The Liberatory Possibilities of Waywardness in Toni Morrison's Paradise
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses May 2021 "They don't need men and they don't need God": The Liberatory Possibilities of Waywardness in Toni Morrison's Paradise Mary Frankovich Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Recommended Citation Frankovich, Mary, ""They don't need men and they don't need God": The Liberatory Possibilities of Waywardness in Toni Morrison's Paradise" (2021). All Theses. 3490. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3490 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “THEY DON’T NEED MEN AND THEY DON’T NEED GOD”: THE LIBERATORY POSSIBILITIES OF WAYWARDNESS IN TONI MORRISON’S PARADISE A Thesis Presented to the Graduate SChool of Clemson University In PArtiAl Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MAster of Arts English by MAry Rose FrankoviCh MAy 2021 ACCepted by: Dr. Rhondda ThomAs Dr. Erin Goss Dr. MAtthew Hooley ABSTRACT While Toni Morrison’s work is often a topiC of critiCAl conversAtions regarding raCe and gender in the United StAtes, less attention is paid to her 1997 novel Paradise. Morrison’s mAny-lAyered, multi-voiCed work explores the tensions between the rigidly patriArchal, all-blACk town of Ruby, OklAhomA, and the wAywArd women who live in a neArby mAnsion known as the Convent. The women creAte an unlikely community at the Convent, and Ruby’s patriArchs are so threAtened by them that they murder the women. In this paper, I argue that the women in the Convent community enaCt alternative wAys of being by clAiming wAywArdness as a liberatory subjeCt position. SAidiya HArtmAn’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals provides definitions of wAywArd and wAywArdness from whiCh I contextualize the women’s community as well as their relAtionship to Ruby. Drawing further on ElizAbeth SpelmAn’s work in “WomAn as Body: Ancient and Contemporary Views,” I conneCt the body/spirit diChotomy engendered by PlAto, ChristiAn, and Western philosophies to Ruby’s rigid stAndards of womAnhood whiCh the Convent women defy. The body/spirit binary relegates women to the objeCt position of wAywArdness when they are perceived to be lACking virtue. However, when the Convent women clAim wAywArdness as a liberatory subjeCt position, they rejeCt the body/spirit binary altogether and unite the two through a spirit work ritual in the Convent’s cellAr. I contend the women’s wAywArdness, the Convent, and their ritual Are interlocking faCets of their transformAtion. WAywArdness is both the basis of their ii Community and the sociAl position whiCh allows them to imAgine And eventually enaCt Alternative wAys of being apart from patriArchal control. iii DEDICATION To my husband Steven, who provided me with unending support throughout my studies and graCiously aCCommodated my sChedule and needs as we sheltered in plACe this past yeAr. Thank you for listening to my triAls and triumphs, and for nodding along even when you had no ideA what I wAs tAlking about. And to Luna, who offered love and support in her own wAy. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Rhondda ThomAs, Dr. Erin Goss, and Dr. MAtthew Hooley. EACh of you has plAyed an importAnt role in shaping my graduate sChool experience, and your feedbaCk and support has been invaluable. I would espeCiAlly like to thank Dr. ThomAs, who has challenged and encouraged me throughout this process. It has been a pleAsure to develop this projeCt alongside someone who shares my enthusiAsm for Toni Morrison. I would also like to thank my professors at WAlsh University, espeCiAlly Dr. Ty HAwkins, whose mentorship wAs an invaluable part of my undergraduate experience. I Am grateful to have had his guidance and support As I prepared for graduate sChool. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends. To the new friends I’ve mAde as well as my wonderful support system baCk home, thank you. Completing a bulk of this degree during a global pandemiC has certAinly been a challenge, but it has mAde me far more grateful for your loving support and friendship. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAge ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 WAYWARDNESS VS. THE PATRIARCHY ............................................................... 5 “IN THIS PLACE OF ALL PLACES”: WAYWARD WOMEN IN A PATRIARCHAL SPACE ............................................. 16 REALIZING THE “BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENT” OF WAYWARDNESS ............... 26 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 38 NOTES .......................................................................................................................... 39 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 49 vi INTRODUCTION In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals, SAidiya HArtmAn expounds on the definitions of wAywArd and wAywArdness. She stAtes that being wAywArd is to “inhabit the world in wAys inimiCAl to those deemed proper and respeCtAble;”1 wAywArdness is “An improvisAtion with the terms of sociAl existence, when the terms have alreAdy been diCtAted.”2 HArtmAn’s sCrupulous definitions of wAywArdness shift the power relAtions inherent in deeming someone wAywArd. While the word is often embedded with negative ConnotAtions—synonymous with “troublesome, riotous, tumultuous”3—HArtmAn’s definitions reveAl the Agency of the wAywArd individual as they have the opportunity to extriCAte themselves from hegemoniC systems of power to engage in a “beautiful experiment in how-to-live.”4 The wAywArd person’s “improvisAtion with the terms of sociAl existence” CAn creAte new wAys of being apart from communities invested in preserving patriArchal norms. Using HArtmAn’s subversive definitions5, I will examine the group of wAywArd women in Toni Morrison’s 1997 novel Paradise. Morrison’s mAny- lAyered, multi-voiCed work explores the tensions between the rigidly patriArchal, all-blACk town of Ruby, OklAhomA, And the wAywArd women who live in a neArby mAnsion known As the Convent. The women creAte an unlikely community at the Convent, and Ruby’s patriArchs Are so threAtened by them that they murder the women, a sCene whiCh tAkes plACe in the novel’s opening pages. Perhaps both beCAuse and in spite of their deAths, the women’s community presents a riCh opportunity for exploring the liberatory possibilities 1 of wAywArdness: that women cAn ClAim wAywArdness As a subjeCt position in order to live unencumbered by, or perhaps even apart from, patriArchal control. Morrison based the novel’s preCipitAting confliCt on a story she heArd in Brazil that “overwhelmed” her: a group of BlACk nuns were shot beCAuse the locAls who lived neAr their convent believed they were praCtiCing pagan rites.6 In Morrison’s fiCtion, however, the mAnsion wAs never a convent, and the women are not nuns. Aside from ConsolAtA, the wAywArd women are running from traumAs And confliCts. MAvis leAves home beCAuse she is unable to deAl with her grief after leAving her twin babies in her locked cAr, where they suffocAted to deAth. Gigi seeks a purpose and something to replACe the imAge of a little BlACk boy shot in the OAklAnd riots. HAunted by her abandonment And sexual abuse in foster homes, SeneCA finds the Convent after briefly engaging in sex work. And PAllAs, a teenager on the run after her adult boyfriend leAves her for her mother, Arrives at the Convent after being sexually assAulted. Ruby’s leAders tArget the Convent women not only beCAuse of their wAywArdness, but also beCAuse their gender and, by extension, reproductive cApabilities, pose an impliCit threAt to the town’s raCiAl purity. Morrison inverts the typiCAl “skin privilege”7 of Colorism by creAting an exclusionary dark-skinned community “that refused entry to the mixed raCe.”8 Colorism refers to skin tone disCrimination and usually indiCAtes prejudiCe Against dark-skinned people within Communities of color. Audrey Kerr defines Colorism As “the implosion of raCism—the internalizAtion of slAvery and Jim Crowism.”9 By repliCAting antiblACk disCrimination, colorism reveAls the “desire to imAgine the sucCess And opportunity afforded to whites.”10 The desire to imAgine and aChieve white sucCess 2 AppeArs to animAte FAirly, OklAhomA, the light-skinned all-blACk town whiCh rejeCted the Old FAthers presumAbly beCAuse they were too poor and too blACk. As a result of the DisAllowing, the Old and New FAthers tAke defiAnt pride in their blue-blACk skin and believe they must mAintAin raCiAl purity. Morrison avoids raCiAl indiCAtors for the Convent women except for the novel’s first line, whiCh reveAls one of the four new residents is white. “They shoot the white girl first”11 indiCAtes