Constructing Black Subjectivity

Trauma and Recovery in Toni Morrison’s novels

Abstract

Trauma and recovery are the two ends of the process that Toni Morrison’s novels are centred around. Characters carry either transgenerational traumas or they experience them in early childhood. Once they are traumatised, they are much more likely to receive several layers of wounds in the future. This essay explores the different types and sources of trauma, as well as ways of recovery, in five of Toni Morrison’s novels: The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Home, A Mercy and God Help the Child. It concludes that all the main characters suffer from being neglected and refused as children; some of them were said to be ugly and/or used as bodies (objects) by their parents. Social acceptance and forgiveness are identified as the main sources of the healing process as storytelling starts with the creation of a listener (often in another communicational level: the trauma victim narrates the story to the reader of the novel), thereby establishing a relationship between the trauma victim and the community.