Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Origin of Other
Toni Morrison
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Origin of Other
Toni Morrison
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Origin of Other by Toni Morrison is a small book that is huge in scope, thought and philosophy and values. Author Morrison, winner of a Nobel prize and a Pulitzer Prize, gives us much to think about in the history and causes of slavery. She says when humans need to feel powerful and important, they denigrate strangers, to make them “others.” We learn by example from our parents and from literature. She tells us that languages and images feed and form experience, that media presentations alter our view and our vision.
Morrison talks to all of us about our prejudices. This book should be in all classrooms, in discussion group sessions, everywhere intelligent people gather. She discusses Hemingway and Faulkner’s use of the “colorization” in their novels and wonders why they felt they had to write that way. She cites criminal codes that called for jail and fines for anyone teaching blacks to read or write.
We may think there have been no lynching in the 20th century, but Morrison contradicts this. In 1955, the infamous and tragic killing of fourteen year old Emmett Till took place because it was said that he looked at a white woman who later confessed to lying about the incident. Morrison looks at the meaning of love. If you don’t agree with her thesis, it will give you food for thought, and reason to admire her for her clarity of writing and her courage in speaking out.
She speaks of globalization and the way it is canceled by wars which displace millions of people; in one instance, sixty million people, half of them children. Find this intriguing book of essays on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Morrison talks to all of us about our prejudices. This book should be in all classrooms, in discussion group sessions, everywhere intelligent people gather. She discusses Hemingway and Faulkner’s use of the “colorization” in their novels and wonders why they felt they had to write that way. She cites criminal codes that called for jail and fines for anyone teaching blacks to read or write.
We may think there have been no lynching in the 20th century, but Morrison contradicts this. In 1955, the infamous and tragic killing of fourteen year old Emmett Till took place because it was said that he looked at a white woman who later confessed to lying about the incident. Morrison looks at the meaning of love. If you don’t agree with her thesis, it will give you food for thought, and reason to admire her for her clarity of writing and her courage in speaking out.
She speaks of globalization and the way it is canceled by wars which displace millions of people; in one instance, sixty million people, half of them children. Find this intriguing book of essays on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.