Space in Toni Morrison's works

This thesis examines the importance of "oppressive," "invaded," and "soul" space in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved, spaces which illuminate and clarify both narratives. Whether Morrison examines the perverse effects of slavery or of idealized female beauty, her characters are physically inscribed in ways that metaphorically mark them as the racial and sexual "Other" who exists on the margins of society. Scarring and deformities form a subtext that is inscribed with literal and figurative messages from the past that speak of the present problems and future dangers Morrison's characters will encounter. These physical "markings" parallel the delineations of borers around spaces; in the worst spaces are written fates filled with rage, destructiveness, madness, and death.;The focus of this thesis centers on indoor space, that is, interiors that convey the relationship between the private spaces Afro-Americans inhabit and their behavior within them. The behavioral patterns and the considerations of space are complex in both novels, each of which begins by fixing images of the houses the main characters reside in, houses that are full of suffering and appalling secrets, where characters seem in danger of succumbing to surrounding exigencies. The success or failure of these characters to attain soul space overtly signals their condition and position in past and present society. The very features that alienate Morrison's characters from society deepen their need for soul space and increase the reader's sensitivity to these psychological, religious, and cultural "room (s) of one's own.".