THE REPRESENTATIONS OF DOMESTICITY, MOTHERHOOD AND VIOLENCE IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED

At a time when women around the world were staging a fight againstgender discrimination and calling for equal rights with men in their varioussocieties, black American women also tried to make their voices heard. Ashistory holds it, unlike other women especially in the west, their story isdifferent because it was shaped by slavery, which made them not only inferiorto men but to women of other races. Coupled with the roles of housekeeping andmotherhood assigned to women, thus sidelining them from decision making issuesin the society, the African American woman also had to deal with thebelittlement, violence and segregation from the white society during and afterslavery. In this regard, Tony Morrison like a host of other black writers, tookit upon themselves to tell the stories that were often ignored or could not beperfectly told by men or white writers. Though Morrison’s Beloved is set during slavery. In Beloved, Morrison depictsthe adverse side of motherhood that many writers of the time failed toconsider. By attempting to exercise her motherly role in a period of extremesuffering, Sethe loses her identity and in the process also suppresses that ofDenver her daughter. This is occasioned by the maternal ties that link Sethe toher children that preclude her individuation and spoil her self-development.Sethe sacrifices her being. Indeed, we see throughout the novel that all herefforts are directed at atoning for her losses as a daughter and re-establishherself as a good black mother based on the society’s conceptualizations. My Article investigates how Toni Morrisonportray the issue of domesticity, motherhood and violence in their novels Belovedand The Color Purple, during and after the days of slavery. The thesisalso will provide the possibilities that lead to the characters emancipation.