Paradise by Toni Morrison Essay examples -- Papers Paradise Toni Morri

Paradise by Toni MorrisonThroughout many of Toni Morrison?s novels, the plot is built around some conflict for her characters to overcome. Paradise, in particular, uses the relationships between women as a means of reaching this desired end. Paradise, a novel centered around the destruction of a convent and the women in it, supports this idea by showing how this build serves as a haven for dejected women (Smith). The bulk of the novel takes place during and after WWII and focuses on an all black town in Oklahoma. It is through the eat of the novel that we hit Morrison weave the bonds of women into the text as a means of healing the scars inflicted upon her characters in their respective societies. Paradise deals with the lives of dejected women and the support group the women tune for each other. Morrison draws attention to this key issue by removing the element of race from the novel, a heavy contrast to her earlier works, by not allowing the reader to exist the races of the women. Thus the relationships present throughout the work can be seen strictly through the contrast between the abusive and damaging relationships found outside of the convent to the validatory and loving ones in the convent. This removal of race also allows us to see the bigger picture, which is not dictated by race (Smith). By examining the relationships in the novel, we see two distinct arenas dealing with identity and the women, which is the world outside of the convent, and the convent. Before reaching the convent, identity for the women is a broken notion in which the men they swain with dictate. The first woman we are introduced to is Mavis. Her relationship with her husband is an example of the type of subservience c... ...998Nelson, Bredin. Women?s Friendships.http//hss.fullerton.edu/womens/bredin/spring99/fr Online. 16. November. 1999. Radicalesbians. ?The Woman Identified Woman.? http//scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/womid/ Online. 16. November. 1999.Shorter-Go oden, Kamea & Washington, N. Shenell. ?YoungBlack and pistillate The Challenge of weaving an identity.? Journal of Adolescents July 1995 19. 466.Smith, Dinitia. ?Not Categorizing Characters by Race?http//englishlit.about.com/arts/englishlit/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http//www.ny prison terms.com/books/98/01/11/home/morrison.html Online. 16. November. 1999.Toni Morrison Chathttp//www.pathfinder.com/time/community/transcripts/chattr012198.html Online. 16. November. 1999.Traustadottir, Rannveig. Gender patterns in friendships.http//web.syr.edu/thechp/genpat.htm Online. 16. November. 1999.