Overview:
Toni Morrisons' narrative project highlights the theme of motherhood in black communities through the use of different representations of motherhood in her works. The following collection of artifacts is linked by that theme and explores different perspectives used by Morrison to depict motherhood both in the past and in present-day situations. The mother in Toni Morrison’s works is often controlled by the fears she has for her children and thus her rearing symbolizes that feeling. It is up to the reader to decide if this kind of parenting is helpful, or harmful in the end.
Exhibit 1: The High Priestess Tarot Card (Reversed)
When the High priestess is upright, she represents the intuitive mother. Traditionally pictured holding a large scroll representing divine law, the mother's main goal is rearing her children in such a way that they will have a sense of morality while also being able to fend for themselves. Each tarot card has an upright and reversed meaning. When the novel “God Help The Child” is considered, readers see an example of the reversed high priestess, a mother without intuition or one with her own agendas. In works like “God Help The Child” sweetness fills the role of the mother with a hidden agenda. Her parenting tactics come from a place of fear, specifically the fear that people's prejudices will affect her daughter. In attempting to toughen her daughter against said prejudice, she harms her daughter and causes trauma that carries on into her adulthood.
Exhibit 2: The Mobile Home
The effects of slavery's dehumanization on black communities are depicted in works such as "A Mercy," "Beloved," and "Margaret Garner: A Libretto" where readers can take in situations based in, and after, the period. When people think of home, it is often a concrete building that one lives in, but for mothers like Floren's mother in "A Mercy" home is where her children are safe, even if that means they will not be with her. Black mothers in the era of slavery were not just faced with the rearing of their own children, but the possibility of separation from them.
The modern-day decisions of black mothers, while they seem cruel at first, are influenced by the knowledge that at any time their children could be taken away through the institution of slavery, or in some cases through death. Today this is not through slavery but through institutions that have actively attempted to separate minority mothers from their children in the guise of saviourism leading to a fear of said institutions. An example of this modern-day fear comes from the threat of Child Protective Services which is an issue so prevalent that there are available reports, studies, dissertations, and articles have been written on the topic. (Example: Subtle racism in child welfare decision-making (
Castrianno Galante, Lynn Marie))
Exhibit 3: The Mute ( Representing a Lack of Voice)
Another example of motherhood that Toni Morrison creates is the mute or voiceless mother. Similarly to the Trumpet mute Desdemona's mother is found in certain portions of the story, but she never truly has her own voice until after her daughter's death. As Desdemona's mother neither condemns nor defends her own parenting, she becomes the depiction of the silent or uninvolved mother. She is described by her daughter as strict rather than nurturing, this distinction is saved for Barbary, who was her "solace" (ch 2, pg 18) in this situation.
Exhibit 4: Adoption Papers
Many of Morrison’s mothers are not biologically related to their children and unofficially adopt them into their own lives. This form of care is depicted with characters such as Barbary (Desdemona) Ondine (Tar Baby), Cecile Sabat (Sula), and Eva Peace (Sula). The adoptive mother in Black communities is often viewed as caring or nurturing towards her children in the stead of mothers who may not be predisposed to motherhood. She is often viewed as a kind of savior, creating animosity between the two groups.
Exhibit 5: The Cross
The Bluest eye’s Pauline Breedlove is an example of the neglected mother. She also represents the martyred mother when her relationship with Cholly is considered. The cross in Christianity represents the sins of others, as well as burdens in modern times. Pauline is burdened by her own shortcomings and proceeds to take this out on her own daughter when she herself is unable to receive the attention she seeks from her husband and views his rape of Pecola as a threat to her own womanhood.
Exhibit 6: The Fairy Tale
The needs of the black mother are often pushed aside to aid in the rearing of their own children. In Song of Solomon Ruth is living a life that others envy, but she is disliked by her husband and her needs are constantly invalidated. Because of this treatment, she uses a form of escapism to fill her own emptiness. One of the oldest forms of escapism is immersing oneself in literature or fairy tales to gain a sense of peace or nostalgia for better times. The fairy tale also relates to folklore which is connected to black motherhood as a way of teaching children morals or giving them advice.
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