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Post by Jason Parris on May 10, 2014 21:24:05 GMT
All the books are questions for me. I wrote them because I didn’t know the answer to something. -Toni Morrison
We addressed this in our journals earlier, but I want to focus in a bit. I want you to choose one of the following motifs and either begin or join a conversation in a new thread about how Morrison uses that particular motif to help her answer (what you believe to be) the central question of the novel. The motifs are:
Flight
Names
Allusions
The Supernatural
Historical Events
Music
Here's the catch: I want them all covered, so no more than 6 people from each class can choose a particular motif. Therefore, jump on the one the one you want.
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Post by hannahlewman on May 13, 2014 1:40:15 GMT
Motif: Historical Events
The main question I see in this novel is how much history, familial, political, and social, can weigh on a person, and how able humans are to move beyond or in spite of the history that weighs them down. Basically, how much of the present is predicated upon events in the past?
Morrison answers this question by showing that the characters who deny or ignore history are the ones most cursed by it. For so much of the novel, Milkman wants to pretend like his family history does not exist, he wants to start fresh. But by thinking he is the center of his own universe, he forgets that the laws of gravity that control his very orbit are family laws, his very behavior is determined by his place in the Macon Dead bloodline. It is only by pursuing information about and understanding these laws of gravity, these complex histories, that he is able to defy them, able to *fly.*
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Post by chrisb on Jun 4, 2014 6:41:55 GMT
I'll refer to the classic Ben Stiller flick "Night at the Museum" as the basis for my interpretation of this motif. In this fun-for-the-family adventure-comedy, Ben Stiller, much like Toni Morrison, explores the complexities of human nature. Our past holds the nutrients in which our future finds sustenance. And with a little faith, history really does come alive.
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