NOBEL LECTURE

By: Toni Morrison

 BIOGRAPHY

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer-

winning American novelist who was born on
February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio
She read a lot as a child and her fathers
stories, taken from the African-American
tradition, later became an element in her own
writing
She received her bachelor's degree in English
from Howard University in 1953, and her
masters degree from Cornell University
Morrison taught at many Universities and from
1964 worked at a publishing editor for Random
House
 WORKS

Toni Morrisons works revolved around African-Americans;

both their history and their situation in our own time
Her works often depict difficult circumstances and the dark
side of humanity, but still convey integrity and redemption
The characters within her novels try to understand the
truth about the world they live in
The subjects that she writes about include good and evil,
love and hate, beauty and ugliness, death, and friendship
 WORKS

The Bluest Eye (1970)

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrisons first
novel. Its a story of a young girl
convinced that her skin color makes her
unattractive and worthless to everyone. If
only she had blue eyes, she thinks, her
life would be different.
Song of Solomon (1977)
Beloved (1987)
The Book of Mean People (2002)
Nobel Lecture (1993)
 NOBEL LECTURE

Main Idea:
She tells a story happening between a blind old woman
and a few young men. The story tells as follows: the
young men questioned her wisdom, asking her to tell
whether the bird in their hands was alive or dead. The
old woman broke from her passivity skillfully with it is
in your hands, indicating that the fate of the bird is
decided by the young men, that the young men can let
the bird live or they can kill it. At last, the young men
got reconciled with the old woman through their pure-
heartedness.
 TIME PERIOD/CULTURAL CONTEXT

Nobel Lecture was written in 1993

Morrison compares the bird to language, that it can be either
dead or alive at the same time
Language is power and power is language
The language of words can be used to oppress people and it
is too essential to humanity to be abused
Racial issue - The way our society uses language, and it is
solely up to each individual to decide on how they are to use
it, whether is it in a positive or negative way
 WORK CITED

Diamond, Lydia R., and Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison's The

Bluest Eye. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic, 2007. Print.
"Toni Morrison." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 31
Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
"Toni Morrison Biography." Encyclopedia of World Biography.
N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
"Toni Morrison - Facts." Nobelprize.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Apr. 2017