Community Building in Toni Morrison's Novels: Love, A Mercy, Home and God Help the Child

Abstract

This thesis will focus on building and maintaining communities in Toni Morrison's works published after 2000, which are Love (2003), A Mercy (2008), Home (2012), and God Help the Child (2015). These novels explore the dynamics of racialized gender relationships in fostering the development of communities. The concept of intersectionality, which examines the interconnectedness of social identities such as sexuality, gender, class, and race, offers a framework for evaluating the difficulties faced by the characters. In the first chapter, how the legacy of slavery and Eurocentric worldview hinder the characters’ capacity to establish positive interpersonal connections that contribute to the well-being of the community is explored. The main focus is on the impact of white-dominating standards on African American communities, particularly in regard to their interpersonal connections. In the second chapter, an analysis is conducted on Morrison’s changing viewpoint regarding power, gender, and race within present-day African American communities. The author’s last two novels prominently focus on community development, solidarity, and the characters’ continuous fight for social justice and equality. Morrison’s depictions of the African American experience prompt an exploration of the biased and close- minded perspectives that prevail in society, while cultivating a respect for the resilience and support found within African American communities. The experiences of the characters prove that individuals need to possess a heightened sense of cultural consciousness for African American communities to flourish.