beloved "It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave"(Morrison 1987). These are the words that Toni Morrison used to describe the actions of the central character within the novel, Beloved. That character, Sethe, is presented as a former slave woman who ch...
Morrison describes how African-American girls during this time period were encouraged to aspire to be white. ... Specifically, I will be using a combination of Frye's biblical lectures on Hero From Across the Sea and theories on Fictive Modes and Archetypal imagery in order to demonstrate how individuals in this story use fantasy in order to escape the traumatic realities of their lives. ... Applying Frye's Fictive Modes to Morrison's young African-American heroine Pecola gives insight on how her traumatic childhood led her to escape from reality as a defence mechanism to the ev...
Before the story even begins, there is a page with only the words "Sixty Million and more": she is referring to the sixty million people who died as a result of slavery. This figure has been much speculated upon, and when questioned about it, Morrison says, "Some historians told me that two hundred million died. ... For twelve years, long before Grandma Baby had died, there had been no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends. ... "Here", she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. ...
Before the story even begins, there is a page with only the words "Sixty Million and more": she is referring to the sixty million people who died as a result of slavery. This figure has been much speculated upon, and when questioned about it, Morrison says, "Some historians told me that two hundred million died. ... For twelve years, long before Grandma Baby had died, there had been no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends. ... "Here", she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. ...
