Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: the Journey Away from Self-Love in the Bluest Eye

Although my students were unaware of it, in a sense what they were questioning from the viewpoint of literary criticism is not only the theory of postmodernism with its violence on race, class and gender, but the theory of naturalism as well: the idea that ones social and physical environments washstand drastically affect ones nature and potential for endure and succeeding in this world. In this article, I will look Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye from a naturalistic perspective; however, while doing so I will propose that because Morrisons novels are distinctly swart and examine distinctly char issues, we must expand or deconstruct the traditional theory of naturalism to deal adequately with the African American experience: a theory I refer to as black naturalism. But before I do this I think it is important to discuss why it is worth our while to dig up naturalism one time again to explore not only earlier black novels but contemporary works as well. In scoops stirring defense of Bigger Thomas in Richard Wrights indigen Son, he warns us to remember that men can crave from a lack of self-fulfillment as much as they can from a lack of bread! And they can polish off for it, too! (366).

As the riots in Los Angeles and in cities across the surface area indicate, men and women are still forced to struggle for self-realization and ones environment remains a key gene in influencing and limiting an indiViduals potentials and aspirations. Is the cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and violence in South Central today significantly different from the ghetto streets of Harlem Ann Petry expound in The Street? Throughout her naturalistic novel 116th mainsheet is a living, breathing, menacing force that attempts to reduce Min to a whispering shadow and to twist Jones into a crazed brute who has lived in basements too long; for Petty, filthy tenement-lined streets such as these are more than symbols of oppression, inequality and racism--they are the instruments themselves. Does... If you want to stand a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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