Lael Jacob’s

Author Study Project

Toni Morrison

Table of Contents

1. “Toni Morrison: Magical Stories in Lorain” – Essay Analyzing Toni

Morrison’s Writing Style

2. “Gorilla Hands” – Original Piece of Writing Mimicking Toni Morrison’s

Writing Style

3. Performance Based Project

4. Outline of Performance Based Project

5. Annotated Bibliography

Lael Jacobs

Toni Morrison: Magical Stories in Lorain

Chloe Anthony Wofford, later known as prestigious author Toni

Morrison, was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18th, 1931. She has won many

awards for her novels and was the first black woman to win a Nobel Peace

Prize. Every author, novice or professional, has a list on influences that fuel

their writing styles. Many of Morrison’s writing styles in The Bluest Eye are

directly related to her influences. For example, her use of storytelling, the

place of her birth and “magical realism”.

Morrison’s parents, George and Ramah Willis Wofford traveled to the

North before she was born, fleeing the constant racism they experienced in

the south. As a child, Morrison’s parents would engulf her with ghost stories,

fairy tales, myths, music, and folktales of their African-American heritage.

Her deep love for reading came from listening to these stories and creating

her own (Thao, Dipasquale, Meyer) . The influence of her parents’ stories

encouraged her use of stories in her own novels, most specifically The Bluest

Eye. This novel is a jigsaw puzzle of many stories, soon coming together into

one big piece. Stories help the characters pull the pieces of their lives

together, making sense of it all. All of the stories that the characters tell

either represent good or evil. For instance, the rape of Pecola by her father.

While bearing her father’s child, gossip of her pregnancy and wishes for the

baby’s death are heard from the adults. Claudia and her sister Frieda tell a

more optimistic story in which they are the heroes (Sparknotes).

“Let’s ask Him to let Pecola’s baby live and promise to be good

for a whole month.”

“O.K. But we better give up something so He’ll know we really

mean it this time.”

“Give up what? We ain’t got nothing. Nothing but the seed

money, two dollars.”

“We could give that. Or, you know what? We could give up the

bicycle. Bury the money and . . . plant the seeds… We have to do

it right, now. We’ll bury the money over by her house so we can’t

go back and dig it up, and we’ll plant the seeds out back of our

house so we can watch over them. And when they come up, we’ll

know everything is all right…” (Morrison, 191-192)

Morrison was born and raised in the city of Lorain, Ohio. Lorain is a big

influence to Morrison and is clearly shown in her novels as some of them

take place there. She gives this explanation about her writing: "I am from the

Midwest so I have a special affection for it. My beginnings are always there…

No matter what I write, I begin there…Ohio also offers an escape from

stereotyped black settings. It is neither plantation nor ghetto," (Maynard). "I

felt a very strong sense of place, not in terms of the country or the state, but

in terms of details, the feeling, the mood of the community, of the town"

(Guthrie,10) which she said in 1976 in an interview with Robert Stepto

(Wilfong). Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye is set in her hometown of Lorain.

“There is an abandoned store on the southeast corner of

Broadway and Thirty-fifth Street in Lorain, Ohio.” (Morrison, 33).

During her childhood, Morrison’s family spoke of their dreams in the

same context as they would with things in reality. “Magical realism”, a

writing style used by Morrison in The Bluest Eye, can be described as a

combination of those impractical ideas and the reality of the characters and

their lives. (Introduction). An example of magic portrayed in the book are the

marigold seeds that Claudia and Frieda planted. They planted them on behalf

of Pecola and her father’s child that she was carrying in her womb. They

thought that if the flowers bloomed, then everything would magically be

alright.

“But so deeply concerned were we with the health of Pecola’s

baby we could think of nothing but our own magic: if we planted

the seeds, and said the right words over them, they would

blossom, and everything would be all right.” (Morrison, 5).

Another major example of how magic is used is Pecola’s longing for

blue eyes. When God doesn’t deliver the eyes that Pecola had been praying

for, she goes Soaphead Church, who calls himself a “Reader, Advisor and

Interpreter of Dreams”. She asks him to give her blue eyes, but as expected

he denies her request because he simply cannot give them to her. But

something inside of him couldn’t turn her away. Soaphead Church “thought

it was the most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received”

that “an ugly little girl” was “asking for beauty” (Morrison, 174). It made him

angry that he couldn’t help her, for her wish was the “most deserving of

fulfillment”(Morrison, 174). He gave Pecola meat in a package, told her to

sprinkle poison on it (unbeknownst to her), and feed it to the old dog

sleeping on the porch. Knowing that the dog will have a reaction, he told her

“If nothing happens, you will know that God has refused you. If the animal

behaves strangely, your wish will be granted on the day following this one”

(Morrison, 175). After seeing the magic of the dog’s reaction, Pecola goes

insane, thinking she now has the bluest eyes.

In conclusion, the writing styles in The Bluest Eye consists of a lot of

Toni Morrison’s influences. Most of these influences stem from her childhood.

Morrison flawlessly conjoins these styles, along with plenty others, into this

novel with an effortless flow. The way she intertwines these styles keeps the

reader’s imagination alive, and their curiosity on a constant search for more.

Works Cited Page

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. United States of America:

Plume/Penguin, 1970. Print.

Http://voices.cla.umn.edu. Gaushia Thao, David Dipasquale, and Sarah

Meyer, 28 Feb. 2007. Web. 2012.

<http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/morrison_toni.php>.

"SparkNotes: The Bluest Eye: Themes, Motifs & Symbols." SparkNotes:

Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bluesteye/themes.html>.

"Toni Morrison: An Introduction." Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.html>.

Wilfong, Katye. "Morrison_Toni_oh." American Collection: Welcome.

Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/morrison_toni_oh.htm>.

Maynard, M. "Biography." 8 pars. 14 Feb. 2001.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/mmaynard/Morrison/biograph.html

Taylor-Guthrie, Danille, ed. Conversations with Toni Morrison.

Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1994

Lael Jacobs

Gorilla Hands

He knows I know. I feel the exhales slither my back, the gruffness of his beard

scrape my head. I scratch but dare not halt. I keep going, I must. She beg me, inner

voice. She beg me not to stop. My feet are his fists, the way they beat mother earth.

So fast and many times till she’s silent. Beat her till she was quiet. Beat her till her

pigment was blue and black and purple. Blue and black and purple, like her favorite

sweater. He knows I know. Red with blood that engulfed me fourteen years ago drip

from his gorilla hands. Wrap his fingers like rings, flaunts them. My right side sucks

up his pain and shoots through me like his bullet. I look down, his gorilla hand

digging in me. The one that held my head as I bleated for milk and pat my back

when the milk was done. I pull away still with his hand full with my abdomen. The

golden rule rusts to green, propelling my fists to his face. The fists that held with

might on gorilla fingers so long ago. Wonder compels me to cry as I search for love

in his eyes. Dig in my fingers scavenging for that “babygirl”. The screech is enough

to again send me running. From those gorilla hands that tickled my distended belly.

From those hands that loved her. From those hands that promised her, under the

eyes of God. The quills of the dusty air sting my throat. My swallows fail to ease the

pain. The exhales disappear, along with the urge to scratch. Scared to turn my

head, but my heart knows he let me go. My heart knows she’s gone. I take refuge in

a dark alley. Its abysmal presence reflects me. Alone, cold, and silent. And in the pit

of despair, holding my mind in their palms, gorilla hands. The ones that said “I will

never let you go”. Now stained with her blood. Realizing the horrific truth behind

those words with my knees connected to my chest, they will surely haunt me

forever.

Lael Jacobs

Performance Based Project Outline

I’m going to start my presentation by separating the class into teams based on the groups of tables. I will be asking trivia questions throughout my presentation, and the group with the most questions right will win a prize at the end. I’ll politely ask the teacher to keep score and to help me pick the students who raised their hands first. I’ll begin with a few facts about my author’s early childhood and stop to ask a question. Next, I’ll present facts about my author’s college life with a quick fact and ask another question. I’ll insert another quick fact and start presenting about my author’s love life followed by a question. I’ll continue to speak about her love life, and then get into the book that I was assigned to read by my author and ask one final question. I’ll conclude my presentation with my author’s awards and accomplishments while fitting in one more quick fact. I will present the winning group with their prize and thank the class for listening to my presentation.

I want the audience to walk away knowing some basic facts about my author and the prestige she has, hopefully driving them to look into reading her novels. I think the questions and prizes will be a good strategy to keep the audience’s

attention throughout the presentation and to make sure that they learned at least some important facts about my author.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. United States of America:

Plume/Penguin, 1970. Print.

This is the book I read for this author project: The Bluest Eye by Toni

Morrison.

2. Http://voices.cla.umn.edu. Gaushia Thao, David Dipasquale, and

Sarah Meyer, 28 Feb. 2007. Web. 2012.

<http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/morrison_toni.php>.

In this source, you will find an informative article about the life and

influences of Toni Morrison.

3. "SparkNotes: The Bluest Eye: Themes, Motifs & Symbols."

SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bluesteye/themes.html>.

In this source, you will find the analysis of the themes, motifs and

symbols presented in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

4. "Toni Morrison: An Introduction." Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.html>.

In this source, you will find an elaborative report of the different writing

styles, themes and practices Toni Morrison uses in her novels.

5. Wilfong, Katye. "Morrison_Toni_oh." American Collection: Welcome.

Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/morrison_toni_oh.ht

m>.

In this source, you will find a biographic essay about Toni Morrison,

including her influences, critical reviews, the awards she received, etc.

6. Maynard, M. "Biography." 8 pars. 14 Feb. 2001.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/mmaynard/Morrison/biograph.html

7. Taylor-Guthrie, Danille, ed. Conversations with Toni Morrison.

Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1994

These sources are cites used in the previous source.

8. Wood, Peter. "Articles and Archives You Too Can Write Like Toni Morrison!

Peter Wood."NAS - The National Association of Scholars. 2012. Web. 16

Jan. 2012. <http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=424>.

In this source, you will find a step by step tutorial with exercises on

how to write in the style of Toni Morrison.