Toni Morrison

While listening to the conversation with Toni Morrison, I got very excited when she said "she needs love." My last blog was all about how the characters in Song of Solomon need love, and are missing it. I love the way Toni Morrison describes her character in A Mercy. Although I haven't read it, the way she says "she just melts" and "she is needy" and finally, "and then she falls in love" just creates an image of something similar to that of Hagar. Hagar is also "needy", she "melts" when she is with Milkman, and she tries to keep him to herself, or find him, just as Morrison describes her other character by "she goes out all alone in the woods, in the forest, to find him."

Then, when asked about the end of her new novel, she says "whatever the outcome...its really happy...well, not exactly, but she evolves, she is not the same...everybody changes, all the time." First of all, this applys to life. Sure, the end may not be jumping-up-and-down happy, but we do evolve, we never are the same, we change and adapt, and learn from our mistakes. As Morrison says we "will never do that again". Also, this applys to the characters in Song of Solomon. Milkman goes off by himself without anyone, which is new, seeing as he is still living in his house in his thirties, and usually did everything with Guitar. His sisters change, one falls in love, takes a chance, and the other stands up to her brother. His mother, after Hagar's death, actually goes to Macon Dead's office to stand and wait for money. Hagar dies - did she change?

Toni Morrison's conversation takes a little turn when they talk about the country: "everybody was clambering for space, and resources". She gets down to a certain point after Bacon's Rebellion, which consisted of blacks and whites. Afterwards, "the [new] law [created] racial division, and made poor whites feel better than poor blacks." So this is where it all started, and it has lasted for "300, 400" years. She implys that it has lasted because when a group can dislike another group, it brings them closer together against a common enemy.

When asked: "are we in a post-racial time?" She replied: "I'm not sure." Personally, I think we aren't there yet. I think that we are in an afterstage, where it is too sensitive to consider it post-racial yet. We can't call eachother "blacks" and "whites" without being politically correct, and there are still violent racial outbursts now and then.

She also says that "racial hierarchy ... is just a fantasy." This is not the first time I have heard this before. In class, Mr. Tangen insists that race is non existent. A made up idea. But the term "race" was kind of defined in Song of Solomon. Guitar, by keeping the ratio between blacks and whites even, characterized "race" for me. The human race, racism, racist, it is just a competition between different looking people.

"I always believed people who were like that were defficient, morally, intellectually..." Morrison says, and I have to agree with her. Someone who thinks of themselves as better than anyone else, is usually just the opposite.

The conversation continues on in the direction of Obama's Inauguration.

In conclusion, I like Toni Morrison, alot. Not only did the conversation put Song of Solomon into a good context, but it allowed me to see into the writer's ideas, and thoughts. She is consumed with the ideas and questions of "why." And plus, she just seems like a sweet, and intellectual grandma. Someone you could just sit down and listen to for hours, while just absorbing all of her knowledge.