Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison was the first African-American woman to win the Noble Prize for Literature. She is best known for her novels The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and her non-fiction volumes Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992), and Remember (2004). Morrison won a Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her critically acclaimed novel Beloved in 1987, receives the Noble Prize for Literature in 1993, and in 2010 she was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor. She was also awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
A Deep-Dive into Her Critically Acclaimed Novels
Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio. She is an American writer who is best known for her examination of the experiences of Black Americans, more specifically, Black women. In an unjust and unfair society, she depicts her real-life struggles as a Black woman and showcases her characters' struggles to find themselves and their cultural identity. Her sinuous poetic style, her rich interweaving of the mythic, and her use of fantasy gave her stories a life of their own. Morrison's first book, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 and told the story of a victimized adolescent Black girl who is obsessed with white beauty standards and wishes for herself to have blue eyes. Her second novel, Sula, was published in 1973 and examines the dynamic of friendship and the expectations for conformity within the community. Song of Solomon (1977) gave Morrison national attention and is told by a male narrator in search of his identity. Her critically acclaimed novel Beloved (1987) won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is based on a true story of a runaway slave who, at the point of recapture, kills her infant daughter in order to spare her a life of slavery. This novel spurred a film adaptation in 1998 starring Oprah Winfrey. In 1992, Morrison released the novel Jazz, a story of violence and passion set during the 1920s in New York City's Harlem. Morrison preceded to win the Noble Prize for Literature in 1993, a year after Jazz was published.
Toni Morrison's Legacy
Toni Morrison died on August 5, 2019, in New York City. She will always be remembered for her resilience and drive to showcase the truth about the prejudices black people face in the United States. She gave a voice to those who were and still are silenced.