An Analysis of the Traumatic Anxieties of the Protagonists in the Select Novels of Toni Morrison

Abstract

Toni Morrison received the Pulitzer Prize for her books Beloved (1987) and The Bluest Eye (1993). Human existence includes the experience of psychological distress. Both books are heartbreaking in their examinations of the suffering black people experienced during slavery when whites treated them as property and compared them to animals. In this work, Morrison examined how psychological damage brought on by tragedy may lead to isolation and social immobility. Her writing mostly focuses on the experiences of women victims of sexual and racial persecution. Beloved by Toni Morrison shows many aspects of trauma, such as disintegration, continuity between the past and the present, and restoration. Individuals, families, and even communities may all show signs of trauma. Morrison’s account contains other painful elements, but the overpowering intensity of these occurrences is the most prominent. This dissertation delves into the struggles, fears, and mental pain the black characters in Toni Morrison’s works face.