Authors often use names in order to reveal a certain aspect of a character and Toni Morrison is no different. The decision to name Helene's daughter Nel is symbolic in itself because it can be defined as meaning "messenger of God" or "angel," which reflects Nel's nature. Brought up by her strict grandmother, Helene follows suit in how she reared Nel into growing up "obedient and polite," (18). Thus, Nel lives up to her name by never acting out because her mother "drove [her]imagination underground" (18). However, after seeing her grandmother, Nel contradicts the meaning of her name by saying, "I'm me. I'm not their daughter. I'm not Nel," (29) and begins to imagine trips that her mother thought she ccrushed long ago/.
“[The people in the Bottom] called her Helen Wright and left it at that” (Morrison 18). By mentioning their refusal to pronounce her name properly Morrison provides a sign that her name, Helene, is important somehow. “Helene” itself is a difficult name to pronounce if one is unsure of the language it is meant to be spoken in. It may refer to “moon” or “torch” if it is meant to be Greek. The French “Hélène” is pronounced differently from the Greek way. Since Helene is part Creole, it stands to reason that her name may be intended to be French. Her name is possibly a reference to Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in Greece who was abducted by Paris. From all of the above information, one can deduce that Helene’s character is meant to be beautiful, conflicted, and difficult. Her surname “Wright” can also have various meanings, while her maiden name “Sabat” is more elusive in its origin. “Wright” can mean “right” as in an upright person or it can mean “worker.” Depending on which meaning Morrison aimed to use, the character can either be a morally upstanding person or a diligent worker.
I wanted to add that the use of the diminutive "gal" (20) marks a shift for Helene. In Medallion, Helene is regarded as a poised, respected, perhaps even feared woman. On the train, as she begins her journey South, she is immediately confronted with her fears. The use of this diminutive conjures up her deep seated anger about her mixed race heritage, and she falters. This is also the first moment where the reader hears directly from Nel, who recognizes (with embarrassment) that Helene is pandering to the racist train conductor. This simple act of naming--or more precisely, not naming--marks a shift in these two characters.
For my investigation into names, and a little bit of a branch into Greek Myth, I chose to look specifically at Helene. I believe Toni Morrison named her character Helene to be reminiscent of the Greek Helen, who's "face launched a thousand ships." Further solidifying the allusion to the Iliad is Helene's marriage to a seaman, Wiley Wright. In the Iliad, it is Helen's running away from Greece which causes great turmoil between Greece and Troy. Even though the union between Wiley and Helene is consensual, it could foster future evils for her children, or for the people of the Bottom.
Furthermore, in Latin, Nel directly means "Not." Her full name would be Nel Wright, or "Not" Wright. Perhaps this is Morrison's way of indicating a particular role for Nel. Nel could be a reactionary force within her community.
That’s actually a good point that Ian brought up. If Nel Wright means “not right,” that would be further evidenced in how she is bullied by white boys on her “route home from school” (Morrison 54). Of course, a person getting bullied does not necessarily mean that she is different and unaccepted. Those boys could be perfectly unprejudiced, willing to pick on anyone who looks vulnerable and defenseless enough. Nevertheless, I suspect that the mention of her coloring is significant. “Nel was the color of wet sandpaper- just dark enough to escape the blows of the pitch-black truebloods and the contempt of old women who worried about such things… Had she been any lighter-skinned she would have needed either her mother’s protection on the way to school or a streak of mean to defend herself” (52). There is a chance that Nel will grow to be strong and radical, a force to be reckoned with. She could possibly be just different enough to start a change in a small town.
Morrison uses names and the naming that characters give people to represent the significance of how certain names can affect a character's personality, actions, and overall identity. Morrison also uses names to portray a character's whole outlook as well as connect these names to one central point or important part of the story as well. The names Eva Peace gives three of the children she took in was Dewey and over time "Slowly each boy came out of whatever cocoon he was in at the time and accepted Eva's view...joining with the other two to become a trinity"(Morrison 38). In this sense, each Dewey loses a sense of identity, as they join into a "trinity". These names that Eva gives the Dewey's also causes their personalities and actions to change as they become "inseparable" and "loving noone but themselves" (Morrison 38). The effect of names in Sula manages to have monumental effect on a character's personality, actions and identity. The Dewey's lose the names they were given, and while embracing their new names, lose their own Independence. The name Dewey that they all share cause the three to solely remain dependent on one another and has the form a strong bond through their names. If they were given separate names, perhaps the Deweys' would have developed into three completely different children while retaining their sense of independent thought without having to pay the consequences of all three when one of the Dewey's "break the handle of the icebox" (Morrison 38). Names in Sula also foreshadow what a character's outlook and gives us a sense of what kind of character they are. Sula gives the name "Tar Baby" to one quiet, reclusive, white man to emphasize his "addiction to cheap alcohol" (Morrision 40). This shows that names can foreshadow what character is like as "Tar" is a liquid distilled from certain things with alcohol in it while being eventually being detrimental to a person. "Baby" usually emphasizes his obsession to drinking liquids such as "Tar" as baby usually drinks alot of milk. Names give us a sense of character personality and actions through meaning. In the end, the various different unique names given in Sula create significance by changing character personality, identity and actions while also giving readers insight to the overall outlook of a certain character.
The names in Sula are all important and the names Eva appoints are the ones that caught my attention. Eva gave three children the same name, Dewey, even though "each dewey was markedly different from the other two"(38). A name is what sets a person apart. The unique way a name fits, be it through how a person acts, talks, or looks. In this case, each child already had a name, but Eva just threw a name at them and they became a group of children with the same name. "Slowly each boy came out of whatever cocoon he was in at the time his mother or somebody gave him away, and accepted Eva's view"(38). The name defined who they were and conformed to how Eva saw them, as "a trinity with a plural name"(38). The giving of the name is somewhat degrading, as if giving an animal a name. Each Dewey was different; through the color of the skin, age, and ethnicity. The name stripped them of their own identity, since "they spoke with one voice, thought with one mind"(39). Instead of a person finding themselves and growing through personal experience, the name defined who they were, stripped them of self identity and their own personality. The Deweys let someone else define who they were as a person, actually not even an individual, but as a group.
I appreciate Li's view on the significance of the Dewey trio and I completely agree that names are used to "give insight into the overall outlook of a character." However, I felt that the three boys sharing the name "Dewey" was to emphasize how name represents their sense of identity rather than the unity that they find from sharing a name. For example, when Eva insists asks "What you need to tell them apart for, they's all deweys," even though "each dewey was markedly different from the other two" (Morison 38). As you may have noticed, the name "Dewey," is not capitalized at all in the quote(s), meaning that the deweys lost their significance as individual characters just as the name "dewey" was demoted from an actual name to a title. Showing how names represent a character's "overall identity" as Li put it, by completely stripping away the deweys' identities. Furthermore, the fact that Eva refuses to acknowledge them as individual people shows how Morrison uses names to represent a characters sense of identity because once the character "Dewey" loses his name and becomes "a dewey" that is all he is called, not "Dewey," but "a dewey" which means the character identity. In short, a character loses his/her identity with their name.
Thus far in the novel, Morrison has given nicknames to all male characters, with the exception of Jude. With all the other characters, the nicknames give them a personality without really delving into detail, which deprives them of power. In a previous fishbowl it was mentioned that Morrison does this to shift attention to the power and personality of women, their names being important and requiring more explanation than men’s'. Though I agree with this statement, I think it is important to point out both the significance of naming Jude "properly" and the allusion that Morrison makes. In the Bible, Judas is the disciple that backstabs Christ and who's actions lead to his crucifixion. Just as Eva's name can be connected with the story of Adam and Eve, so can Jude's be linked with Judas' betrayal of Jesus. Thus, there is a self-fulfilling prophecy in Jude's name, that he will betray Nel just as Judas betrayed Christ.
Nevertheless, Jude is only named as a tool to spur further development of Nel's personality and character. When Morrison gives Jude a true name and, consequently, depth, she creates a person that impacts Nel at the core of her being through his actions. Nel is in pain because "you knew me. All those days and years, Jude, you knew me.... So how could you leave me when you knew me?" (105). Although it is not quite evident how Jude's betrayal will ultimately effect Nel, because of him "She spent the whole summer with the grey ball, the little ball of fur and string and hair always floating in the light near her but which she did not see because she never looked" (109). This "grey ball" is a conglomerate manifestation of Nel's pain, the "scream not for others.... but a deeply personal cry for one's own pain" (108), which never came for her. Foreshadowing, it is likely that this deeply rooted agony, along with resentment for Sula and her new emptiness without her husband or her best friend, will have a overwhelming impact on Nel's entire persona. Therefore, Morrison's true intention for naming Jude with such significance is to drastically transform Nel's entire character.
I am not sure of the significance of Ajax’s name, but I think it creates an identity separate from A. Jacks, his true name. Morrison includes the detail that he was actually A. Jacks because it creates a figurative distance between Sula and Ajax (and Ajax and A. Jacks) in addition to the literal distance. When Sula realizes that his name was actually A. Jacks, she falls into despair because she never really knew him. Because the man’s name “she was screaming and saying was not his at all” (136), there is a disconnection between the two. From Sula’s perspective, only she was truly in the relationship. The man who led her to “discover what possession was” (131) was someone completely different. Even though Ajax and A. Jacks is the same person, the concept of identities plays a huge role in this incident. The memories that Sula creates with Ajax are unique to them alone, thus when she finds out that Ajax was actually A. Jacks she questions whether they actually knew each other. It is as if the man she knew never existed. The distance to “Dayton” (134) becomes even further when Sula learns of Ajax’s real name.
Authors often use names in order to reveal a certain aspect of a character and Toni Morrison is no different. The decision to name Helene's daughter Nel is symbolic in itself because it can be defined as meaning "messenger of God" or "angel," which reflects Nel's nature. Brought up by her strict grandmother, Helene follows suit in how she reared Nel into growing up "obedient and polite," (18). Thus, Nel lives up to her name by never acting out because her mother "drove [her]imagination underground" (18). However, after seeing her grandmother, Nel contradicts the meaning of her name by saying, "I'm me. I'm not their daughter. I'm not Nel," (29) and begins to imagine trips that her mother thought she ccrushed long ago/.
ReplyDelete“[The people in the Bottom] called her Helen Wright and left it at that” (Morrison 18). By mentioning their refusal to pronounce her name properly Morrison provides a sign that her name, Helene, is important somehow. “Helene” itself is a difficult name to pronounce if one is unsure of the language it is meant to be spoken in. It may refer to “moon” or “torch” if it is meant to be Greek. The French “Hélène” is pronounced differently from the Greek way. Since Helene is part Creole, it stands to reason that her name may be intended to be French. Her name is possibly a reference to Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in Greece who was abducted by Paris. From all of the above information, one can deduce that Helene’s character is meant to be beautiful, conflicted, and difficult. Her surname “Wright” can also have various meanings, while her maiden name “Sabat” is more elusive in its origin. “Wright” can mean “right” as in an upright person or it can mean “worker.” Depending on which meaning Morrison aimed to use, the character can either be a morally upstanding person or a diligent worker.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add that the use of the diminutive "gal" (20) marks a shift for Helene. In Medallion, Helene is regarded as a poised, respected, perhaps even feared woman. On the train, as she begins her journey South, she is immediately confronted with her fears. The use of this diminutive conjures up her deep seated anger about her mixed race heritage, and she falters. This is also the first moment where the reader hears directly from Nel, who recognizes (with embarrassment) that Helene is pandering to the racist train conductor. This simple act of naming--or more precisely, not naming--marks a shift in these two characters.
ReplyDeleteIan Glazman-Schillinger
ReplyDeleteFor my investigation into names, and a little bit of a branch into Greek Myth, I chose to look specifically at Helene. I believe Toni Morrison named her character Helene to be reminiscent of the Greek Helen, who's "face launched a thousand ships." Further solidifying the allusion to the Iliad is Helene's marriage to a seaman, Wiley Wright. In the Iliad, it is Helen's running away from Greece which causes great turmoil between Greece and Troy. Even though the union between Wiley and Helene is consensual, it could foster future evils for her children, or for the people of the Bottom.
Furthermore, in Latin, Nel directly means "Not." Her full name would be Nel Wright, or "Not" Wright. Perhaps this is Morrison's way of indicating a particular role for Nel. Nel could be a reactionary force within her community.
That’s actually a good point that Ian brought up. If Nel Wright means “not right,” that would be further evidenced in how she is bullied by white boys on her “route home from school” (Morrison 54). Of course, a person getting bullied does not necessarily mean that she is different and unaccepted. Those boys could be perfectly unprejudiced, willing to pick on anyone who looks vulnerable and defenseless enough. Nevertheless, I suspect that the mention of her coloring is significant. “Nel was the color of wet sandpaper- just dark enough to escape the blows of the pitch-black truebloods and the contempt of old women who worried about such things… Had she been any lighter-skinned she would have needed either her mother’s protection on the way to school or a streak of mean to defend herself” (52). There is a chance that Nel will grow to be strong and radical, a force to be reckoned with. She could possibly be just different enough to start a change in a small town.
DeleteMorrison uses names and the naming that characters give people to represent the significance of how certain names can affect a character's personality, actions, and overall identity. Morrison also uses names to portray a character's whole outlook as well as connect these names to one central point or important part of the story as well. The names Eva Peace gives three of the children she took in was Dewey and over time "Slowly each boy came out of whatever cocoon he was in at the time and accepted Eva's view...joining with the other two to become a trinity"(Morrison 38). In this sense, each Dewey loses a sense of identity, as they join into a "trinity". These names that Eva gives the Dewey's also causes their personalities and actions to change as they become "inseparable" and "loving noone but themselves" (Morrison 38). The effect of names in Sula manages to have monumental effect on a character's personality, actions and identity. The Dewey's lose the names they were given, and while embracing their new names, lose their own Independence. The name Dewey that they all share cause the three to solely remain dependent on one another and has the form a strong bond through their names. If they were given separate names, perhaps the Deweys' would have developed into three completely different children while retaining their sense of independent thought without having to pay the consequences of all three when one of the Dewey's "break the handle of the icebox" (Morrison 38). Names in Sula also foreshadow what a character's outlook and gives us a sense of what kind of character they are. Sula gives the name "Tar Baby" to one quiet, reclusive, white man to emphasize his "addiction to cheap alcohol" (Morrision 40). This shows that names can foreshadow what character is like as "Tar" is a liquid distilled from certain things with alcohol in it while being eventually being detrimental to a person. "Baby" usually emphasizes his obsession to drinking liquids such as "Tar" as baby usually drinks alot of milk. Names give us a sense of character personality and actions through meaning. In the end, the various different unique names given in Sula create significance by changing character personality, identity and actions while also giving readers insight to the overall outlook of a certain character.
ReplyDelete- Li Zhao
Nemiah Guimbatan
ReplyDeleteThe names in Sula are all important and the names Eva appoints are the ones that caught my attention. Eva gave three children the same name, Dewey, even though "each dewey was markedly different from the other two"(38). A name is what sets a person apart. The unique way a name fits, be it through how a person acts, talks, or looks. In this case, each child already had a name, but Eva just threw a name at them and they became a group of children with the same name. "Slowly each boy came out of whatever cocoon he was in at the time his mother or somebody gave him away, and accepted Eva's view"(38). The name defined who they were and conformed to how Eva saw them, as "a trinity with a plural name"(38). The giving of the name is somewhat degrading, as if giving an animal a name. Each Dewey was different; through the color of the skin, age, and ethnicity. The name stripped them of their own identity, since "they spoke with one voice, thought with one mind"(39). Instead of a person finding themselves and growing through personal experience, the name defined who they were, stripped them of self identity and their own personality. The Deweys let someone else define who they were as a person, actually not even an individual, but as a group.
Justin Labrado
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Li's view on the significance of the Dewey trio and I completely agree that names are used to "give insight into the overall outlook of a character." However, I felt that the three boys sharing the name "Dewey" was to emphasize how name represents their sense of identity rather than the unity that they find from sharing a name. For example, when Eva insists asks "What you need to tell them apart for, they's all deweys," even though "each dewey was markedly different from the other two" (Morison 38). As you may have noticed, the name "Dewey," is not capitalized at all in the quote(s), meaning that the deweys lost their significance as individual characters just as the name "dewey" was demoted from an actual name to a title. Showing how names represent a character's "overall identity" as Li put it, by completely stripping away the deweys' identities. Furthermore, the fact that Eva refuses to acknowledge them as individual people shows how Morrison uses names to represent a characters sense of identity because once the character "Dewey" loses his name and becomes "a dewey" that is all he is called, not "Dewey," but "a dewey" which means the character identity. In short, a character loses his/her identity with their name.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThus far in the novel, Morrison has given nicknames to all male characters, with the exception of Jude. With all the other characters, the nicknames give them a personality without really delving into detail, which deprives them of power. In a previous fishbowl it was mentioned that Morrison does this to shift attention to the power and personality of women, their names being important and requiring more explanation than men’s'. Though I agree with this statement, I think it is important to point out both the significance of naming Jude "properly" and the allusion that Morrison makes. In the Bible, Judas is the disciple that backstabs Christ and who's actions lead to his crucifixion. Just as Eva's name can be connected with the story of Adam and Eve, so can Jude's be linked with Judas' betrayal of Jesus. Thus, there is a self-fulfilling prophecy in Jude's name, that he will betray Nel just as Judas betrayed Christ.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, Jude is only named as a tool to spur further development of Nel's personality and character. When Morrison gives Jude a true name and, consequently, depth, she creates a person that impacts Nel at the core of her being through his actions. Nel is in pain because "you knew me. All those days and years, Jude, you knew me.... So how could you leave me when you knew me?" (105). Although it is not quite evident how Jude's betrayal will ultimately effect Nel, because of him "She spent the whole summer with the grey ball, the little ball of fur and string and hair always floating in the light near her but which she did not see because she never looked" (109). This "grey ball" is a conglomerate manifestation of Nel's pain, the "scream not for others.... but a deeply personal cry for one's own pain" (108), which never came for her. Foreshadowing, it is likely that this deeply rooted agony, along with resentment for Sula and her new emptiness without her husband or her best friend, will have a overwhelming impact on Nel's entire persona. Therefore, Morrison's true intention for naming Jude with such significance is to drastically transform Nel's entire character.
What is the significance of Ajax's name, and why would Morrison include the detail that his name was actually A. Jacks?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure of the significance of Ajax’s name, but I think it creates an identity separate from A. Jacks, his true name. Morrison includes the detail that he was actually A. Jacks because it creates a figurative distance between Sula and Ajax (and Ajax and A. Jacks) in addition to the literal distance. When Sula realizes that his name was actually A. Jacks, she falls into despair because she never really knew him. Because the man’s name “she was screaming and saying was not his at all” (136), there is a disconnection between the two. From Sula’s perspective, only she was truly in the relationship. The man who led her to “discover what possession was” (131) was someone completely different. Even though Ajax and A. Jacks is the same person, the concept of identities plays a huge role in this incident. The memories that Sula creates with Ajax are unique to them alone, thus when she finds out that Ajax was actually A. Jacks she questions whether they actually knew each other. It is as if the man she knew never existed. The distance to “Dayton” (134) becomes even further when Sula learns of Ajax’s real name.
ReplyDelete