Baker 1 Obstacles of African American Motherhood and Their Significance for Identity Formation in Toni Morrisons Jazz and

A Mercy Toni Morrison addresses the many complexities of African American motherhood throughout her novels, each representing the mothers as complex people and influential forces in the lives of others. Women who are generally oppressed and forgotten find agency through their ability to build and sustain families, creating a community. Whether a biological mother, a substitute mother, or an absent mother, these womens actions resound throughout the lives of their children. In Morrisons Jazz and A Mercy in particular, motherhood is deeply intertwined with fatherhood. The losing of a father and husband in Jacob Vaark, Violets father, and Dorcas father, to name a few, is an impetus for the destabilizing of the mother. A familial contract is broken by the fathers. The absence of fathers and the attempted destruction of African American motherhood through the institution of slavery create generations of orphans. One can trace the fractured state of black motherhood in Jazz back to its initial destruction in A Mercy. This reality requires Morrisons characters to reinvent and redefine motherhood. The love between families throbs with a pain that is either overcome or succumbed to and infuses a healing element into the love between black families and members of the black community that one can hear expressed in the melancholy but comforting tones in jazz and blues music. In this way, Jazz not only shows the reach of the horrible consequences of slavery but also the ways in which the black community is moving on. The forces that have worked to destroy African American motherhood and that make it unique are varied and cumulative. Mothers are expected to have the power to make whole what

Baker 2 is fractured, but this is made difficult by their femaleness and blackness that the dominant power structures use to strip them of agency. The particular oppressions that African American women experience result from the intersection of their race and gender as Desiree Lewis explains in her essay Myths of Motherhood and Power: The Construction of Black Woman in Literature. She cites Frantz Fanon and Abdul JanMohameds condemnation of the dualism prevalent in racial myths that is used to otherize black people and forms the lens through which dominant white culture views them and teaches them to view themselves. They are the dark and uncivilized other to the white mans clean enlightenment self. This denial of the black self complicates the common female role as mother for black women as Lewis explains, Mothering is represented as a pivotal and extensively supportive activity which coordinates acquisitions of selfhood in a patriarchal system influenced by white-centred myths and hierarchical oppositions (Lewis 36). Black mothers are expected to instill a sense of self in their children without being allowed to possess one of their own. Susan Strehle applies this dualistic perspective to A Mercys colonial America through the fervent belief in American exceptionalism. She writes that, As Morrison invokes it in her most recent novel, a deeply ironic look at American origins, the myth of a chosen people rests on pernicious binary separations between elect and damned, white and black, male and female, New World and Old; it actually exacerbates the settlers mistreatment of the indigenous, poor, and landless and justifies their enslavement of non-white people (Strehle 109). Those without selfhood are easier to possess, so the system on which the United States was built not only favors white people, but is designed to dehumanize black women.

Baker 3 However, motherhood gives black women an agency that allows them to reconstruct themselves. Where before they could not mother their children and were not able to influence their behavior or share their culture with them, black mothers become increasingly able to affect their society by structuring their children to behave according to their unique experience. They construct families, communities, and ideologies. Lewis opens her article by explaining that mainstream feminism struggles to authentically represent black women because their experiences are unique to those of white women. Motherhood is a strong example of this. White feminism fights against women being restricted to motherhood. Motherhood is often seen as a way to confine women and argue against allowing them to act outside of the home. In this case, motherhood could be seen as oppressive. However, for black women who have not been able to mother their children, motherhood allows them to take back some of their identity and agency. For instance, Sorrow becomes Complete when her daughter is born and allows herself to speak. Morrison writes, At one point, Sorrow, prompted by the legitimacy of her new status as a mother, was bold enough to remark to her Mistress, It was good that the blacksmith came to help when you were dying. followed soon after by, [Sorrow] had looked into her daughters eyes; saw in them the gray glisten of a winter sea while a ship sailed by-the-lee. I am your mother, she said. My name is Complete (A Mercy 157-8). Sorrow has had her first child taken away from her and is an orphan herself. She is considered useless by the other women on the farm and is left with no friends or connections. Her child gives her a chance to connect with other people and gives her the motivation to declare her worth. She can therefore obtain a sense of self from her child and then instill that same sense in her daughter.

Baker 4 Michelle Loris adds to the idea that mothers bequeath selfhood in her essay Self and Mutuality: Romantic Love, Desire, Race, and Gender in Toni Morrsions Jazz. She posits that Joe, Violet, and Dorcas struggle with their identities because they were each abandoned by their mothers. They spend the novel searching for their mothers and eventually establish their selfhood to varying degrees. Each of them has also lost their father, but this is not cited as a large influence on their lives. Joe is especially affected by the loss of his mother because he never truly knows her. He cant definitively identify her. Though he is never curious about his father, this haunts him and ultimately leads to his violence against Dorcas. He hunts for Wild, his mother, and Dorcas in the same way, and his killing of Dorcas is foreshadowed in his search for his mother. He muses that, There are boys who have whores for mothers and dont get over it. There are boys whose mothers stagger through town roads when the juke joint slams its door. Mothers who throw their children away or trade them for folding money. He would have chosen any one of them over this indecent speechless lurking insanity. The blast he aimed at the white-oak limbs disturbed nothing, for the shells were in his pocket. The trigger clicked harmlessly (Jazz 179). Later the narrator notes that, To this moment Im not sure what his tears were really for, but I do know they were for more than Dorcas. All the while he was running through the streets in bad weather I thought he was looking for her, not Wilds chamber of gold (Jazz 221). Earlier in the novel Joe claims that he has changed his identity seven times. He is utterly lost without his mother and can only cause destruction. He makes no decisions and lets Violet choose him. Killing Dorcas is one of the few truly active things he does, and its still part of a desperate attempt for him to find his mother.

Baker 5 Andrea OReilly articulates the importance of the mother in her article In Search of My Mothers Garden, I Found My Own: Mother-Love, Healing, and Identity in Toni Morrisons Jazz. She explains that, self-love depends upon the self's first being loved by another self. Before the child can love herself, she must experience herself being loved and learn that she is indeed valuable, and deserving of affection. In all of her writings Morrison emphasizes how essential mothering is for the emotional well-being of children, because it is the mother who first loves the child and gives that child a loved sense of self. Children who are orphaned, abandoned, or denied nurturant mothering are psychologically wounded as adults (OReilly). OReilly focuses on Violet as a psychologically wounded adult, although we can see that Joe is also a great example. Her grandmothers love for a little light-skinned boy and her mothers refusal to mother her make her incapable or at least unwilling to become a mother. OReillys point here puts an emphasis on the cyclical nature of black motherhood. The brokenness from slavery breeds brokenness in black people for generations. What OReilly hints at it, Angelyn Mitchell declares. Jazz, provides the opportunity for a generational examination of three southern Black women whose lives are shaped and complicated by their racialized and genderized historical circumstances in the South (Mitchell 50). She primarily examines this through the role True Belle plays as a mammy. She is removed from her family and her desires are denied. She instead becomes a substitute mother to Vera Louise, a white girl, while her sister becomes a substitute mother for her children. Rose Dear then does not have her mother, which causes her to fail at being a mother to Violet. Violet responds by refusing to ever become a mother. Mitchell points out that Violet does end this cycle because, Violets wholeness occurs after she establishes a sisterly bond with Alice Manfred, Dorcass aunt, from whom she seeks motherly counsel. As in many of Morrisons novels,

Baker 6 mothering is not always done by ones biological mother or by one who is generationally older. Interestingly, Alice and the dead Dorcas are pivotal characters in Violets quest for wholeness as they provide what she lacks in the Northfamily and community (Mitchell 58). Violet does finally become a mother through her interest in Dorcas and her friend Felice. This allows her to establish her identity a little more successfully than Joe does. By the end of the novel she has healed herself and declares her own self-worth just as Complete does. Felice reminisces that, The way [Violet] said it. Not like the me was some tough somebody, or somebody she had put together for show. But like, like somebody she favored and could count on (Jazz 210). Violet genuinely becomes fond of herself where most black women may learn only to identify their humanity at best. She has made it a little past fighting for her right to exist and is able to find happiness in her existence as well. OReilly finds that she achieves this by learning to mother herself, which allows her to be the mother and daughter that she was never able to be. Violet truly represents the progress the black community makes as slavery starts to recede into history. Florens, in A Mercy, acquires a similar sense of self during the height of slavery in America. She may not have achieved the happiness that Violet does, but she is able to fully establish her own worth. Jean Wyatt discusses the initial incidents of motherlessness through slavery in the United States by examining the relationship between Florens and her mother in A Mercy. The psychological damage that Florens endures is a result of miscommunication between mother and daughter that slavery will never allow them to fix. Wyatt writes, Florens's misreading of her mother's original message"Take the girl . . . my daughter"becomes the distorting lens through which she perceives the world. And as a consequence of her separation from her mother,

Baker 7 her capacity to read the meaning of others' words is partially disabled (Wyatt 128). This lack of communication, information, and rootedness follows Florens and many black women for generations, as is illustrated by the women in Jazz. Violet, however, has what Florens did not. She has a community that can give her answers and all of the women in Jazz work together to give each other the information they need to recover from Dorcass death. Instead of always wondering why and how unfortunate events occur, Felice can tell Joe and Violet that Dorcas let herself die. Alice Mansfred and the other members of the community can tell Violet how Dorcas talked and walked, so that she can emulate and understand her. Violet can tell Alice and Felice why she attacked Dorcas at her funeral. These women arent suffering from the missing information that Florens is always struggling to obtain. She doesnt have a black community that can help her fill in the gaps. Florenss life on the farm however does mimic Violets life in the South and the North in that they are able to find substitute mothers. Progress is made by the time the narrative in Jazz takes part in black history, but families are still suffering from imposed separation by white people. True Belle is forced to Baltimore by her white owners and Dorcass father is killed in a race riot. These direct interferences disrupt black families while many more indirect consequences act upon others. Therefore, Violet is forced to find a mother first in her grandmother and then in Alice Mansfred just as Florens is adopted by Lina. The women in Morrisons novels are often willing to mother other peoples children. Substitute motherhood is highly effective because the shared history of oppression is as much a connecting factor as shared blood is. Caring for others allows the entire race to grow and thrive. This is entirely necessary after the brutal attempts made to wipeout the black population. Motherhood and family are more important when the survival of the race is at stake.

Baker 8 Harvey Neptune points out in his article Loving Through Loss: Reading Saidiya Hartmans History of Black Hurt that black Americans had been experiencing more destruction and loss than triumph before they even reached the American shores. Death on the trip to America was a devastating precedent for the death and loss that would be experienced upon arrival. Many of Morrisons characters do triumph in Jazz, but she doesnt shy away from the truth that many were lost. Rose Dears life is filled with Sorrow and she leaves the world hopeless while Dorcass parents die from racial violence and tragic accidents. Their daughter soon follows in a senseless killing caused by too much love and pain. Neptune argues that the pain of loss should not be undermined or forgotten and Jazz has a particular ability to showcase this pain. Golden Gray complicates some of these ideas in his distinctive section in Jazz. Caroline Brown writes in Golden Gray and the Talking Book: Identity as a Site of Artful Construction in Toni Morrisons Jazz that he, appears to be unequipped to establish and nurture these bonds. Immature, sexually repressed, and traumatized by the knowledge of his ancestry, he seems to reject his blackness, as embodied in Wild, who is an object of attraction and repulsion (Brown 638). His mother Vera Louise never truly claims him as her son, and his substitute mother True Belle is repulsive to him due to his rejection of black people. He has no true mother, and this has greatly damaged his perception of himself, but he seeks his father. He is also, not healed by the knowledge of his ancestry, he is horrified. Golden may seek out his father in order to kill him, but he does so in order to keep himself from identifying with his father and allowing any aspect of his father to construct his sense of self. He, then, is one of the only characters who addresses the influence that a father could or should have on their childs life. He rejects both of his mothers because he is able to

Baker 9 identify his mother in Vera Louise, unlike Joe, but she doesnt help him construct an effective sense of self, and he refuses to identify with True Belle. Golden Gray appears to realize what the other characters and critics are unconcerned with, that an absent father is the destabilizing factor in most of the failed instances of motherhood. In order to function in a patriarchal society, male representation is needed for protection and provision. The system under which American families are set up in A Mercy and continue to function in Jazz does not give agency to women. At a certain point, societies will no longer allow families to function without a man. Therefore, families are established around the wants and wishes of men. Unfortunately for the mothers and children in Morrisons novels and much of black society, the men tend to leave. Women are then effectively nonexistent without a male to represent them. This is most obvious after Jacob Vaarks death in A Mercy. Though he is rarely present at the farm and is not required for normal every day function, he legitimizes the existence of Rebecca, Lina, Sorrow, and Florens on the farm and in the community. He also provides money that allows for the maintenance of the farm. His death leaves no way for the women to support themselves, and also leaves them vulnerable to influence and destruction by the community. After Jacobs death, Rebecca no longer treats the other women well. They are no longer a family and they are forced to disband in order to find a legitimate existence. Before they do leave, the farm falls into ruin. Rebecca is seen as a failure in this instance because its her job to maintain the farm, but without Jacob participating in the functioning of the family. She is no longer able to contribute as she did before. Jacobs absence has been the destabilizing factor at the farm, but its the womens actions that are held up to scrutiny and criticism.

Baker 10 Similarly, Violets father abandons the family and they go bankrupt, despite Rose Dears unfailing efforts to maintain the children and the house. She is punished for her husbands absence. This is what truly causes her to give up. She has done everything in her power, but it isnt enough in a patriarchal system. They need money and defense, but society denies her the power to obtain them. As previously mentioned, Joe doesnt know his father and does not concern himself with this. He, however, is always haunted by his absent mother. However, if his mother was Wild, then she would have had no ability to raise him had she claimed him. Dorcass family is also torn apart by the death of her father. Without him, her mother succumbs to broken heartedness and soon dies. Society could not allow her mother to continue to operate without her father. When Dorcas does find a new mother figure, her aunt Alice, she does not have a strong father figure. In this way, absent fathers in a patriarchal society make a mothers ability to function on her own an almost impossible task. Therefore black children often find themselves in the care of substitute mothers. These substitute mothers are often desexualized and can therefore be seen as entirely nurturing. Lina in A Mercy focuses only on acting as a mother and True Belle and Alice are completely desexualized figures similar to other mammy figures. Violet, who discovers her own unique place as a substitute mother, never has children and is not close with her husband. She focuses on caring for strangers and her birds. While motherhood is powerful in creating a sense of self, it can come at a great cost for black women.

Works Cited

Baker 11 Brown, Caroline. Golden Gray and the Talking Book: Identity as a Site of Artful Construction in Toni Morrisons Jazz. African American Review 36.4 (2002): 629-42. EBSCOhost. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. Lewis, Desiree. Myths of Motherhood and Power: The Construction of Black Woman in Literature English in Africa 19.1 (1992): 35-51. JSTOR. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Loris, Michelle C. Self and Mutuality: Romantic Love, Desire, Race, and Gender in Toni Morrisons Jazz. Sacred Heart University Review 14.1 (1994): 53-62. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Mitchell, Angelyn. Sth. I know that woman: History, Gender, and the South in Toni Morrisons Jazz. Studies in the Literary Imagination 31.2 (1998): 49-60. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. New York: Random House, Inc., 2008. Print. Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1992. Print. Neptune, Harvey. Loving Through Loss: Reading Saidiya Hartmans History of Black Hurt. Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal 6.1 (2008): 1-11. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. OReilly, Andrea. In Search of My Mothers Garden, I Found My Own: Mother-Love, Healing, and Identity in Toni Morrisons Jazz. African American Review 30.3 (1996). EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Strehle, Susan. I am a Thing Apart: Toni Morrison, A Mercy, and American Exceptionalism. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 54.2 (2013): 109-23. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Baker 12 Wyatt, Jean. Failed Messages, Maternal Loss, and Narrative Form in Toni Morrisons A Mercy. Modern Fictions Studies 58.1 (2012): 128-51. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.