Requiem ofanIdentity: Redeeming American Memory ofTrauma inToni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
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Published:
Dec 22, 2025
Keywords:
identity, redemption, African-American, freedom, trauma
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Abstract
America has long been considered the land of the free and home of the brave. This stereotypical image rendered America as the first destination of those oppressed overseas. However, back to continental America, local races and cultures have held conflicting views regarding what binds Americans together. In other words, what makes America American? This issue and others have haunted one of the major racial groups that helped shape America, and that is African Americans. Like any other racial group, African Americans have struggled for freedom and self-worth. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) is considered by many as a great example of the African-American struggle against the systematic inferiority complex, especially against children and women. In the present article, the author will start by highlighting the existing traumas haunting the American memory, especially that of African Americans. Then, the author will illustrate the horrific atrocities practiced against African-American children in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970). Finally, the author will culminate with suggested ways in literature by which African Americans who lost their identity can attain redemption and peace. The methodology applied in the present article is one of close reading.
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Maafa, S. (2025). Requiem ofanIdentity: Redeeming American Memory ofTrauma inToni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Passerelle, 14(2), 419-441. Retrieved from https://revue.univ-oran2.dz/Revue/Passerelle/index.php/Passerelle/article/view/467
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References
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RUSHDY Ashraf H. A., (2001), Remembering Generations: Race and Family in Contemporary African American Fiction, University of North Carolina Press.
SAID Edward, (1993), Culture and Imperialism, Knopf.
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VICKROY Laurie, (2002), Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction, University of Virginia Press.
YANG J. X., (2023), A study on the writing strategies of ethnic history in Toni Morrison’s novels, Humanities and Social Sciences, 11(6), 240-244. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20231106.18
AWKWARD Michael, (1989), Inspiriting influences: Tradition, revision, and Afro-American women’s novels, New York, Columbia University Press.
BABINA Rose, S., Kavitha, R., & Mwale, R., (2024), The impact of systemic racism and trauma on individuals, families, and communities in Toni Morrison’s novels “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye,” Qeios, https://doi.org/10.32388/U8L1EL
BAMBARA Toni Cade, ed., (1970), The Black Woman: An Anthology, Washington, Washington Square Press.
BEALE Frances M., (1970), “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, pp. 90–95.
BEAULIEU Elizabeth Ann (Ed.), (2003), The Toni Morrison encyclopedia, London, Greenwood Press.
BLOOM Harold, ed., (2007), Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). New York: Infobase Publishing.
BOUSON J. Brooks, (2000), Quiet as it's kept: shame, trauma, and race in the novels of Toni Morrison, Albany, State University of New York Press.
CARUTH Cathy, (1996), Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History, Johns Hopkins UP.
CHRISTIAN Barbara, (1985), Black feminist criticism: Perspectives on Black women writers. Pergamon Press.
COLLINS Patricia Hill, (1990), Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Routledge, 1990.
CRICHLOW Warren & McCarthy, Cameron (Eds.), (1995), Cultural Studies, UK, Routledge.
DEGRUY, Joy, (2005), Post-traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, US, Uptone Press.
ELTIS David, and David Richardson, (2010), Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Yale University Press.
FANON Frantz, (1952), Black Skin, White Masks, Grove Press.
FANON Frantz, (1961), The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press.
GATES Jr., Henry Louis, (1988), The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism, Oxford University Press.
GIRARD René, (1977), Violence and the Sacred, Johns Hopkins UP.
HARRIS Trudier, (1991), Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press.
HAYES Martina Louise, (2015), "Legacy of Shame: A Psychoanalytic History of Trauma in The Bluest Eye" (2015). ETD Archive, 880. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/etdarchive/880
HERMAN J. L., (1992), Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror, Basic Books.
HIRSCH Marianne, (1997), Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory, Harvard University Press.
HOOKS bell, (1981), Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, South End Press.
HOOKS bell, (1990), Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, South End Press, 1990.
IBARROLA Aitor, (2014), «The Challenges of Recovering from Individual and Cultural Trauma in Toni Morrison's Home», in, IJES, (no1), pp. 109-124.
KING Lovalerie & Scott Lynn Orilla, (Eds.), (2006), James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: Comparative Critical and Theoretical Essays, US, Palgrave Macmillan.
KOOPMAN E., (2012), Incestuous rape, abjection, and the colonization of psychic space in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Shani Mootoo's Cereus Blooms at Night, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 49(3), 303-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2012.691647
KRUMHOLZ Linda, (1992), “The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” African American Review, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 395-408.
LACAPRA Dominick, (2001), Writing History, Writing Trauma, Johns Hopkins UP.
LÓPEZ Ramírez, M., (2014), The theme of the shattered self in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and A Mercy, Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 48, 75-91. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20138832
MATHUR M., (2025), Broken landscapes: Eco-trauma in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved, The Criterion: An International Journal in English, 16(4), 966–982. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17057974
MBALIA Doreatha Drummond, (1991), Toni Morrison's Developing Class Consciousness, Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press.
MBITI John S., (1969), African Religions and Philosophy, Heinemann.
MONTGOMERY, Maxine L. (Ed.), (2013), Contested Boundaries: New Critical Essays on the Fiction of Toni Morrison, UK, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
MORRISON Toni, (1993), Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. New York, Vintage Books.
MORRISON Toni, (1970), The Bluest Eye, New York, Vintage Books.
NIETZSCHE F., (1974), The gay science (W. Kaufmann, Trans.), Vintage, (Original work published 1882).
RABOTEAU Albert J., (1978), Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South, Oxford University Press.
ROSENBERG R., (1987), Seeds in hard ground: Black girlhood in The Bluest Eye, Black American Literature Forum, 21(4), 435–445. https://doi.org/10.2307/2904114
RUSHDY Ashraf H. A., (2001), Remembering Generations: Race and Family in Contemporary African American Fiction, University of North Carolina Press.
SAID Edward, (1993), Culture and Imperialism, Knopf.
STRICKLAND A. E., (1979), [Review of the book Slave religion: The "invisible institution" in the Antebellum South, by A. J. Raboteau], The Journal of Southern History, 45(4), 603–604.
THE NOBEL FOUNDATION, (1993a), Toni Morrison – Facts, NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/facts/
THE NOBEL FOUNDATION, (1993b), The Nobel Prize in Literature 1993 – Press Release. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/press-release/
THE NOBEL FOUNDATION, (1993c), Toni Morrison – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/biographical/
THE WASHINGTON POST, (2019), Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate who redefined American literature, dies at 88. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gender-identity/toni-morrison-the-nobel-laureate-who-redefined-american-literature-dies-at-88/
VICKROY Laurie, (2002), Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction, University of Virginia Press.
YANG J. X., (2023), A study on the writing strategies of ethnic history in Toni Morrison’s novels, Humanities and Social Sciences, 11(6), 240-244. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20231106.18