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Research Paper | English Language and Literature | India | Volume 6 Issue 12, December 2017

Projection of Fractured Parenthood in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon

Srikumari Panda

Abstract: This article studies and records the failed and fractured parenthood in Toni Morrisons fiction who are the victims of slavery and its aftermaths. Morrison in her novels like The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Sula and Jazz has exposed a true account of the African Americans difficulties, trial and failure to maintain a solid familial and communal relationship, devastated by the dreadful atrocities of slavery. Sandwiched between dual nationalism African and American, dual identity African American, actually they neither exist as Africans nor as Americans in the troubled land of America. As an African American author, editor, educationist, Toni Morrison is very particular about dealing with the complexity of this dual identity in relation to its historical and social context. In a comparative and analytical method, this article presents different dimensions of a slaves personality in his real life situations. Being devoid of true identity and being reduced to the state of non-human entity, s/he fails to play the role of a wife, husband, mother or father in the family as well as in community. Sometimes the slave becomes a beast and sometimes a flying African due to the crisis of identity. Children become the victims of these victimized parents for which they either die a premature death or goes mad as portrayed in Morrisons fiction.

Keywords: Slavery, Trauma, Identity, ethnicity, African- American, persecution

Edition: Volume 6 Issue 12, December 2017,

Pages: 1582 - 1585