2. Toni Morrison - Biography
She was born on February 18, 1931 in Ohio.
She received a B.A. in English in 1953 and earned a
Master of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in
1955.
She is a Novel Prize (1993) and Pulizer Prize (1988)
winner.
She was the first African-American woman to
received a chaired position at an Ivy League University –
Princeton.
In May 2011, Morrison received an Honorable Doctor
of Letters Degree from Rutgers University
3. Writing Style
She began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard
University who met to discuss their work.
Her writing style can be defined as: nonlinear and nonsequential. She tends to shift back and
forth between present and past.
Her narratives weave in spirituality, folk tradition, myth, fantasy and mystery combined with
much historical detail and research.
Morrison wants readers to participate in her novels, to be involved actively. Readers are
encouraged to create the novel with her and to help construct meaning (black preacher model).
Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison does not identify her
work as feminist. On the subject, she said: "it's off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm
involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it
should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening
doors to all sorts of things."
Magical Realism: the use of details and thematic elements that are magical and do not occur
in real life, yet are included as if part of a realistic narrative.
4. Works
The Bluest Eye (1970)
Sula (1974)
Songs of Solomon (1977)
Tar Baby (1981)
Beloved (1987)
Jazz (1992)
Paradise (1999)
Love (2003)
A Mercy (2008)
She also wrote plays, articles, and children’s literature.
5. Main characters – The Convent
Mavis : a housewife in Maryland who ends up living at the convent after scaping
from her house. Her baby twins soffocated in a parked car, and she cannot toletare
her feeling guilt and she fears for her life.
Seneca: An abandoned and abused girl who mantains a relationship with a
criminal.
Gigi (Grace): an outsider who comes to Ruby and eventually ends up living at the
convent.
Connie (Consolata): adopted by the nuns at the age of nine. She has a drinking
problem, and with the help of ‘Piedade’ she rescues herself and becomes the
guide of the convent.
Pallas: She runs away with her boyfriend (school janitor, older than her) and then
feels devastated because he becomes her mother’s lover.
6. Main Characters - Ruby
The Morgan twins: Steward is the most outspoken brother married to Dovey. Deacon is the
most reserved brother who looks up to his twin. He’s married to Soane.
Dovey Morgan: wife of Steward and sister of Soane. She feels frustrated because her
husband cannot give her children.
Soane Morgan: Married to Deacon Morgan, she visits the convent frequently.
Patricia Best: She is a school teacher and the informal historian of the town of Ruby.
Arnette Fleetwood: she is K.D.’s girlfriend. She is fifteen and pregnant. She presumably had
an abortion.
K.D.: Arnette’s boyfriend, and nephew of Deek and Steward. He is Ruby’s son.
Lone: she is the town’s midwife and the one who let the women from the convent know that
they are going to be attacked.
7. Structure of the Novel
The book is divided into nine chapters, all of them named after a character:
1. Ruby: Description of the town of Ruby, the Convent and Haven.
2. Mavis: Runs away from home, steals her husband’s car, and arrives to the Convent.
3. Grace: Gigi arrives in town, she is sexy, generates a conflict between K.D. and Arnette.
Family discussion. Morgan – Fleetwood.
4. Seneca: Focus on Ruby’s community. Meeting at the oven (graffitti) . Helps Sweetie. “The
furrow of his brow”. Couple with sick baby.
5. Divine: unpleasant wedding. Arnette claims her baby on her wedding night. Voultures.
6. Patricia: 8R. Reconstruction of the town’s story.
7. Consolata: affair with Deek. Becomes a guide for the women in the Convent.
8. Lone: Alerts the Convent with no success. She tells the relatives. She finds the car with
three victims in it.
9. Save-Marie: First funeral of the town. New graffitti (“We are the furrow of HIS Brow”). New
arrivals.
8. Postmodern characteristics
Marginalised characters
Recuperation
Colonialism
Intertextuality
Historiography
Open ended chapters
Gender
Race
Religion
The presence of the past
Sexuality
Symbolism
