Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (born February 18, 1931) is one of the most prominent authors in world literature, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Through her writings and other works, Morrison was also instrumental in bringing recognition to the genre of African American literature. Several of her novels are included among the canon of American literature, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Song of Solomon. Her writings are known for dealing with epic themes, for Morrison's writing of dialogue, and for her detailed depictions of African Americans. Beloved was released in 1998 as the film Beloved starring Oprah Winfrey

Morrison's Novels

The Bluest Eye (1970)

Morrison wrote her first novel, The Bluest Eye, while raising two children and teaching at Howard University. The novel's protagonist is Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl who prays each night to become a blue-eyed beauty like Shirley Temple. Breedlove's family has numerous problems and she believes everything would be okay if only she had beautiful blue eyes. Through the course of the novel, the narrator, Claudia MacTeer, describes the destruction of Pecola's life. The novel is set in a small Midwestern town, similar to the one Morrison grew up in. The novel is not only controversial in its subject matter but also in the way in which it is written. Morrison rejects a chronological structure and a single narrator, as she does in many of her works, for a splintered and multifaceted approach.

Related Topics:
The Bluest Eye - Protagonist - Shirley Temple - Midwestern

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Sula (1973)

Sula depicts two black woman friends and their community of Medallion, Ohio. It follows the lives of Sula, considered a threat against the community, and her cherished friend Nel, from their childhood to maturity and to death. The novel won the National Book Critics Award.

Related Topics:
Sula - National Book Critics Award

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Song of Solomon (1977)

Morrison's third novel, Song of Solomon, brought her national attention. The book was a main selection of the Book-of-the-month Club (the first novel by a black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1949). A family chronicle similar to Alex Haley's Roots, the novel follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, a black man living in Chicago, Illinois, from birth to adulthood. The novel won Morrison another National Book Critics Award.

Related Topics:
Song of Solomon - Richard Wright - Native Son - Alex Haley - Roots - Chicago, Illinois

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Tar Baby (1981)

Tar Baby takes place at the Caribbean mansion of white millionaire Valerian Street and focuses on the themes of racial identity, sexuality, and family dynamics.

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Beloved (1987)

Beloved is loosely based on the life and legal case of Margaret Garner, an escaped slave who killed her child to prevent the child from being taken back into slavery. The book's central figure is Sethe, who murdered her two-year-old daughter, Beloved, to save her from a life of slavery. The novel follows in the tradition of slave narratives but also confronts the more painful and taboo aspects of slavery, such as sexual abuse and violence. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. When the novel failed to win the National Book Award, a number of writers protested the omission. The novel was released in 1998 as the film Beloved starring Oprah Winfrey. Morrison later used Margaret Garner's life story again in the opera of the same name.

Related Topics:
Beloved - Margaret Garner - Slave narratives - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - National Book Award - 1998 - Beloved - Oprah Winfrey - Of the same name

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Jazz (1992)

Jazz is the story of love triangles and murder during the Jazz Age. The main character, Joe, kills someone in a fit of passion. The fragmented narrative follows the causes and consequences of the murder.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Jazz Age

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Paradise (1998)

Morrison's first novel since winning the Nobel Prize is set in Ruby, Oklahoma. The story revolves around an attack on a former girls' school nicknamed "the Convent," now occupied by unconventional women fleeing from abusive husbands and unhappy pasts.

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Love (2003)

Love is the story of Bill Cosey, a charismatic but dead hotel owner, and his widow and his granddaughter, who live in his mansion.

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