white divide is passed on to later generations who carry on with their incessant frictions all the way to Martin Luther King Jr. and beyond. In a 2004 interview with Rachel Cooke for â€Å"The Observer† Toni Morrison successfully proves why the battle with racism is not yet over, in spite of all the things that have changed since the beginning of affirmative action. I dont pass without insults. Let me give you an example. I walk into the Waldorf Astoria in New York to check in. Were going to have a drink, and then my friend is going to go home. She stands behind me, as I check in. Finally, the guy says, Oh, are you registering too? He thought I was the maid. My friend was trembling with anger. It was so personal. But the irony of it was that I was on the cover of a magazine that month, and there were these posters with my face on them all over New York. (qtd. in â€Å"The Observer†) The Bluest Eye her debut novel for instance, has had its popularity delayed many a year precisely because of the stark way in which Toni Morrison approached taboo subjects and because she strived to prove that â€Å"black† did not equal â€Å"ugly†. Growing up is difficult and the girls in the novel find their race assignation which is no fault of theirs a difficult burden to carry around. They do not have the easier lives of the lighter-skinned people in their community and their perceived ugliness is a feature which gradually seeps into their consciousness to such a degree that it becomes overbearing. The validity of this externally-imposed ugliness is reinforced not only by the white members of society, but by the very families themselves. In Pecolas case, her own mother finds her daughter repulsive and troublesome, choosing to love a white child more than her own an unforgivable and heinous deed. But then the destabilization of identity is a practice quite comm on for Toni Morrison, and rightly so, because although identity is formed at an early stage in our existence, the vector of external factors leave multiple indelible marks upon the essence of our character. For Toni Morrisons characters the insurmountable obstacles they have to overcome take too great a toll on their resilience, which ultimately becomes defeated. This reciprocal allegoric relationship between private and collective (in this case racial) identity is a true-to-life representation of many generations of oppressed African-Americans and their struggles to survive in a disparaging mainstream society. In Sula, the African-American writer uses the Bottom as a twofold metaphor: on the one hand the location of this neighbourhood is on top of a hill which, as the slave owner explains to the slave, is the bottom of the world from where God is watching and from which â€Å"the blacks† took â€Å"small consolation in the fact that every day they could literally look down on the white folks† (11), while on the other we see little black girls being picked on by the most recent immigrants who themselves would endure abuse, thus continuing this loop which is closed by the proximity to God that the hills afford them. The ramifications do not stop here: it seems that in any place in the novel, any novel of Toni Morrisons, there is a starting point for a new insight, for a new interpretation, for a kernel of postmodernist truth about life and literature, for novel literary technique and what it entails for both the novel itself as a genre, as well as for the reader and his/her perception of things thats constantly being challenged, just like the readers matrix of social tenets and belief system. Possibly the best example of this is served by the story which inspired Toni Morrison to write Beloved, the story of the African-American woman who would rather kill her own daughter than suffer to have her returned to bondage. As Nellie Y. McKay, the co-editor alongside William L. Andrews of â€Å"Toni Morrisons Beloved A Casebook† states another critics point of view (i.e. Karla F. C. Holloway, writer of â€Å"Beloved: A Spiritual†), Toni Morrison really manages to come up with a fresh and reinvigorating approach   For example, with myth as a dominant feature of Beloved, Morrison not only reclaims the Garner story from those who interviewed her after her childs death and expressed enormous surprise at her calm but also, as mythmaker, achieves a complete revision of the episode. [] The oral and written history that Morrison revises, consciously and unconsciously felt, considers many aspects of each life and reflects an alternative perspective on reality. [] In addition, Morrison, like many other African and African-American writers, often defies the boundaries separating past, present, and future time. This allows her to free Beloved from the dominance of a history that would deny the merits of slave stories. As Morrisons creation, Beloved is not only Sethes dead child but the faces of all those lost in slavery, carrying in her the history of the sixty million and more. Holloway sees Beloved as a novel of inner vision: the reclamation of black spiritual histories. (15) As Morrison herself points out in the novel, the press has no interest in presenting the truth detachedly. It also does not concern itself with such â€Å"trite† topics as the abominable abuses of slavery and it does not give praise where praise is due. Instead, it engages in shameless hectoring of a mother who kills her own daughter. If taken out of context, we would expect it to do no less and, but for Toni Morrisons reframing and revamping of the story, we probably wouldnt have given the story a second thought. But we cannot be left to stand idle before such brazen hypocrisy as regarding Sethe more animal than human, and then a murderess guilty of a heinously premeditated act done whilst in full possession of her faculties. Furthermore, her case is stripped of context, just as the plethora of various other deeds similarly perpetrated as a result of extraordinary duress. This time around Morrison gives ample space to her heroine to justify her actions, while not allowing her , however, to be absolved of the guilt she must bear until the end, hence the muddled border between temporal references, actions, characters, and individualities, which again escape their expected linearity and contiguity. Perception is a fickle thing, especially when something is stretched, filtered, re-filtered, decoded and re-encoded, challenged and stereotyped and warped in every way imaginable. We cannot assert our identity as long as we are unable to find the appropriate compromise between the adoption and rejection of every aspect that is debatable and that can be transacted over this social Carrefour of exchanges. But, more importantly, we can no longer acquiesce in this moral comfort zone set out by society, which overshadows whole groups based on artificial considerations, especially when the relativism of the preceding adjective becomes too overbearing and too painful to stand. The point being made here is that while maybe artificial in essence, the segregation inflicted on these groups and others, as well (while Toni Morrison is clearly concerned with the African-American case, it cannot fail to be propitious to generalise an assertion that we should internalise already if we havent done so and apply to any case in which double standards might occur) is absorbed by those whose mental health is abused incessantly and whose resilience truly worn out and even suppressed. What Toni Morrison attempts is to sow the seeds of individual and discernible thought willing and capable enough to probe things deeper than the shallowness of their outward appearance. Toni Morrisons works are soul-wrench ing panegyrics dedicated to the memory of the former slaves and her contemporaries who were still enslaved through omission and discrimination, as well as a testimony of the noblest and most dedicated application of ones moral ideals. Chapter Two: The Importance of Family and Community in Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Sula Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company. (nobelprize.org) It is no secret or surprise that, first family and then family and community, have the greatest impact on our personality, shaping and reshaping our existence, validating and supporting our preferences and choices or going to great lengths to lay stumbling blocks in our path towards achieving these. Furthermore, the conceptions and principles professed within familial confines are based on the patterned behaviour of ones surrounding environment. This, in turn is founded on what is deemed just and acceptable behaviour leading to harmony and cooperation and is related to civic duty. According to Freuds structural model of the psyche, the development of the human psyche is a three-stage process which corresponds to the three most important stages in our existence. In the first stage, the id, our psyche is so shaped as to want nothing but to fulfil its own needs and wishes, regardless of those of everyone else. Then, as we start learning to distinguish betwee