Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: the Journey Away from Self-Love in the Bluest Eye
Although my students were unaware of it, in a sense what they were questioning from the standpoint of literary criticism is not only the theory of postmodernism with its emphasis on race, class and gender, but the theory of naturalism as well: the idea that one 's social and physical environments can drastically affect one 's nature and potential for surviving and succeeding in this world. In this article, I will explore Toni Morrison 's The Bluest Eye from a naturalistic perspective; however, while doing so I will propose that because Morrison 's novels are distinctly black and examine distinctly black issues, we must expand or deconstruct the traditional theory of naturalism to deal adequately with the African American experience: a theory I refer to as "black naturalism."
But before I do this I think it is important to discuss why it is worth our while to "dig up" naturalism once again to explore not only earlier black novels but contemporary works as well. In Max 's stirring defense of Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright 's Native Son, he warns us to "remember that men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread! And they can murder for it, too!" (366). As the riots in Los Angeles and in cities across the country indicate, men and women are still forced to struggle for self-realization and one 's environment remains a key factor in influencing and limiting an indiVidual 's potentials and aspirations. Is the cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and violence in South Central today significantly different from the ghetto streets of Harlem Ann Petry described in The Street? Throughout her naturalistic novel 116th Sheet is a living, breathing, menacing force that attempts to reduce Min to a whispering shadow and to twist Jones into a crazed wolf who has lived in basements too long; for Petty, filthy tenement-lined streets such as these are more than symbols of oppression, inequality and racism--they are the instruments themselves.
But before I do this I think it is important to discuss why it is worth our while to "dig up" naturalism once again to explore not only earlier black novels but contemporary works as well. In Max 's stirring defense of Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright 's Native Son, he warns us to "remember that men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread! And they can murder for it, too!" (366). As the riots in Los Angeles and in cities across the country indicate, men and women are still forced to struggle for self-realization and one 's environment remains a key factor in influencing and limiting an indiVidual 's potentials and aspirations. Is the cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and violence in South Central today significantly different from the ghetto streets of Harlem Ann Petry described in The Street? Throughout her naturalistic novel 116th Sheet is a living, breathing, menacing force that attempts to reduce Min to a whispering shadow and to twist Jones into a crazed wolf who has lived in basements too long; for Petty, filthy tenement-lined streets such as these are more than symbols of oppression, inequality and racism--they are the instruments themselves.
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