1. Author Study: Toni Morrison
A Beginner’s Guide

2. Biography Born in Lorain, Ohio Real name is Chloe Anthony Wofford
Working class family
Winner of Pulitzer Prize and Noble Prize for Literature

3. Why Read Toni Morrison? “A Wonderful Storyteller”
Weaves stories which mix both the historical real and the magical, supernatural, and imaginative
Writing is lyrical and dramatic
Stories are gripping and strongly emotional

4. Why Read Toni Morrison? “African American History Rediscovered”
Lack of African Americans in crucial moments of shared history
Her work placed hidden, silenced African American people at its centre
Concerned with the individual and the community—specifically African American people
Considered a major voice in African American writing

5. Why Read Toni Morrison? “A Dialogic Process”
Dialogic: suggests a dialogue, debated or argument between ideas and points of view
Suggests there are no single right answers or interpretations
Morrison suggests that we can make meaning
Morrison brings a forum to the reader to debate and engage us in issues  to construct a reality

6. Mature Audience
The Bluest Eye does cover some controversial episodes/ideas:
Rape
Sexual relationships
Speak with me after class if you have Qs.

7. Morrison’s Style Multiple characters tell a story
Story told in fragments—they appear and reoccur to build the story
Modern way of writing—in fragments
Presence of oral traditions—telling stories brings back the memories

8. Major Themes Recuperating History Racial and Gendered Stereotypes
Slavery
Racial and Gendered Stereotypes
Women’s Lives
Motherhood
Sisterhood
Sexuality and Power
The Supernatural, Imaginary and Myth

9. Bildungsroman
Story focusing on the development of an individual, their growth and change as they mature
Survive perils and evils
Examples
The Bluest Eye—Pecola Breedlove
Beloved—Denver

10. The Bluest Eye
Looks at the life and identity of a working-class Black girl
Focuses on issues of racial inequality
Effects of internalization of stereotypes:
Negative=Black
Positive=White

11. Book’s Organization The book is organized into four main sections:
Autumn
Winter
Spring
Summer
Investigate: What could each “season” section signify?

12. Fun with Dick and Jane
By the 1950s, an estimated 80 percent of U.S. first-graders who were learning to read were doing it with Dick and Jane.
These books taught an estimated 85 million children from the 1930s through the 1960s how to read.

13. Prologue One
Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family.
Here is the house it is green and white it has a red door it is very pretty here is the family
Hereisthehouseitisgreenandwhiteithasareddooritisveryprettyhereisthefamily