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Toni Morrison Born: February 18, 1931 Lorain, Ohio

Toni Morrison Born: February 18, 1931 Lorain, Ohio. Growing Up. Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford. She was the second of the four children in her family. Morrison grew up during the Great Depression and her father supported their family by working three jobs for seventeen years.

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Toni Morrison Born: February 18, 1931 Lorain, Ohio

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  1. Toni MorrisonBorn: February 18, 1931Lorain, Ohio

  2. Growing Up • Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford. • She was the second of the four children in her family. • Morrison grew up during the Great Depression and her father supported their family by working three jobs for seventeen years. • Story telling was a large part of Morrison’s life as she was growing up. She later used her knowledge of story telling as well as her experiences as a child to help her start writing.

  3. Adult Life • In 1949 Morrison went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study English. • She changed her name to Toni because people at Howard had trouble pronouncing the name Chloe. • Morrison received her bachelor of arts degree in English from Howard in 1953. • She later received her master's degree in English from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1955 • She taught for two years at Texas Southern University in Houston. Then she returned to Howard University to teach. • Toni Morrison married Harold Morrison in 1958 who also taught at the university. The couple had two sons, Harold and Slade, before divorcing in 1964. • Morrison went to Syracuse, New York, and began working as an editor for a Random House company. • In 1968 Morrison moved to New York City, where she eventually became a senior editor and was the only African American woman to have that job in the company. She also taught part-time, lectured across the country, and wrote novels.

  4. Writing Accomplishments • Morrison was known for her novels, which she based on African American Culture. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. • Beloved, a story about life after slavery, is Morrison's masterpiece. In 1993 she won a Noble Prize for this work and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988. • She was the first African American women to win the Nobel Prize for literature. • In 2001 she was given a National Arts and Humanities Award by President Bill Clinton.

  5. Historical Context in Beloved • Morrison tells a fictional story about a family of former slaves. She writes about the true historical problems that took place during this period of slavery. • Her goal in writing this piece was to express the history of slavery that had been lost by the suppressing of emotions and truth in what took place. • Morrison uses Sethe, the main character, to show that one must learn from their past and confront it before they can create a future. Therefore, we, as the reader must be the ones to look at the past and use it to change the future by ending racial discrimination.

  6. Beloved Analysis • Beloved is about a former slave who is trying to forget her past. Yet the main character, Sethe, can’t escape her past. She is being haunted by the spirit of her daughter who she killed eighteen years earlier to save from a life of slavery much like her own. Although, Beloved was a fictional story, it was based on historical events and the real life story of Margaret Garner.

  7. Historical Context in Morrison’s Nobel Lecture • Morrison talks about the importance of language and its responsibility to preserve the past. She does this in several of her works by telling stories of African Americans. Morrison chooses this topic because it demonstrates life as an African American from slavery to current time.

  8. Morrison’s Nobel Lecture Summary • Morrison uses the story of the blind lady and the bird to explain the use of language by a writer. • She tells that language should be used for good not evil. Therefore, people are responsible for how language is used. Some people choose to loot language and use it for evil, but Morrison feels language should be used to build up not breakdown a society. • In the end, language is not the goal, but using it to understand life is.

  9. Symbolism • Definition: the use of symbols to express or represent ideas or qualities in literature, art, etc. • Examples: Dove=peace white=purity black=death • “So I choose to read the bird as language and the woman as a practiced writer.” Toni Morrison uses the story of the blind woman and the bird to symbolize language and its writer, meaning that language is made by the writer.

  10. Repetition • Definition: repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to provide emphasis. • Example: "If you think you can win, you can win.“ (William Hazlitt) or "To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." (Henri Bergson) • “oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it is the limits of knowledge.”

  11. Double Meaning • Definition: a phrase or figure of speech that could have two meanings or that could be understood in two different ways. • Examples: Kids Make Nutritious Snacks or New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group • “I don’t know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands.” • When this is said it literally means that the bird is in their hands and it figuratively means that the bird (its life) is in their hands.

  12. Love and Hate in Morrison’s Nobel Lecture • Morrison says, “The vitality of language lies in the ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, and writers.” This means language can be used to build love or hate depending on how it is used. She also explains how language should be used for positive reasons by saying, “…unmolested language surges toward knowledge, not its destruction.”

  13. Toni Morrison’s language • Morrison has an artistic writing style in which she uses creative techniques of narration, a poetic language, and history to allow her reader to become the character and feel what they are feeling, see what they are seeing, and experience everything they are going through. • She tells stories of the life as an African American so her readers can understand all of the experiences which they faced so the history is not lost and the difficulties are not forgotten. • Language is knowledge.

  14. Language’s Impact on Society I HAVE A DREAM…

  15. URL • Slide 1: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Morrison-Toni.html • Slide 2 http://www.colorlines.com/archives/2014/02/flashback_photos_of_toni_morrison.html • http://www.howard.edu/msrc/treasures_howardiana_community.html • Slide 3: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/13/toni-morrison-home-son-love • http://www.thenation.com/slideshow/slide-show-obamas-supreme-choice • Slide 4: http://www.ambassadors.net/archives/issue25/profile3.htm • Slide 5/6: http://www.cowboyenglish.pbworks.com/w/page/23646123/Beloved%20Journals • Slide 10: http://www.grammar.about.com/od/rs/a/repetitionterm.htm • Slide 15: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

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