Member-only story

Toni Morrison Had No Use for the ‘Paralyzing Emotion’ of Anger

‘There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear,’ she wrote. ‘We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.’

Kelli María Korducki
Forge
6 min readAug 9, 2019

Toni Morrison warned us about anger from the very beginning.

A pivotal scene in The Bluest Eye — her debut novel — sees its protagonist, the tiny and vulnerable Pecola, recognize a kinship with the dandelions that spring from sidewalk cracks. Through Pecola’s child eyes, we see the beautiful yellow flowers afflicted by the arbitrary designation of their wrongness. They’re ugly, Pecola scolds them. They’re weeds. Similarly, she sees herself as ugly, feeling that without resembling the “smiling white face” of the blonde and blue-eyed Mary Jane cartoon, she — Pecola — can only be a weed, not a flower.

It’s then that Pecola becomes angry. Morrison described the feeling of anger as “a reality and presence. An awareness of worth.” This anger is preferable to the shame that preceded it; it’s described as a “lovely surging.” But the gravitas borne by anger is illusory and quickly turns corrosive. Turned inward, it becomes her tender protagonist’s undoing.

“I need all of my…

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Forge
Forge

Published in Forge

A former publication from Medium on personal development. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Kelli María Korducki
Kelli María Korducki

Written by Kelli María Korducki

Writer, editor. This is where I post about ideas, strategies, and the joys of making an NYC-viable living as a self-employed creative.

Responses (6)

What are your thoughts?

Thank you for this. Reponding to our violent times is not turning the other cheek. But refusing to succumb to useless emotion. I appreciate hearing from Morrison at this time, even as I grieve her passing.

4

I’m sure not-angry is a lot more comforting Becks, but history still tells us that those angry, confronting the oppressor black men and women accomplished a lot for civil rights in America. Latinx men and women too. Signing off from Young Lords Way, NYC, USA.

8