Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi: An Analysis

In Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, the black stone is presented as a cursed heirloom in Effia’s family, however, as the book progresses, it is shown that the stone is cursed, but also a blessing in the way it connects their family lineage. Homegoing is a book about half sisters, Esi and Effia, and their family’s experiences through life. Effia was apart of the slave trade by controlling the trade, while Esi was ripped from her family, sold into enslavement. We then see the lives of each generation and their different perspectives on the slave trade. Maame was Esi and Effia’s mother, and she gave both of them the black stone as a symbol of their heritage.

Toni Morrison utilizes biblical references and symbolization to depict the imprisonment of African American people after slavery in her novel, “Song of Solomon.” Particularly, Morrison’s characters each fall victim to themselves as a result of societal expectations in a way that parallels the actions of the people that a character’s name corresponds with. Accordingly, each character deals with their oppression in a way that corresponds with their biblical counterparts, and in some cases, to prevent themselves from the oppression in which their biblical counterparts fall victim to. Morrison first depicts Ruth Dead in correspondence with Ruth of the Bible in order to characterize the oppression by which women of color had endured preceding slavery.

Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon, encompasses many themes that were prevalent in the other novels written in the same time period. Morrison produced this novel in 1977 just as racial issues and discrimination were at its peaks. “She [Morrison] was the first African American to receive the Noble Prize in Literature.” (Milliman 5) However, the setting of the story is in the 1930s when World War II was taking place. The novel is based on an African-American family residing in Michigan who are victims of racism and social discrimination. The story focuses on Milkman Dead, the main character, who is naïve and leaves his family and friends behind to become an independent, wealthy upperclassman. “Milkman discovers the intricacies of his

In the states, there is an idea of white privilege and unfair advantage. People of white descent are thought to have an advantage before they are even born. They go on their whole lives living “the dream” in the suburbs and never have to worry about unfair treatment or worries of the common world. In some ways this statement in extremely true. This novel makes the reader aware of the real world around them, especially people who have been a part of this dream.

“Ghana’s history is a metaphor for what occurred in the immediate aftermath of independence in Africa,” is a quote by Kofi Awoonor, Ghana’s leading literary figure and one of Africa’s most acclaimed authors. Three of his poems illustrate the hardships and trials that the Africans faced after their claim of independence from Britain. As said by Awoonor himself, “...high hopes were crushed by the greed, corruption, and lust for power…”. The author uses multiple literary devices as a way to emphasize the adversities they faced. Kofi Awoonor symbolizes the downfall of Ghana after independence through the use of theme, mood, and symbolism in his Three Poems.

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a period of blooming writing and human expressions. Scholars of African-American writing have been perceived by the most astounding honors, including the Nobel Prize to Toni Morrison. Among the topics and issues investigated in this writing are the part of African Americans inside the bigger American culture, African-American society, bigotry, bondage, and social balance. African-American composing has had a tendency to join oral structures, for example, spirituals, sermons, gospel music, soul, or rap.

The structure of the novel, Homegoing, is very distinct and unique. I believe the way Yaa Gyasi decided to structure her book made the novel and each individual story within the novel more profound. Most books we read today usually follow the main character or possibly a few characters. I cannot remember the last time I read a book where each individual chapter contained a new story from a new character. Homegoing is set apart from other novels due to the dramatic effect the generational stories have on the readers. Not only does the structure of the novel grab readers attention, it makes a distinction between the two lines of families, it also shows us what is similar between the two families, and it connects the past to the present.

African-American author Toni Morrison, in her novel, Beloved, explores the experience and roles of black men and women in a racist society. She describes the black culture which is born out of a period of slavery just after the Civil War. In her novel she intends to show the reality of what happened to the slaves in the institutionalized slave system. In Beloved, the slaves working on the Sweet Home experiences brutality, violence, torture and are treated like animals. Morrison shows us what it means to live like a slave as she sheds light on the painful past of African-Americans and reveals the buried experiences for better understanding of African-American history. In the story of Beloved, special importance is given to the horrors and tortures of slavery to remind the readers about the American past. Morrison reinvents the past because she does not want the readers to forget what happened in African-American history.

Toni Morrison is an author that is interested in showing the world the constant struggle of African-American men and women. Like Milkman, Morrison was born in 1931 during the height of racism in the United States. She has lived through the same events as Milkman and has experienced the pain and turmoil forced upon African Americans. Like Milkman, Morrison was also unaware of the racial tension in the country until she was a teenager. She graduated from high school with honors and attended Howard University as an English major. This explains Morrison’s interest in the theme of Flight in her works. She has been determined to be successful since she was a child, despite the racism and poverty she had experienced. Morrison is a strong, independent, successful, and talented woman. She focuses on the theme of feminism in her works to show both men and women of all races and ethnicities that women can be just as powerful as men. She has integrated pieces of her life into the novel, almost creating a mini- biography. Constant themes occurring in Toni Morrison’s Song Of Solomon are Marxism, Feminism, and flight.

The novel “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, reflect the inequalities of an African child. Ishmael displays the ramifications that his village being burned down has on him. As well the torture that Alhaji feels never meeting his family again. Also, the agony Ishmael feels when exposed to the death of his parents, the justification of writing this essay is to reveal the inequalities that are through Ishmael’s village being burned down.

Toni Morrison is the author of such a mysterious but exhilarating book Sula (1973). Growing up she love to story-tell and read; leading her to become a professor and editor at many places and universities. Also, winning a Noble Prize for Literature in 1993 for many of her phenomenal works that provide powerful depictions of the world that Black people currently or use to live in (America). For example, the novel Sula; Toni Morrison writes this story to be about a friendship in its most tremendous form - not two women as friends, but two women as an individual, unknowingly sharing almost everything. She also covers many events that involve suffering within a community and many different relationships.

Toni Morrison’s work always impact and hit the audience soul. Regardless of the reader’s background, Toni Morrison’s work will find a way to grip the reader into a trance. The short story ‘Sweetness’ affected me because I’m a mother in the black community. Although I feel the complete opposite of the narrator, I’ve witness the demonstration of the character. Toni Morrison writes in the narrator as a mother who is disgusted and compassionate. ‘Sweetness’ is a representation of the hardship of parenting with regret, colorism, love, and discrimination within the black community.

In 1949, many African nations began their surge for independence, and the native people did not accept the social modifications forced upon them. The revelation of the setting comes through the name “Ndume Central School” which is a school located within the African nation of Nigeria (595). Later, the setting reveals the deep divisions that take place in Africa at the time and allows the reader to understand why the villagers resists change. The separation between the school and village symbolizes the division, and this separation captures a modern school fighting a traditional village. Obi enforces the separation with the moving of the path and states that this new path should “[skirt] our premises” (597). The setting enhances the conflict between the villagers and Obi because the Africans at the time resisted the change that Obi enforced within the school. The setting of the school and village enhances the conflict because the school represents the transformation of society, while the village captures the stubborn, old way of living.

The Novel Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was first published in 2006 and follows the interweaved narrative of three individuals living in Eastern Nigeria throughout the 1960s. The Novel, set within the backdrop of the Biafra secession movement and subsequent civil war, demonstrates how the daily life of Biafrans was riddled with conflict, turbulence and trauma. Additionally, the novel depicts how the effects of colonialism remain a strong force in the everyday lives of the characters as many continue to hold colonial sentiment. Furthermore, through the character Odenigbo, Adichie highlights how education is an important tool for decolonisation and allows citizens to create discourse on their own terms. Ultimately, the novel displays African life within the context of a newly-independent and turbulent state. This paper will aim to contextualise and discuss such themes in Adichie’s novel.

Barbara Christian’s substantial chapter “The Contemporary Fables of Toni Morrison” in her highly acclaimed book Black Feminist Criticism (1985) , is the initial attempt to observe Morrison’s work from a feminist view point. The critic describes Morrison’s first two novels as “ fantastic earthly realism” , “rooted in history and mythology”, and observes that their themes develop “much the same way as a good musician finds the hidden melodies within a musical phrase’’(Christian,59). She illuminates the extent to which the community acts as “hindrances” in both novels and also emphasizes the aural qualities of Morrison’s writing, the use of “language as tonality and as dance” to what she calls “our society’s sound” (Christian