An Administered Life in “Paradise”

The article examines Toni Morrison’s Paradise, arguing that the Ruby men’s slaughter of the Convent women is instigated by their fear of the outsiders. While fear originates from within, the founding fathers of the town go after the Convent women because these women elude the understanding of “good women” as conceived by the town’s founding fathers. The article analyzes the relation between Ruby and the Convent by using Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s idea of an “administered life.” Morrison’s Ruby serves as a good example of how an administered community perceives as threat anything that falls outside the scope of its power and knowledge. Finally, the article focuses on an alternative way of looking at the “othered” peoples, as shown by Reverend Misner, Anna Flood, and other migratory subjectivities. This alternative perspective is marked by, following Horkheimer and Adorno, a reflective attitude to the world.