Christmas

I know that I don't have to post on this blog anymore, as my Written Communication class is over, but I thought that it would be a great place to write out some of my thoughts.  This Christmas was quite different, it was the first year that I was not with any of my children.  I miss them very much and I hope I get to see them soon.  But I did get to spend time with my brothers family, which was very nice.  Then I got to spend time with my dads family.  Maybe next year, I can be with my children and grandchildren.  I will be praying for that.

Nobel Laureate Essay - Toni Morrison

     When I was younger, the gender roles were quite separate.  The male’s job was to earn money, while the women’s job was to stay home and raise the children.  As the years passed, the women have had to go out to work because of necessity.  Whether due to divorce or many other different reasons, women have found themselves having to have a career and care for their families, either with or without a partner.  It takes a very strong woman to effectively juggle work and home by herself.  Those tasks become even more difficult if the woman is not caucasian.   If an African American woman can excel in her career, do an excellent job raising her children by herself, and win the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature; she must have super powers.  Toni Morrison is one such woman. It is due to her devotion to her community, love of family, and her work ethic that Toni Morrison has achieved such great success, including the Nobel Prize.

      Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio.  She was the second of four children born to George and Ramah (Willis) Wofford.  Her family was not rich by any means.  For most of her life, her father worked 3 jobs. They were a very proud family and her parents instilled hard work and being proud of her heritage:  ”The sense of community that she acquired from her life.  Underlying themes of family and community are present throughout all of her later work.  Her father, a dignified man, impressed a positive self-image on his daughter.”(Morrison para 6)   “ Biographer’s Clenora Hudson and Wilfred Samuels suggest that although Wofford’s father died before she began her third novel, she continues to hold her accomplishments for his approval.  The resonance of such authority resides in all of her books.” (Morrison para 6) She was the only African American student in her first grade class and was also the only student that could already read. She loved to read and graduated with honors from Lorain High School in 1949.  She had many friends of other races and did not face racism until she started dating.  There was some reverse racism in her home.  Her father thought that he was superior to white people.  Her experiences with racism can be felt in many of her novels. (Morrison para 5)

     After she had graduated from high school, she was the first member of her family to attend college.  She attended Howard University with a major in English.  It was while she was at Howard that she changed her name to Toni, as her friends could not pronounce her name correctly.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Howard in 1953 and then went on to Cornell University to get her Master’s Degree, which she received in 1955.  She returned to Howard in 1957 as faculty.  It was at Howard that she met Harold Morrison, an architect from Jamaica.  They married in 1958.  She still continued to teach after she married to help support her family.   Her marriage was not a happy one and she looked for outlets to escape.  One of the outlets that she found was a writing group where she hoped to find companionship with people who loved literature as much as she did.  One of the requirements of this group was to bring something that you wrote each week to discuss.  She went to one meeting with a short story about a black girl who wanted to have blue eyes.  This story later became her first novel. (Morrison para10)

     While Ms. Morrison was pregnant with her second child, she finally decided to leave her husband, she divorced, and moved back to Lorain.   Shortly after she arrived in Lorain she accepted a job as an associate editor in the textbook division of Random House, where she stayed until 1971.  Even though Ms. Morrison never intended to write professionally, she just wanted to teach.  According to Ms. Morrison, “She became a writer to support her two children after her marriage broke up.  Writing, she once said, was something she did “secretly, compulsively, slyly”” (Cornwell para7)

      Ms. Morrison’s accomplishments are many, besides being the Nobel Prize for Literature winner in 1993, she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Literature since 1981, and she won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for her book Beloved. Some of her works are: The Bluest Eye (1969), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), Paradise (1998), and Love (2003).  She has also written the following children’s books:  The Big Box (1991), The Book of Mean People (2002). 

     In 1993, Ms. Morrison was the first African American women to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.  When she was awarded this prize, there was controversy among other authors, they did not believe that she should have won.   According to an article by Steven Moore “Nobel Blacklash raises crucial issues about critical attitudes to black literature.  In launching an attack on the motives of the Nobel Prize Committee for awarding the Prize for Literature to certain black writers in the past few years, he suggests that these writers somehow represent decadent trends away from the proper concerns of black writing.  The implication is that these writers have been singled out because they do not rock the boat of dominant white literary values”. (Moore, para 2)    Moore also states “…but I simply want to say that Morrison’s portrayals of black people are not representative of my community.” (Moore, para 7)   I do not understand the controversy, Ms. Morrison is a great author and I believe that she more than deserved this award.  Another writer, Charles Johnson stated that, “ granting the prize to Toni Morrison is a triumph of political correctness” ( Moore, para 3)   With as small of a community that African American writers are, one would think that they would stand behind and support each other, that is not how it was.  Mr. Moore also states “they will decide whether the granting of the Nobel Prize for Literature to a black women, was recognition of a body of literature neglected far too long, or just an endorsement of a writer who happens to suit the taste of those seeking to maintain cultural and political hegemony”.  ( Moore, para 8). 

     Toni Morrison’s work is based a lot on her life experiences, and there are many.  One of the most heart tearing stories  was “that one day, when she was about 2, her parents fell behind with the $4-a-month rent, so the landlord set fire to the house.  While they were in it.  It was this hysterical, out-of-the-ordinary, bizarre form of evil, she says.  If you internalized it you’d be truly and thoroughly depressed because that’s how much your life meant.  For $4 a month somebody would just burn you to a crisp.  So what you did instead was laugh at him, at the absurdity, at the monumental crudeness of it.  That way you gave back yourself to yourself.  You know what I mean?  You distanced yourself from the implications of the act.  That’s what laughter does.  You take it back.  You take your life back.  You take your integrity back.”(Streitfeld, para 5) 

     It seems that is what she did, she took her integrity back.  In her lecture for the Nobel week, she tells and story that is based around an old woman and what people that went to visit her to gain her wisdom learned.   Ms. Morrison seems to be a very deep person and that shows in her lecture.  Toni is a very private person and according to her lives a very ordinary life.  In an article written by Simon Houpt she states “My life is so ordinary.  I don’t ski and swim and stuff.  But the real world for me, the exciting world for me, the place I don’t have to do anything anybody says – nobody tells me what to do – is in those books.  Everything else I do is for my children, my sister, my students, somebody else’s expectations. In my work, there are only my expectations and I can’t let anybody in, even though I am writing for you, hoping that you come in and help me with this book.  That’s the only way I can do it.  It’s the liberation for me, it’s the freest place I know.  You know, the freedom of the mind.” (Houpt, para 16)   She couldn’t be free in life, so she is free in her writing.

     Ms. Morrison is the ultimate in single mothers.  She has even written with her son Ford, a children’s book.  Even with all the controversy and troubles in her life.  She has prevailed and ended on the top with the best of both worlds.  Ms. Morrison is an excellent role model for all women, not just single mothers.  If she can win the Nobel Prize after all her hard work, anything is possible with a lot of hard work.

Works Cited

Cornwell, Rupert. The Independent (London).  Title Page; Pg. 1

Houpt, Simon. The Globe and Mail (Canada) . Weekend Review; Books: Interview: A Mercy; Pg. R1,. 8 October 1993

New York Times, Late City Final Edition, Section 7; Page 36 24 Jan. 1988

Moore, Steven and Cheryl-Ann Micheal. ”The Guardian Features”  The Guardian (London)  Page: pg.30. 23 Oct. 1993

Moore, Steven. “The Guardian Features” The Guardian (London) Page; Pg. 4. 20 Oct. 1993

Morrison ,Toni (nee Chloe Anthony Wofford)(2000). In African- American Writers: A Dictionary. Retrieved from Credo Reference, Retrieved 16 Nov. 2010

Morrison, Toni. – Nobel Lecture. Nobelprize.org.16 Nov 2010

Streitfeld, David. The Washington Post; Page D1. 8 October  1993

Western Technical College Polices

Yesterday was my day to register for spring classes, I only could get one class that I need.  I am getting so upset with this college.  First of all, I took Chemistry this summer and passed with an A.  According to the computer, I still need to Chemistry.  I took this class at WTC!  If I had not passed Chemistry, I would not be enrolled in A & P.  I have gone into the Enrollment Center 6 times to get this fixed.  It is still not fixed. This is very frustrating!!

Also, the policy that classes are reserved for students in programs is nuts.  Some students have enrolled in a program that does not have a waiting list, just to get into a class that they need for another program.  Then once they are in the class, they drop the program.  Or they get into the class and do not put forth the effort that is needed to pass the class and they fail and have to take the class again.  Which they can do, because they are in a program.  Meanwhile, students that work their butts off can't get into the class because they are not in a program.  But, they can not get into the program, because they need the class. I do not believe any of these classes should be reserved, it should be first come first serve.  I think that people would work harder.  And if they take a class and fail it, they should have to wait to get into the class again.

This is all so frustrating!!  If you are going to put out the money to go to college, at least put forth the effort, or don't take up the spaces that people who really work at the class and want to get through college as soon as they can.  So all you students out there, if you are going to take a class put 100% into it, because someone else would really like that spot.