THE REPRESENTATIONS OF DOMESTICITY, MOTHERHOOD AND VIOLENCE IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

Abstract

At a time when women around the world were staging a fight against gender discrimination and calling for equal rights with men in their various societies, black American women also tried to make their voices heard. As history holds it, unlike other women especially in the west, their story is different because it was shaped by slavery, which made them not only inferior to men but to women of other races. Coupled with the roles of housekeeping and motherhood assigned to women, thus sidelining them from decision making issues in the society, the African American woman also had to deal with the belittlement, violence and segregation from the white society during and after slavery. In this regard, Tony Morrison like a host of other black writers, took it upon themselves to tell the stories that were often ignored or could not be perfectly told by men or white writers. Though Morrison’s Beloved is set during slavery. In Beloved, Morrison depicts the adverse side of motherhood that many writers of the time failed to consider. By attempting to exercise her motherly role in a period of extreme suffering, Sethe loses her identity and in the process also suppresses that of Denver her daughter. This is occasioned by the maternal ties that link Sethe to her children that preclude her individuation and spoil her self-development. Sethe sacrifices her being. Indeed, we see throughout the novel that all her efforts are directed at atoning for her losses as a daughter and re-establish herself as a good black mother based on the society’s conceptualizations. My Article investigates how Toni Morrison portray the issue of domesticity, motherhood and violence in their novels Beloved and The Color Purple, during and after the days of slavery. The thesis also will provide the possibilities that lead to the characters emancipation.

Keywords

• Motherhood,Domesticity,Racism,Black Feminism,African-American Literature,Violence

References

1. Morrison, T, (1987). Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf.
2. Morrison, T, (1991). Beloved: A Novel. New York: Penguin Books.
3. Morrison, T, (2014). Beloved.
4. Poovey, M, (1998). History of the Modern Fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5. Porter, M. A O'Reilly, and Patricia M. S. M, (2005). Motherhood: Power and Oppression. Women's Press.