While she is not the most important, and therefore the vocal point of this thesis, it is inevitable and almost mandatory to talk about Toni Morrison before talking about James Baldwin.
If one person has in mind the fact that two shared one very special bond, and the fact that Toni even gave an eulogy to James Baldwin during the latter’s funeral, it is more than obvious that the two of them have more than the literature in common. They also shared the same racial issues, the same fight towards a world without civil problems, a world where people were judged by what they did and not by the color of their skin, as Martin Luther King believed and said very well on his most famous speech. Because of these reasons, among others not so important, it should be obvious that their literature would also share some common grounds. As said by Morrison, 1987
“You gave me a language to dwell in, a gift so perfect it seems my own invention…. The second gift was your courage, which you let us share: the courage of one who could go as a stranger in the village and transform the distances between people into intimacy with the whole world.”
Since the important aspect of this thesis is the idea of identity, the search for it and how relevant it is for literature, it comes without surprise that Toni Morrison mentions two important aspects that cannot be ignored when it comes to identity. She mentions the ideal of courage and language, and how both, according to her, were taught to her by James Baldwin.
When it comes to the idea of identity, language is without a doubt one of, if not the most important aspect concerning it. Language is what we are, is what we speak; without language we are pretty much nothing, as a matter of fact one can say that it not only shows us the identity of someone, but at the same time it builds that same identity, and there are several studies that mention this relation between the two of them. We can even cite one essay by James Baldwin, titled ‘If black English isn’t a language, then tell me what is?”. As a matter of fact, according to that same essay, “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec;
and they would all have great difficulty in apprehending what the man from Guadeloupe, or Martinique, is saying, to say nothing of the man from Senegal--although the "common" language of all these areas is French” (Baldwin, 1998 p.780). In other words, what Baldwin means by this, is that we share a common ground, and thus a fair stake of one’s identity if our language ends up being the same. The only thing that changes in that is the fact that one person speaks with
one accent or may have a different way to spell/write one word, but the main core is the language. I may travel to a place that I never visited and feel out of place by being surrounded by a different culture and identity, if by a happy accident I happen to find someone that speaks my own language, I will no longer feel alone.
Regarding the concept of courage, it is trickier than language as it is not as obvious as language that courage can be related to identity. A person may speak the same language as me but not share the same amount of courage, and sometimes for a person to show off their true colors they may need a trace of courage and will power. In fact, Morrison mentions the idea of courage when she mentions the ideal of “the stranger in the village” which also happens to be an essay by James Baldwin.
In this essay we see that Baldwin was literally and figuratively the stranger in the village. By being on a small Swiss village, with no more than 1500 people, Baldwin was usually the focus of attention of all the people for two main reasons, as he puts it. The first one is that Baldwin was the only black person in that place, something that he acknowledges specially when “people of my complexion were rarely seen in Switzerland” (Baldwin, 1998 p.117) and because of the lack of people with the same ideals and identity as him, he starts to feel alone and desperate.
However, we also see another side of Baldwin. He begins to show us a more metaphorical side as he compares his situation as being the only black person in the village, to the situation that occurs to several black people in the United States where, as it is known, they are not alone in the country, as there are many more people with the same skin color, but at the same time they feel neglected, unworthy and unrecognized by people of the same country whose only difference is the color of their skin. However, “there is a great difference between being the first white man to be seen by Africans and being the first black man to be seen by whites” (Baldwin, 1998 p.120). With this simple, yet powerful sentence James Baldwin re-enforces how racism was and still is a major topic in the United States, and at the same time we see a huge dichotomy between white people and black people. In many documentaries, videos or photos we see that when Africans see their first white people of their lives, they normally look at them with major curiosity, with a touch of innocence, almost as if they are looking to someone supernatural with powers beyond the normal, and why not to say it, a human who can virtually do anything he wants, and in a way almost a “God-esque” figure. It is, in a way, one of the most respectful and powerful reactions that someone can have towards someone. One might argue, and rightfully so, that those reactions mostly occurred during the age of discoveries, a time where almost
everything was new to most people, and thus seeing someone different was a rarity in those days, hence the divinity aspect of some explorers. However, it is very sad, and almost revolting how the opposite happens even nowadays. Going back once again to the age of discoveries we see that the white people would not even bother to study and explore more about the tribes and people that they were invading. Their only goals were to destroy, pillage, and force them to be like them in cultural aspects like religion and language, and not only that there is also the
“plague” of slavery. All those hideous crimes and acts against black people would leave a mark that is still visible and still hurts (with a solid and valid reason to) the mind of several black people who still consider white man to be the enemy, thus showing some hate and disdain towards them. While this seems to be something from a movie scene, it was very real in those days, and even nowadays.
As Baldwin states, regarding this subject, “This was not the case with the American Negro slave.
He is unique among the black men of the world in that his past was taken from him, almost literally, at one blow” (Baldwin, 1998 p.124). In fact, Baldwin mentions the past that was taken away from the black people, a past so rich that it is somewhat inexplicable the reason why white people decided to wipeout without regards and without thinking.
One, however, must and has to bear in mind that while the physical past was destroyed by the conquerors, there is another past that black people are often proud about, and would, in normal circumstances, brag about, a past where we can learn that “Haitians are able to trace their ancestry back to African king” (Baldwin, 1998 p.125) as Baldwin puts it. Even though currently some of those Haitians are victims of discrimination and racism, in their past they were kings or queens, they had some royalty inside them, however most of them do not have the courage to reclaim that same past especially when, “any American Negro wishing to go back so far, will find his journey through time abruptly arrested by the signature on the bill of sale”, (Baldwin, 1998 p.125) also regarding this quote, we see that Allen Jr (1985 p.46) on his essay “Afro-American Identity: Reflections on the Pre-Civil War Era," Contributions in Black Studies” mentions that
“This particular phase was highlighted by the strengthening in the 1850's of emigrationist tendencies among a small but growing number of free northern blacks in the face of increasing competition for urban jobs from European immigrants, passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and the impact of the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision”. This decision came to fruition in 1857 and it declared that all Black American people could never become US Citizens even if they were freed from slavery, or even if they were descendants from free slaves. While this may not
have a lot in common with the ideal of courage mentioned above, it is important to mention it, simply because that decision is something that goes against the ideal of freedom and identity of someone.
It is not by accident that the idea of slavery and identity gets to be mentioned here, and even though it is not the main target of this thesis, there is a recent book written by Toni Morrison (who was mentioned above) called “A Mercy”. This book was written in 2008 and it mentions in sublime, and somewhat horrific detail, some aspects of slavery and how inhuman the conditions and the treatment given to the slaves were, but at the same time it is also a book that deals with passion the ideal of identity.
It may be unnecessary or redundant but it is important to start from the beginning and do a brief summary of the book. In this book, what most captivated me was the story of a slave named Florens who works in Jacob Vaark’s farm, Lina another slave on his farm, and Sorrow another slave who was found by Vaark on a shipwreck and has mental issues do to his upbringing and hard childhood, and it happens to be pregnant.
The first trait concerning the ideal of identity comes from one unusual source, that source being a simple pair of shoes. And it is indeed because of the pair of shoes that we see that Florens is not a normal slave; not because she likes to wear any type of shoes she fiunds, but instead because the shoes change her physically and metaphorically, and almost like in the Bible we see that “The beginning begins with the shoes. When a child, I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody’s shoes, even on the hottest days” (Morrison, 2008 p.4).
Here we see that Florens has a deep passion for shoes, it can be any type of shoes, and while shoes have a literal meaning, in this novel we see that the shoes are also used to symbolize the idea of spiritual and physical growth, to show the difference between the white and black people, and the idea of protection.
The idea of growth can be seen by the different shoes that Florens has through the novel as she starts with a simple pair of shoes, and deep down the end of it, we see that Florens is wearing her master’s shoes in order to be able to do the mission suggested for her, as Florens says “I walk the night through. Alone. It is hard without sir’s boots. Wearing them I could cross a stony riverbed” (Morrison, 2008 p.157) not only we see how important shoes are for her, but at the same time we see how much they had shaped her physical and mentally. One might ask why it is hard for her to walk and do certain things without her shoes but the answer to that is somewhat
simple. First, we have the idea that she is so used to walk with them, that doing any activities without them would be sacrificial and very hard, another one comes from the fact that she wears the shoes so much that her feet are sensible to touch the floor naked. One interesting fact is the idea that Florens keeps wearing shoes that are too big for her, but that does not seem to bother her, in fact she is very proud of it, even saying that “I am dangerous (…) its 1690. Who else these days has the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady?” (p.4) this duality is very interesting to see, as she mentions the hands of a slave and the feet of a lady, and it is easy to see here a dichotomy between the civilized world and the slave world.
The slaves tend to represent a more immature and purer world, whereas in the civilization we have all the culture, education and (a more expected) good behavior in those people. And having this ideas in mind we can see once again why shoes are so important to Florens. With the shoes she can have an immaculate skin, she can feel more adult, more important, and most importantly she feels and begins to believe that she is also a lady, even if according to her mother “is frowning” because “(…) Only bad women wear high heels” (Morrison, 2008 p.4).
Those bad women are, of course, the rich and white people who enslave the black and uneducated people, but to Florens the most important aspect of her life are the shoes, and there is also an important comparison that is made due to them because to Florens and her mother, the feet and the soul can be compared to one another. If one is tainted, dirty and spoiled so is the other, hence the idea mentioned above of having “the feet of a Portuguese lady”.
According to Samuels and Weems on their book regarding Toni Morrison we see that “From the outset, Morrison is interested in having the characters achieve a mere authentic existence than those who submit to conventional standards (…) to realize their responsibility to become fulfilled individuals” (Samuels; Weems, 1990 p.10) and this ideal of responsibility can be seen later on the book when Florens’s mother gets to the point of wanting to abandon her own daughter, sacrificing herself, so that Florens can have a better life, “Please, senhor. Not me. Take her.
Take my daughter” (Morrison, 2009 p. 26) she said, and it is something that eventually occurs and has a major impact on Florens life with a good reason to be that way, after all she was abandoned by her own mother at tender age, and interestingly enough, Florens, once again has shoes, which is, as mentioned above, an important part of this narrative, in fact when “the little girl stepped from behind the mother” (Morrison, 2009 p.26) we could see that “On her feet was a pair of way-too-big women’s shoes” (Morrison, 2009 p.26) once again symbolizing the idea of purity and forced adulthood on Florens.
The idea of identity can also be seen when Florens is offered to Jacob by her own mother. While this seems rather reckless and un-natural, we see that Florens mother was victim of several abuses by Ortega (the Portuguese slave owner) and resulting from one of those abuses Florens and her brother were eventually born. The only thing that the mother wanted was a better future for her daughter, so that she did not suffer the same fate as her. Without this sacrifice, Florens would probably live a worse life than she, without this sacrifice, Florens would not have her own identity but instead she would have an identity that would likely be forcefully fed to her by Ortega, or worse than that she would not have an identity at all. Another character, Lina, who would eventually take care of Florens as her own daughter has a very interesting quote regarding this when she states that “we never shape the world (…) the world shapes us” (Morrison, 2009 p.71), and in fact she has a reason to do so. No matter what she did, Florens had no chance to change what fate and destiny brought to them, instead only the events of life would change her.
Through the course of the story, we also see that Lina can fall under that description because she would fall in love with an European man and we see her develop her feelings and even her language would change from time to time, as a way to show how much that love was changing her, however to her misfortune this relationship would become more and more abusive and Lina would resent that as she would began to feel more suspicious towards European ideals such as religion and culture.
Those abuses would also show us a new Florens who sets out in the path of life by not knowing who she was, and why were people were mean to her. She was repeatedly forced to undress just to make the “white people” examine and abuse of her, but at the same time, when she is with the blacksmith, who also happens to be black, albeit a free man, where she feels better, almost as if it she was a totally different person, in her own words “(…) when I see you and fall into you, I know I am live. Sudden it is not like before when I am always in fright. I am not afraid of anything now” (Morrison, 2009 p.115) this feeling of safety and of a new me, can also show us how much our identity and perception of the world can change solely by meeting someone. Once again, we have the topic of being shaped by the world and not shaping the world, if we consider how much has Florens suffered through her life we understand this change of attitude. She goes from being abandoned by her own mother to fall in love with someone, while maternal love is something that cannot be replaced. Passionate love is studied by psychologists as something that can change a person such as Florens. While this love would make Florens “flourish” and become a new woman she would constantly be “attacked” by flashbacks of her mother’s treason, by
leaving her, hence Florens fear to love again, as she was always cautious, because fearing that rejection would, once again, be part of her life. And those fears were rightfully justified because the blacksmith would also abandon her later on, making Florens return to the fragile and hopeless state that she initially was in, showing us how much something and someone can change our identity, and that identity is not just our history and culture, but also how we behave and why we behave the way we do.
The final case of identity study in “A Mercy” comes from the character Sorrow. As we read the book we learn that Sorrow was victim of a shipwreck and was taken care of by Vaark’s family and works for them. Through his life we see that Sorrow is not her real name, but instead a nickname, a state of mind that the poor girl happens to feel almost all the time because of several life events that happened to her. We also learn that due to her story as a child (once again the ideal of a childhood without love is very present in this story) and since she was unable of doing some chores or mention to the Vaarks what happened to her, she would only talk to an imaginary friend. We soon would see that her psychological well-being and identity would once again suffer a major attack when she gets pregnant but Lina ditches her baby to the river. This was something that would have a major effect on Sorrow, she would suffer a lot because of this, and thus her state of mind would be the affected by this and was thought that she would never be the same again. However, like a rainbow or a sunshine, later on, Sorrow would become pregnant once more and this time she would have the chance to finally have something to take care of, and someone to whom she could talk to.
This baby would change Sorrow so much that she would become a completely different person.
She no longer needed the imaginary friend, and she would also become able of doing several chores, deemed impossible some time before the birth, and in one of the most memorable passages from the book we learn that when “She looked into her daughter’s eyes (…) “I am your mother” she said” my name is Complete” (Morrison, 2009 p.134). From being nicknamed
“Sorrow”, which is something that can be described as a sadness beyond any sadness, we see that the birth of a son, having something that she could take care of, and most importantly the fact that she could finally be a mother would make her become “Complete”.
Identity is not just who we are. Identity is sharing something, to feel something, and in the character “Sorrow” now “Complete” see how much the feels, the state of mind, how much what we have inside of us (in Sorrow’s case literally, as she had a baby) can shape our identity. How
the most uneducated person on earth can change and do a 180 just by having something happen to them.
At the end of the book we finally understand Floren’s mother reasons to give her daughter as she says “Offered by a human, I stayed on my knees (…) Oh Florens. My love. Hear a tua mae”
(Morrison, 2009 p.167).