Tony Morrison and Black Feminism

Tony Morrison was an influential writer, academic, and professor. Placed among the most important literary figures of her time, she won the Nobel Prize in literature and got the Freedom Medal from President Barack Obama in 2012. 

Tony Morrison is regarded as one of the most important black-feminist writers. She created women characters that feel attached to and proud of their black culture, values, traditions, and ways of life. Her famous works such as Sula and Paradise carry feminist themes, but it is her brilliant creation Beloved that is more feminist than anything else in terms of social concerns. She published her first novel The Bluest Eye In 1970, however, it got a lukewarm reception. Sula and Songs of Solomon followed it, bringing her national fame.

Tony Morrison believed she had a national duty to perform in terms of exposing the truth about slavery and white supremacy. Therefore, to contribute towards correcting the historical wrongs, she decided to bring these issues to the mainstream discourse. Fiction was used as a medium to reflect on the traumatic experience of the slaves before and after the formal abolition of slavery in the United States. 

Being a revolutionary writer, she did more than what was demanded of her in writing black feminist fiction. In her novels, slaves suffer irrespective of gender, however, her female characters are humiliated, and tortured way more than their male counterparts owing to their sexual anatomy. Morrison's novels are a great addition to black feminist literature and had immense influence over black feminist ideology.

Feminism as a movement aspires to achieve equal political, social, and economic rights for women. Morrison’s works not only intend to expose the sad reality of slavery and white nationalism but also remind Western mainstream feminists of their duty to pay special attention to the conditions of black women as they not only have to fight patriarchy but also racism.

Morrison's first novel The Bluest Eye can be read as a criticism of the deeply ingrained standards of beauty in the Western world. It is the story of a black girl who is obsessed with the beauty of white people. She yearns to have blue eyes as she thinks her blackness makes her ugly and worthless and if she had blue eyes her life would be different.

Western society sees white-blonde girls having blue/green eyes as the ideal of beauty and they judge people based on such faulty standards that they have set. Morrison denounces the Western standards of beauty because if whiteness is used as a standard of beauty or anything else, then the value of blackness is decreased and this novel works to demolish that tendency.

 

In Song of Solomon, we are again introduced to the patriarchal values that are prevalent in the male-dominated society. Women are mistreated by men to exert patriarchal control. Women are believed to be good only for motherly roles and doing things that do not demand labor as they are thought to be weak. Women are harassed, discriminated against, and sexually objectified. 

The theme of black feminism is becoming crystal clear as we go through the novel. Men hold a responsibility to themselves only but women are accountable for their children and families as well. Solomon could flee slavery but Ryana could not as she had to take care of her huge family. Morrison also criticizes the double standards of society as men are celebrated as heroes when they abandon their families, while women are condemned for doing so.

Of all Morrison's novels, Beloved truly affirms her role as a black feminist. In the novel, Sethe not only has to fight slavery but also patriarchy. It is an attempt to explore the physical, emotional, and psychological ordeal of the slaves working on a plantation in Sweet Home. They were abused, misused, overburdened, tortured, beaten and whipped. Sethe had to endure more pain than her male counterparts for the sole reason of being a woman.

Through the character of Sethe, Morrison pled the case of African Americans before the world. By narrating her life, and the misfortunes she had to go through because of being a slave and a woman, Morrison wanted the world to take note of how African-American women are forced to live. Sethe was subjected to extreme physical pain through torture and rape. Her masters even took away her breast milk thus depriving her children of her mother's milk that deeply traumatized her. She was made to kill her child. The irony is, that even though society believed a mother’s job was to protect her children, the same society drove Sethe to such a level of desperation and frustration that she killed her child so that she would not fall into the web of slavery.

Her pain, trauma, and misfortune follow her even after the formal abolition of slavery as she cannot find peace and mental tranquillity anywhere. She is haunted by the memories of her past. She always wants her dead child back so that she can justify her unforgivable act. She is excommunicated, ironically by the very people who put her hands on the trigger. The story reveals that though slavery may have been abolished formally, its legacy still haunts the erstwhile slaves and their descendants.

In the novel, Morrison used Beloved as a symbol of the trauma that slavery has inflicted on the former slaves. Just as Beloved feeds off her mother, similarly, the mental pain never leaves Sethe alone. It is there to stay as long as she lives.

Morrison contributed to feminist literature, especially black feminist literature as long as she lived. Through her novels, she tried to be the voice of all blacks especially women who are still targeted because of their skin colour. She tried to give voice to the voiceless as long as she lived.

The article is written by Asif Abbas, a member of the School of Literature.