mcashman’s author study

Although each of Toni Morrison’s three books Song of Solomon, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye have their own storylines, there are many themes that are apparent through all three books. The first, and most obvious theme, is the idea of African American Rights. In Song of Solomon, Morrison presents a strong African-American woman, Pilate, to show how African American history can be honored the right way. Pilate is proud of her heritage and wants to carry on traditions that make her who she is. On the other hand, Guitar does just the opposite. Instead of embracing his African American heritage, Guitar uses it in a negative way. He joins the Seven Day club; When a member of the club hears about a white person killing a black person, it is their responsibility to kill a white person in the exact same way. Since Guitar’s day is Sunday, whenever a black person is killed on a Sunday, he needs to reciprocate these violent acts. His justification is if they do it to us, we have the right to do it back. Guitar does not see that the only way for all races to live in peace with each other is to put an end to violence and murder. In Beloved, Morrison presents the readers with the horrors of slavery. Sethe was both sexually and physically abused when she was a slave, and she was never the same after. At one point she walked into a classroom and the teacher was talking about her “animalistic physique”. Slavery messed with her mind and made her incapable of knowing her true identity. Similarily, in The Bluest Eye, Pecola’s lower class family was never able to move up in society because of their skin color. One of Pecola’s classmates, Maureen, had lighter skin and therefore was better off than the rest of her peers. She wore the nicest clothes and was able to buy icecream anytime she wanted to, unlike Pecola and Claudia. The theme that Morrison is trying to portray with this book is that all people, no matter what skin-color they have, should have the opportunity to succeed in life.

In addition to the idea of African American rights, Morrison also presents the idea of identity in all three novels. In Song of Solomon, Milkman spends a lot of time trying to discover where he came from and who he really is as a person. Although he started off on his journey trying to find the gold left by his grandfather in a cave, the trip turned out to be more about finding out his family’s history. Milkman’s search for his identity ended in not only discovering where his family came from, but he also became a more compassionate and caring person. In Beloved, there were many characters that were trying to discover their true identity. Sethe is trying to create a life for herself outside of Sweet Home and without her husband Halle there to support her. After the incident with her killing her 2 year-old daughter, Sethe doesn’t even know who she is and what makes her ‘her’. By the end of the novel, Sethe discovers that it is her children that make her who she is. Denver is another character in Beloved that is trying to find her own identity outside of 134, the house that they have lived in since she was born. Like Sethe, Denver struggles to have any connections to the outside world. She keeps to herself because she is embarrassed of what others will think of her and her mother. But by the end of the novel, Denver is able to move past this and even thinks about attending college someday. Beloved, struggles with a different kind of identity. It is not known if she is fully human or just the ghost of Sethe’s 2-year old daughter who came back to life. Either way, Beloved is different from the others. Ever since she began living with Sethe and Denver, she latched on to Sethe and wanted to be with her at all times. Beloved needed to find her own true identity instead of living vicariously through Sethe. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola is not able to accept the fact that she will always have brown eyes. To her, having blue eyes will make her more beautiful and if she is beautiful she will gain respect. She even goes to the extreme and asks Soaphead Church, who is a “reader, advisor, and Interpreter of Dreams” to grant her her wish of having blue eyes. This obsession with blue eyes leads to her madness. By the end of the novel Pecola has her new blue eyes and has gone crazy, talking to an imaginary person. Pecola repeatedly asks her imaginary friend if there is anyone has bluer eyes than her. The idea of identity in The Bluest Eye is Pecola’s search to become someone completely different than herself, so people will not prejudice against her and look down upon her. In all three of Morrison’s novels, the themes of African American rights and identity are very apparent and show how strong Morrison feels about both of these topics.