Research Paper on:
Community in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of these two novels are radically different, the way in which each author pictures the utility of community is actually very similar. In each book, community, a sense of "belonging,"  of being tied intrinsically to other human beings, provides a saving grace that pulls the protagonist of each novel out of the depths of despair and promotes spiritual healing.  Marshalls heroine is Avey Johnson, a middle-aged African American widow, who indulges herself once a year by going on a cruise with friends. While on one of these cruises  Avey, circumstances conspire to touch memories of Aveys childhood that have long been dormant. She dreams of her Aunt Cuney and her enthralling stories of Africa and Ibo rituals. It  seems that the requirements of middle-class American life slowly sucked the life out of both Avey and her late husband, Jay. As Avey learns to see her past in  perspective, she realizes that Jay, the man she married - a loving, carefree man -slowly turned into "Jerome," who was unsparing and puritanical (Marshall 132). What appear to be a  predestined set of coincidences coalesce in Avey leaving the cruise and winding up on the island of Carriacou, where she comes face-to-face with her heritage. While there she participates  in a celebration that includes dances that are a tribute to the "Old People," an annual tribute to ancestors. Avey is deeply moved by watching the performance of the various  dances and found that the dancing connected with something within herself-"new thoughts-vague and half-formed slowly beginning to fill the emptiness" (Marshall 240). All the while, the experience keeps connecting  with memories from Aveys past. The final dance is a group dance, and as Avey begins to dance, something connects within her and she moves with the music perfectly-"Just