Among Women: Toni Morrison's Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters. Hazel Ruth Reames Caillouet Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1997 Among Women: Toni Morrison's Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters. Hazel Ruth reames Caillouet Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Caillouet, Hazel Ruth reames, "Among Women: Toni Morrison's Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters." (1997). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6470. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6470 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS I This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AMONG WOMEN: TONI MORRISON’S MOTHERS, SISTERS, AND DAUGHTERS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Hazel Ruth R. Caillouet B.S., Louisiana State University, 1982 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1990 August 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9808727 UMI Microform 9808727 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D e d ic a tio n To the women in the trees Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements A special thank you to my committee members-Carol Mattingly, John Lowe, Lucie Brind A’mour, Bill Pinar, Emily Toth, David England, and especially Rick Moreland-thank you for your patience and guidance over the years. And to the family of Jo Roberts, please know that her gentle words and enthusiasm for literature will remain with me forever. To my son, Daniel, thank you for the love and companionship and the space that gave me the ability to complete this work. And to my father, thank you for teaching me that hard work is necessary, important, and not always financially rewarding. And I greatly appreciate your faith in dreaming. I must also thank Abby, the dissertation cat, who helped me so much on those late nights by providing the comforts of his companionship but mostly by kindly sleeping on top of my discarded drafts so that I could distinguish them from my better work. Above all others, I must thank the women of my life-m y own mothers, sisters, and daughters who have taught me and loved me and shown me myself. The mothering, grandmothering, and othermothering that I have been given by Virginia, Catherine, Dot, Faye, Nette, Sis, Martha, and so many others provided me with the strength to believe in this project Although I have never had a daughter, I know that my students have challenged me and guided me as a daughter would. My sisters-both kin and spirit-Mary, Gay, Mary Ellen, Kelley, Pam, Pepper, Ann, Nora, Melissa, Amy, Emily, and, most of all, Barbara--my editor, my companion, my what-word-should-l-use-here kind of thinker, my warrior princess motivator-you have helped me realize that I cannot and should not accomplish anything alone. Thank you all for believing in me, encouraging me, and loving me. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication.............................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................ iii Abstract................................................................................................ v Chapter 1 Introduction Among Women: Toward a Recursive Model of Relationships............... 1 Chapter 2 Among Misfits, Murderers, and Malcontents: Exceptionalities and the Threat of Isolation............................................ 26 Chapter 3 Among Sisters: The Power of Two in Developing aWomen'sCommunity.......................................................................... 46 Chapter 4 Among Mothers: Boundaries of Love and Self in Maternal Narratives ............................................................................ 97 Chapter 5 Among Daughters: Daughter-centricity and the Acceptance of Mother Ancestry. ......................................................... 139 Bibliography.......................................................................................... 172 Vita...................................................................................................... 178 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract This work explores the relationships between and among women in the fiction of Toni Morrison. Morrison’s mothers, sisters, and daughters cannot function without the love and support of a community of women. Those characters who abandon or reject this community become lost to their own world. Morrison women, thus, find themselves in and through other women. The first two chapters establish Morrison’s characters in relation to those of other authors in order to show her unique sense of community. Comparing Morrison's work to Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and her emphasis on individuality and isolation illustrates Morrison’s dependence on community and heritage in building a women’s ancestry. Morrison’s treatment of isolated individuals who reject the community is examined in chapter two through comparison to characters from the works of such authors as Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor. Some of Morrison’s pariahs or misfits may have committed crimes which caused them to appear to be apart from the rest of the community while others reject the mother’s ancestry in an attempt to find their own. Morrison’s characters are not the grotesque figures described by many of these other authors, however, because they function within the society and because the society is a pariah society. These are not mere caricatures used to develop the plot. Chapter three focuses on Toni Morrison's sisters who help one another find the self and a place in the community. Discovering their role as a sister leads women to appreciate themselves, other women, and their community. Morrison’s sisters are of primary importance, since all other women’s relationships must strive to reach that level of equality and strength. Chapter four shows that Morrison mothers need other women to help them negotiate v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. proper boundaries. To realize these boundaries mothers must trust in themselves, the child, and the community. Sisterhood is, thus, of utmost importance to motherhood. In chapter five, I illustrate how Morrison’s daughters find themselves through the mother's story. Morrison daughters who do not learn the mother story cannot find the self. Successful Morrison daughters need to move toward sisterhood to become part of community. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter One Introduction Among Women: Toward a Recursive Model of Relationships “Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face ‘cause they don’t love that either. You got to love it, you!” (Beloved 88). These are the words of Baby Suggs, hoiy, who preaches in the Clearing, reminding