COMPARISON OF ALICE WALKER WITH TONI MORRISON

COMPARISON OF ALICE WALKER WITH TONI MORRISON

-          Vishwa Janak Khatri, 1313268

Toni Morrison was born in Ohio in 1931. She majored in English at Howard University. She then completed her master’s at Cornell University in 1955. Morrison began to write her first novel ‘The Bluest Eye’ which was published in 1970 and made her the voice of the African American women. She is recognized as one of the strongest writers of the 20th century.  She confronts the issues of sexism, racism and inequality in very poetic and imaginative language which is characteristic of her writing style. Beloved, Sule, and Song of Solomon are some of her other well known novels. She has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in 1993. Toni Morrison has played a vital role in bringing black literature into the spotlight.

Alice Walker was born in Georgia in 1944. After completing High school, walker went to Spellman College in Atlanta on a full scholarship in the year 1961. She was later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College  from where she graduated in 1965. Walker published her most famous work ‘The Color Purple’ in 1982.  The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian and a collection of short stories and Poetry are some of her other works. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers and she believes in equality for all living beings. She has always been an activist and an advocate for the rights of the marginalized population.  She won the Pulitzer Price for her book ‘The Color Purple’. This work of hers mainly focuses on the struggles of black people, specifically women. The book also draws parallels from her own personal experiences.

Both, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison are very influential African American writers and have been instrumental in creating a positive change in the society by breaking down the barriers for black women in literature. In both their novels i.e, The Color Purple and Beloved, the main characters have a difficult past which is rooted in racial discrimination and violence against women and the novels depict their journey to, and the constant struggle with identity.  By being born as  colored women, Walker and Morrison have the advantage of accurately portraying what it means to be a woman of color in a society with a past slavery, racial segregation and discrimination. This has enabled them to create life-like characters in their novels.

Both Morrison and Walker “…deepen our understanding of the limitations and possibilities of lives of black Americans…”(Bell, 1987: 269) “This is evident in the way that Walker has passed on some of Southern heritage in her fiction” (Lauret, 2000: 96). In the same manner, Morrison has expressed her knowledge of black life by creating fictional characters. “Morrison’s strengthening of definitions and focusing of perception is reflected in the novels’ narrative structures” (Birch, 1994:151). Both their works have the underlying idea that being a black woman is different that being a woman because black woman are doubly victimized, even by their own community, firstly due to their color and secondly because of the virtue of belonging to the female gender.

 

The novels, The Color Purple, Meridian, The Bluest Eye and Beloved showcasing the impact of the experiences of slave life, the violent social forces and the movements that emerged during 1950s and 1960s in United States which had various varied social consequences have successfully accomplished their objective of accurately displaying the sufferings of colored women. The black characters in these novels have endured gender discrimination, violence, racial prejudice and sexual abuse.  Walker has also dealt with the forbidden issues, like incest, as she wanted to bring out the cold and hard truth of a black women’s life.

The heroin of the novel The Color Purple, Celie, at first is powerless to take any steps against the brutality of both the black men and the white men. However, with the passage of time and with the help of her female friends, Sofia and Shug Avery, she comes to the realization that she has the right to act according to her will. After so many years of racial oppression, sexual abuse and brutality, she speaks up against such practices. She starts to strive for the liberation of black women from the hands of men, both black and white. “…Walker is able to have her major character Celie to express the impact of oppression on her spirit as well as her growing internal strength and final victory” (Evans, 1984: 469).

In a similar manner, Walker, in her novel Meridian portrays the struggles and hardships of a black woman, Meridian. Meridian longs for a society in which both blacks and whites have equal rights. Through the course of the story, she and her friends are exposed to violence and punishment. However, they do not lose their hope. In Meridian, Walker “…reminds us the fact that suffering need not be random and meaningless, nor a centripetal human purpose without humor or hope, or mercy, or effect” (159). Despite all the obstacles that cause her to suffer Meridian doesn't give up her “…liberation struggle…” (Lauret, 2000: 73).

Likewise, Morrison focuses on the sufferings of black females in a white society in her novel The Bluest Eye. This novel “…shows racism’s damaging effects on the black community at large and on black families” (Kubitschek, 1998: 27). In The Bluest Eye, a black girl Pecola Breedlove realizes the supremacy of white society and longs to have the features of white females. She desire to achieve white standards of beauty become apparent when she prays to have the ‘bluest eyes’ in the world. This word is used in the superlative form to demonstrate the desire to have even more superior features than that of the white race.

Morrison’s other significant novel Beloved is very successfully displays “…the most painful part of the African American heritage, slavery…” (115). The protagonist of the novel, Sethe, lies with the ghosts of the cruel times of slavery. The ghost of her baby girl does not leave her and her daughter, Denver. The spirit of her dead daughter changes into a grown girl and begins to disturb her life after so many years. The ghost always acts as a reminder of her mother, Sethe’s act of brutality which was an indirect result of slavery.

It is obvious that the novels of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison portray the sufferings of black women in all its forms. However sometimes the causes vary, like motherhood, violence, rape, but the most important reason behind their pain, is racism i.e; their color. They are discriminated against by the white society just because of their colors. They are objectified and their feelings are discarded. In the novels of Walker and Morrison, some fortunate black females had the opportunity to find their identity and survive even in such a hard atmosphere of a highly racial society. However, some black women characters did not dare to object the discrimination and passively accepted it as they prepared to wait for theirs lives’s end.

 

 

References

·        BELL, Bernard W. (1987). The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, USA: The University of Massachusetts Pres.

·        BIRCH, Eva Lennox (1994). Black American Women’s Writing, New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

·        Bülent Cercis Tanritanir and Yasemin Aydemr “The Suffers of Black women in Alice Walker’s novels The Colour Purple and Meridian and Toni Morisson’s novels Beloved and The Bluest Eye”. The Journal of International Social Research. 5.23; Issn: 1307-9581. Fall 2012.

·        Education Portal. “Contemporary African American Writers: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, James Baldwin”.  Katie Surber. Web. 20 August 1014 <http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/contemporary-african-american-writers-toni-morrison-alice-walker-james-baldwin.html#lesson>

·        EVANS, Mari (1984). Black Women Writers (1950-1980), New York : Doubleday.

·        KUBITSCHE, Missy Denn (1998). Toni Morrison, London: Geenwood Press.

·        LAURET, Mari (2000). Alice Walker, New York: St. Martin’s Press.

·        MORRISON, Toni (1970). The Bluest Eye, USA: Plume.

·        MORRISON, Toni (2004). Beloved, New York: Vintage

·        “Morrison, Toni.” Encyclopedia Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 21 August 2014

·        WALKER, Alice (1986). Meridian, New York: Pocket Books.

·        WALKER, Alice (1985). The Color Purple, New York: Pocket Books.

·        “Walker, Alice.”  Encyclopedia Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 21 August 2014