Gloria Naylor & Toni Morrison

Authors never begin with nothing when they sit down to write. They begin with their lives and with the stories that they grew up with, which is to say that they begin not only with their own experiences but with those of their parents and all the generations before whose stories and lives are still remembered. When a novelist begins her first book, she begins, at least in part, by unraveling these layers of memory and narrative that form her own life up to that point. And with each successive book she then begins her own process of the layering of stories, so that each new book is in some measure - as hard as it may be to perceive on a first reading - a retelling of the stories that she has told before. This re-mingling of tales is apparent in the works of both Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison.

This paper examines one work by each of these authors - Naylor's Linden Hills and Morrison's Beloved, exploring how each of these authors brings into focus issues of class, race, and gender in contemporary American life while at the same time creating complex and self-referential commentaries on the nature of writing, of storytelling, and of creating works that fall within the canon of High Art. The paper examines the work of Naylor in somewhat greater length because this author has been examined in less detail than Morrison.

Naylor's first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, chronicled the plight of eight black women living in an urban lower-class cul-de-sac. It is an essentially reali

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merely forgetfulness on the part of author and editor. (Why, for example, does one of the Nedeed wives order snakeroot, powdered dove's heart and castor oil for her kitchen? This event is never explained, although Naylor has the entire ending of the book in which to do so.) The allegorical structure of Linden Hills marks Naylor as a novelist willing to take risks, not only in terms of style but also of substance, for while many novels have by now been written about various forms of African-American experiences, very few address the nature of life as an assimilated black. Naylor's cautionary tale about the black middle class in America suggests many of the perils of such a life and examines how outward signs of success may in fact signal failure. One of the greatest strengths of her book is that she offers a fresh insight into what is a very old question: How do you succeed materially without losing your soul? This question has proved especially difficult for black Americans to answer because they have found throughout the history of the country that wherever and however one climbs the ladder of success, there will be racism. Under these conditions, if you give up what centers you, what is unique to you - then you are lost. The pre

Category: Literature - G