International Journal of Applied Research 2017; 3(9): 655-658

ISSN Print: 2394-7500

ISSN Online: 2394-5869
Impact Factor: 5.2
The black community women and their identity
IJAR 2017; 3(9): 655-658
www.allresearchjournal.com
Received: 10-07-2017 Paritosh Mandal
Accepted: 19-08-2017
Abstract
Paritosh Mandal The concept of identity is regarded as one of the most important concepts in contemporary literature.
Research Scholar, Sunrise
Individuals and societies always search for an identity that gives meaning to their existence. The lives
University, Alwar, Rajasthan,
of African-American women have been critically affected by racism, sexism, and classism, which are
India
systems of societal and psychological restrictions. The racist, sexist, and classist structure of the
African-American community compartmentalizes its various ethnic groups, denigrates the colored as
inferior and characterizes males and females as centre and margin respectively. Black women are
relegated to an underclass by virtue of their race and sex. Black women have been victimized not only
by the racist and sexist assumptions but also by class exploitation which is, perhaps, the greatest source
of oppression of the blacks in America. The basic myth of racism is that the white is more intelligent
and more virtuous than the blacks by the mere fact of being white. Furthermore, whiteness is
automatically equated with beauty and culture, and blackness with ugliness and slavery. Sexism
mutilated the blacks and minds of African-American women and, what was worse, defiled their sexual
beings and scarred them psychologically. Thus, to be black and female is to suffer from the twin
disadvantages of racial discrimination and gender bias. The double whammy of blatant white racism
and black male sexism have hurled black women headlong into the dismal abyss of ‘geometric
oppression.’ If the dominant racist group has condemned them through an abusive ideology, black men,
by virtue of their phallic superiority, have held black women as their scapegoats, victimizing them in
every conceivable way. Black women suffer not only because they are black and female but also
because they are economically poor. The ideal concept of woman in American community is not just
racist and sexist but essentially classist. In an African-American society, black women, who could
hardly approximate the norm, are discriminated against and dehumanized. Therefore, the present paper
aims at giving an overall view of the subject of identity in African-American culture with particular
focus on African American women playwrights. It has become quite obvious that the women
playwrights aim at pushing the blacks, especially the women, to feel proud of their black identity.

Keywords: Identity, African American, women, black community

Introduction
In America, Black writing was the result of the condition of the oppression of the black
people. Black writers voice their oppression and suppression in all walks of life. Their
writing is a kind of social protest and human enlightenment. It depicts black life and black
culture. It is mostly written by Black African-American writers, mostly women in general
about women in particular. It narrates black women’s lives and their struggles and
victimization due to racism, sexism and capitalism. In fact, the literature of the black women
is expansive and more liberating as it deals with the political machinations of the racial and
sexual beliefs. Even the very foundation of black African - American Literature was the
sorrow and strain of the black African – American community and slavery. Black African –
American writing can be traced back to Philip Wheatley. By the end of 1970s, many writers
came into focus within the black African – American writing. They dealt with the issues like
racism, sexism and classism in American society. Black fiction in the 1970s and 1980s
moved away from a homogenized sense of a unified and unifying black community and over
reliance upon the binarism of positive/negative images of the black people. It is engaged with
a pluralistic sense of experience incorporating the multiple subjectivities that constitute the
Corresponding Author: individual’s sense of identity. Issues of ethnicity are articulated and explored within a larger
Paritosh Mandal hierarchy of articulated differences: racial, gendered, cultural, and sexual differences. Toni
Research Scholar, Sunrise Morrison was born in 1931 in Ohio, which embraced in microcosm the schizophrenic nature
University, Alwar, Rajasthan,
of the union itself in which the free states of the north and the slave states of the south were
India
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brought together. In fact, in presenting Ohio in her novels, her parents and other people. It exhibits domestic violence
she has ii two major concerns: first, it reflects the pursuit of and the distorted Parent – child relationship. It also
individual advancement by black people in a white highlights the friendship between Pecola Breedlove, Claudia
dominated nation and culture; second, it suggests her and Frieda MacTeer. Pecola is the object of scorn in the
interest in the reclamation of ‘black solidarity’. In fact, she black community because she is ugly by the society’s
is concerned with the memory of slavery and white standards. The novel shows the devastating effects of the
America’s continual denial of the black people and their false standards of beauty on the human relationships
rights. She chronicles the lives and concerns of the between the individual and the society. iv Sula shows
Midwestern black community in her novels. Morrison not violation of friendship, husband – wife relationship, and
only advocates the need for strong and healthy human love affairs. It mainly traces the friendship between two
bonding in African – American society but also she deals young black girls –
with the pain and agony caused by the African – American Sula Peace and Nel Wright. In the end of the novel, Sula has
society and various issues like slavery, sexism, and so on. to die and Nel has to lament over her death even though
The black women suffered a lot in their community and lost Sula has separated Nel from her husband. Sula – Nel
their identity. In her novels, she portrays women and their bonding/ friendship provides more scope for critical
problems and fading away of identity in the black examination. Sula mocks and challenges the attitudes and
community. Her themes include racism, slavery, sexism, values of the black society/ community. Consequently, she
segregation, quest for identity, Search for self and so on. is ostracized by the black society. Solomon is the story of a
Like other black women novelists of the contemporary character called Milkman David. This novel delineates the
world, Morrison analyses the role of women, community barren and broken relationship between Milkman and his
and the search for an identity and an authentic self in parents. His father loves the possession of property above
existence. Morrison is highly esteemed as a unique and all; whereas, his mother loves the deified memory of her
powerful voice in the contemporary African – American father. In it, Ruth David and her husband Macon Dead II
literature as she chronicles the lives and concerns of the have twisted and tangled relations. Macon’s infatuation for
Midwestern community in her novels. Her fiction depicts money and Ruth’s obsession for the memories of her dead
the struggles and joys of the journey of the blacks to self – father result into the distortion of husband – wife
awareness, blending the real and surreal to explore the relationship. It also highlights the love affair between
shortcomings of everyday life of the blacks. The Milkman Dead and his cousin Hagar.
denouements of many of her novels favour community, the Baby relates the love affair between Jadine and Son. Jadine
moral responsibility of individuals to each other, the is a beautiful black model, moulded by white culture and
reclamation of traditional black values, and the importance Son is a black young man, who loves her. But this love
of ancestors. affair is put on trials because of the conflicting values and
A number of factors contributed to Morrison’s development lifestyles. Morrison also focuses on the loveless marriage
of aesthetic consciousness – environment, family between Margaret and her husband. It also depicts a cross-
background, community, African – American folklore, her cultural relationship. Jadine is a quasi – member of two
educational background, early professional life, Random communities – the family of her black parents and the white
House experience and literary works by great writers. family of her financial benefactors. In this novel, black and
Morrison has written novels like The Bluest Eye (1970), white worlds are placed together, which reveal the full
Sula iii (1974), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), spectrum of human relationships, amongst the women and
Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), Paradise (1998) and Love men of the Black Community. v Beloved shows the
(2003). Her Eye is set in a small Midwestern town in relationship of Sethe to her child. Sethe is a former slave,
Lorain, Ohio, during the years of economic depression. It who killed her baby in the past, rather than to have her live a
tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, who by hating her black life of slavery. It gives an experience of the havoc happened
self, yearns for blue eyes, which she believes will make her because of the unfathomable affection of a slave mother for
white, extinguish her position as a Pariah and give her love her child. It also portrays the communal life of Sethe and
and security that are desperately missing from her life. Her Halle, whose matrimonial relationship is at the mercy of
Sula may be taken as a testament of black consciousness their white masters. The relationship between Sethe and
among women like Sula and Nel. Solomon compels one to Paul D is yet another variation of man –woman relationship
get in touch with his or her African heritage in order to in a Black Community. Jazz explores a lofty love between
comprehend and appropriate one’s true self and establish a Joe Trace,a salesman of women’s beauty products, and
higher quality of existence. Baby examines the relationship Dorcas, a teenage high school girl. For Dorcas, everything is
between the blacks and the whites. It is a novel about the like a picture show. Once, she goes dancing without him.
black community. Beloved artistically dramatizes a haunting So, in a fit of overwhelming desire, he shoots her. In her
amalgam of the past and present experiences of an escaped dying declaration, she refuses to identify her killer. The
female slave, tracing the heroine’s quest for meaning and novel delineates the sublimity of the teenage love, although
whiteness in slavery and in freedom. Jazz depicts the Joe is a married man and has an extra-marital relationship
experiments of a black community. Love manifests different with Dorcas. The novel presents a triangular love relation
facets of love – hate, lust, envy, attachment and so on. between Joe, his wife Violet, and the teenage girl Dorcas. In
Morrison explores multiple meanings of love in different Paradise, the young mother, Mavis, beset by unbearable
human relationships. Morrison in Eye focuses on a distorted circumstances and abused by her husband, leaves her
parent – child relationship in the character of Pecola husband and her infant twins in a Cadillac car on a hot day
Breedlove, an eleven-year-old ugly black girl, who longs for with the windows up and babies die. She then repents and
the bluest eye, which would make her beautiful. This novel says that they were only children, who were not on any trial
shows how the lack of beauty batters her relationship with for her. It presents the picture of a male dominated world.
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The women living at the convent are either abused by their Morrison alternately shows the black women as victors and
husbands or lovers or having some unhappy past. The black as victims throughout the novel, but their ultimate aura of
men of Ruby see them as bad and a threat to their moral strength is embedded in the fertile, earthy, untamed images
lives. Love depicts love –hate relationship with lust, envy of the South. Like Eloe and the Caribbean island in Baby,
and attachment. It reflects the different facets of love, like Shalimar in Solomon, and like the Bottom in Sula, the
shifting from desire and lust and ultimately comes to vi full nurturing places are feminine. The Oven and the Convent
circle to the indelible and overwhelming first love. May, are the primary images in Morrison’s Paradise, and they
Christine, Head, Junior, Vida are women obsessed by Bill represent the femaleness of the novel. Although, the men
Cosey. He shapes their yearnings for a father, husband, built the Oven, which was the communal gathering place for
lover, guardian, and friend. the town, its importance is that it was the place where the
Finally, Morrison has made it her unique canon to project women baked the bread that sustained the community.
the battered women as their heroines in their novels. She Convents have traditionally been situated away from the
shows how the white feminists have miserably been abortive world of men and have represented havens for women
in their so called projection of the problems of women saving themselves for God. In Paradise, the Convent
universally. Although feminist theory has examined the way represents the last refuge for women trying to find
a patriarchal language fails to articulate women’s themselves and an escape from the sordid lives society has
experience, studies of domestic violence need to remain dealt with them. Whereas the Oven embodies mystical
self-conscious. The language in these feminist studies omits qualities tied to the nurturing actions of women, it loses this
African - American women’s self-representation of their influence as the town of Haven, Oklahoma, comes to
own battered bodies in domestic violence cases. represent the damaging power of the men, who embody the
In her novels, Morrison proposes that it is the pressure and physical and emotional destruction of women. The five
false values forced upon black women by the white society women of the Convent come to represent a challenge to the
that hamper the stability of the black family in general and male authority, a challenge that the men of Ruby must
women in particular. K. Sumana in The Novels of Toni eliminate. Morrison uses the brutality of the assault on the
Morrison: A Study in Race, Gender, and Class says: women of the Convent as an indication of the emotionless,
“Morrison’s characters discover that they escape the black cold, calculating nature of men in fear of losing their power
community’s socio-economic disorder only to face, later, over women, and thereby their dominant position in the
the all-encompassing psychological chaos characteristic of society. The mystical survival of the Convent women,
life in a society polarized along racial lines” (76). however, moves from the material world of men to the
Morrison’s novels artistically document her awareness of spiritual world of women.
and concern for the historical conditions of oppression of Morrison in her novels clearly indicates that in spite of their
African people in America. “In her first three novels, Eye, strength, courage, intuition and knowledge, women like
Sula and Solomon, Morrison confronts the notion of ideal Pilate or Sula, have been, throughout history, looked out of
family to which the black community aspires and what is a fully integrated myth in which they are central and in
more, exposes the surface respectability and security which they can connect to and transmit a regenerative
represented by the husband, wife, and children” (Sumana, legacy, and therefore make themselves and those around
The Novels of 96). Further, Sumana writes: them. On the whole, the myth of heroism allows women to
However, after her first three novels Morrison shifts from assist in and benefit from the quest for a self and place
polarizing feminine households and nuclear families to within the family, society, community, and culture.
exposing the decadence of the white family, and finally to Morrison’s development of the women characters in her
historicizing the emotional and psychological obstacles to novels parallels the way in which most black women
familial bliss incurred by blacks. She thus expands her combine their concern for feminism and ethnicity. Morrison
vision of the family beyond the constraints of time, place exposes the damages that sexist oppression, both inside and
and dimension in an endeavour to reconstruct the origins outside of the ethnic groups, has had on black women but
and significance of family. (96-97) she does not allow these negatives to characterize the whole
Though all the three elements-race, gender and class-are of their experience. She does not advocate a solution to their
present in all the novels of Morrison, the emphasis on them oppression-an existential, political feminism that alienates
varies from novel to novel. Eye examines racism as a black women from their ethnic group. Morrison is more
primary source of oppression of the Africans. Sula lays concerned with celebrating the unique feminine cultural
emphasis on gender oppression. Solomon emphasizes on the values that black women have developed in spite of and
importance of knowing one’s history to determine one’s often because of their oppression. Generally, through her
identity. Baby is about class contradictions that keep main characters, who are mainly black women, Morrison
African people divided. Beloved is about the solution- reveals the dynamic blacks who live in towns, coming to
collective class struggle, that will help solve the exploitation grip with their search for selfhood in the empty, meaningless
and oppression of the African people. Certainly, no one world, whether urban or agrarian, to which they belong.
could choose and develop such themes as racism, gender Through her characters, Morrison forces readers to see the
oppression, identity crisis, class contradictions and class value of a life that is authentic because the individual
exploitation within the African race, as well as collective assumes responsibility for the self. They express either an
class struggle and women bonding, without herself having a effort of the will or a freedom of the will. She reminds of the
commitment to struggle for African people. And, certainly importance of “Flying without ever leaving the ground” (SS
no one would be concerned enough to shape her works into 340), of accepting and performing the existential art of self-
narrative structures that enhance the themes, without herself creation, and consequently of knowing what one must know
being interested in turning theory into practice. in order to become a complete, fully aware human being.

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