Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart

Index

Abbey, Sharon, 182n2 academic mothering, xi–xii, 8 activism, motherhood as, 7–9, 128 African American community. See community , African American African American culture. See cultural bearing; community, African American African American identity. See identity, African American Ajax (Sula), 102 Allen, Jeffner, 181n1 Alice (Jazz), 41, 159 ancestral memory. See memory ancient properties, 20–23 in The Bluest Eye, 52, 55, 125–126 disconnection from, 24, 42–43, 73 mammy figure and, 21–22 modern womanhood and, 22 in Morrison, 41, 43–44 Morrison on, 20, 23, 64 in Paradise, 164 in Song Of Solomon, 78–80, 93–107 in Tar Baby, 64–68, 109 wife role causing loss of, 26, 78–79 womanhood and, 22 See also cultural bearing; funk Anna (Paradise), 167, 169 assimilation, 17, 43 in The Bluest Eye, 50, 76–78 in Morrison, 75–76 in Song Of Solomon, 72–74, 76–78, 81, 91 Awkward, Michael, 74, 120–121 Baby Suggs (Beloved), 129 Bakerman, Jane, 22, 186n18, 187n6 Baldwin, James, 17–18 Ballingsley, Andrew, 184n3 Bassin, Donna, 20 beauty, concepts of in The Bluest Eye, 50–54, 57 in Tar Baby, 65 See also identity, African American Beloved (character) (Beloved), 85–90, 189n6 as metaphor, 39–40, 85–87, 89 Morrison on, 138 Sethe and, 85–90, 132, 136 Wild (Jazz) as incarnation of, 159–160, 189n7 Beloved (novel), 85–91 birth metaphor in, 86 breast milk in, 129–130, 132–134 cultural bearing in, 127 heroism in, maternal, 133–134, 138 maternal identity in, 87–89, 137–138 Morrison on, 138 motherhood in, 129–132, 134–138 motherline in, 85, 87, 89–91 motherlove in, 130–133 nurturance in, 127, 130–132, 139 preservation in, 121, 136 rememory in, 87–89 slavery in, 74, 85–87, 127–134, 139, 189n4 violence in, maternal, 134–138, 194n23 Beloved, characters in. See Amy Denver; Baby Suggs; Beloved; Circe; Ella; Guitar; Paul D.; Stamp Paid; Sethe; Sweet Benjamin, Jessica, 90 217 Index Bernard, Candace, 13 Bernard, Wanda Thomas, 4, 8–9, 12 Billie Delia (Paradise), 140, 165, 168 birth and womb metaphors in Beloved (novel), 86 in Jazz, 160–161 in Paradise, 141–142, 164, 167–168 in Song Of Solomon, 94, 97 in Sula, 149–151 in Tar Baby, 67–68, 108–109 birth, presentation in literature, 192n12 Bjork, Patrick, 50, 102, 104, 111, 115, 123, 147–148, 187n5 Bloch, Ruth, 192n7 The Bluest Eye, The, 47–58, 119–122 African American identity in, 50, 52–53 ancient properties, 52, 55, 125–126 assimilation, 50, 76–78 beauty in, 50–54, 57 cultural bearing, 55, 125–126 the funk, 24, 47–48 gender hegemony, 47–58 identity and selfhood, 50, 55 incest in, 57 kitchens in, 51, 56–57, 126 milk symbolism, 56 Morrison on, 50 motherhood in, 54–55 motherline in, 51–52, 55–56 nature in, 56 nuclear family (as portrayed in the primer), 48–49, 74–75, 120 nurturance in, 55, 126 Persephone and Demeter myth compared to, 55–56 preservative love in, 44, 119–120 work as empowerment in, 54 The Bluest Eye, characters in. See Cholly Breedlove; Claudia MacTeer; the Fishers; Frieda; the MacTeers; Pauline; Pecola Bly, Robert, 161–162, 195n6 Bouson, Brooks, 86, 189n4 Brandt, Di, xi Braxton, Joanne, 192n10 breeder image, 127–128 Breedloves. See Cholly Breedlove; Pauline; Pecola Bush, Barbara, 192n8 Butler-Evans, Eliot, 76, 107, 186n2 Byerman, Keith E., 191n6 Byrd, Susan (Song Of Solomon). See Susan Byrd Caplan, Paula, 59 Carmean, Karen, 50, 52, 66, 80, 99, 123, 187n4 Chicken Little (Sula), 60 children, empowerment of, 3, 11–12, 18–19, 26–28, 33–37, 41–42 See also daughters; sons Chodorow, Nancy, 88–89, 181–182n1, 188n1 Cholly Breedlove (The Bluest Eye), 50, 52, 57, 191n3 Christ, Carol, 95 Christian, Barbara, 65 Circe (Beloved), 97, 103, 106 class, 29–32, 184–185n4, 185n6 Claudia MacTeer (The Bluest Eye), 55–57, 120–121, 126 Collins, Patricia Hill, 2–3, 5, 7–11, 34, 81, 119 color in Morrison, use of descriptive, 24, 51, 65–66, 125 community, African American cultural bearing in, 23 daughters’ role in the, 13 disconnection from: 16–17, 62, 103; in Sula (novel), 62–63 sons and, 103 womanhood and, 23 community mothering, 5–8, 34, 139–140, 183n2 Morrison on, 84 See also othermothering Connie (Paradise), 41, 164–167 the convent (Paradise), 165–168 women of, 164–168 cultural bearing, 124–126 in Beloved (novel), 127 in The Bluest Eye, 55, 125–126 cultural preservation through, 11–12, 17, 36, 51...