Community building in Toni Morrison's Novels: Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child

This thesis will focus on building and maintaining communities in Toni Morrison's works published after 2000, which are Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child. African American criticism and existing as well as transformed concepts of "race" will provide the framework. In Love (2003), Christine and Heed's bonding as young girls is disrupted by Christine's grandfather, Bill Cosey, marrying Heed. Inevitably, the relationships do not survive, and all the bonds are broken. In this novel, Morrison examines unrequited love, deceit and manipulation, class, gender, race, the civil rights movement, and gender-based double standards through non-linear storytelling and numerous viewpoints. In A Mercy (2008), Morrison inspects the roots of racism, starting with slavery, while providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time and presenting gender differences in early America that often included female victimization. The protagonist, Florens, taken away from her mother, tries to find meaningful connections but eventually fails. Home (2012) tells the story of a Korean War veteran, Frank Money, and his search for a home while bringing his relationship with his sister, Cee, back to life. In an attempt to save Cee, both siblings rediscover the true meaning of "healing communities." In God Help the Child (2015), a light-skinned African American mother refuses to nurture her dark-skinned daughter, Bride. As her relationship with her boyfriend, Booker, comes to an end, Bride is forced to relocate, and build connections with other from her own race. The experiences of the characters prove that, in order for African American communities to flourish, a heightened sense of cultural consciousness needs to be possessed by the individuals.