Research Paper on:
Toni Morrison's Writings and the Use of Trauma

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
to present the reader with the African American experience through offering traumatic conditions or events. The characters in her books exist in, sometimes, almost a constant state of trauma as  they move from one horrible condition to another, never truly escaping the trauma of their past or the trauma of their race in a modern society. There is a sense  that there exists "a danger, a nightmare, a fragility, a woundedness that defies all healing" (Cutter 671). With that in mind the following paper examines four of Morrisons novels, examining  elements of trauma within. The novels examined are "The Bluest Eye," "Sula," "Song of Solomon," and "Beloved." The Bluest Eye In Morrisons book "The Bluest Eye" we  are, in one way, provided the story of Claudia who tells much of the story. But, the primary focus of the story, and the story which truly gives us a  unique picture of coming of age, concerns Pecola. And through this character "The Bluest Eye presents readers with a variety of thematic concerns, including dealing with or repressing guilt, shame,  and violence; coming to terms with societys image of ideal beauty (both feminine and masculine); racial self-loathing; and, in a narrative sense, dealing with memories of the past that correspond  to those themes" (Mayo 231). Another author indicates that "Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye emphasizes the de-culturing effects of a mass culture industry and shows that because producers of  mass culture seek to avoid association with any one culture, they must rely on a total lack of culture....For a black female audience the results are tragic. The women in  the novel are shown to be separated from sexuality and any physical concept of themselves that is not a by-product of mass culture" (Kuenz 421). From these perspectives we