Racial Politics In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, Toni .

Racial Politics in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, Toni Morrison’s“Recitatif”, and James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”Twyla or Roberta, towards her racial counterpart. Infact, racial essentialism is noted within the story throughthe nature of the two protagonists’ mothers and throughtheir antagonistic confrontations. Indeed, Twyla’s motherand Roberta’s mother are set in contradistinction toeach other given that “their difference from each otheris portrayed through their bodies and clothes, whichmake them seem practically a symbolic juxtaposition ofsexuality and religion” (p. 135). At the outset, the storyopens with the blatant narrativization of the mothers’stark differences through Twyla’s claim: “My motherdanced all night and Roberta’s was sick” (Morrison,1983, p.1). Then, given the two facts that one’s motherstands for one’s origin and that Twyla intends from thevery beginning to weightily enact the uncompromisingdivergence between her mother and the latter’s racialcounterpart –Roberta’s mother–, it can be extrapolatedthat the juxtaposition between the sexuality and religionof the two mothers pinpoints the racial roots of Twylaand Roberta on absolutely antithetical poles; thus, theracial bond between Twyla and Roberta is approached inessentialist terms. Further, this essentialism vehementlyculminates when it comes to the cultural dissimilaritiesbetween the girls’ races. Put differently, the cultural chasmbetween the two is crystallized through Twyla’s ignoranceof who Jimi Hendrix is as she refers to him as “she”(p.7) at a time when he constructs the vogue of Roberta’sculture; however, Twyla may have in mind Nona Hendryx(Obadike, 2003, p.227) as another cultural icon when sheaddresses Roberta, but the latter also misunderstands herdue to her ignorance of Twyla’s cultural codes. Hence, theoutcome of this cultural clash is the dismissal of Twylaby her friend’s rude response: “Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix,asshole. He’s only the biggest– Oh, wow. Forget it”(Morrison, 1983, p.7). Again, this evinces the essentialismunderlying racial politics between Twyla and Roberta.Most importantly, this essentialism rises to a crescendowhen Roberta and Twyla irrefragably voice their opinionsconcerning the issue of busing; their stances, being atodds, result in their antagonistic confrontation symbolizedby both girls’ reiteration: “I wonder what made me thinkyou were different,” (p. 15) that is, “different from the restof your race”. This signifies that “they have [extremely]different perceptions of what is right and wrong in theensuing ‘racial strife’” (Gillepsie, 2008, p.163), whichheightens their essentialism. Nevertheless, the racialpolitics embedded in the story are also dramatized in theanti-essentialist mindset the two characters hold vis-àvis each other, which corroborates the racial ambivalencewithin “Recitatif”. This anti-essentialism can be graspedthrough the urgent need of each girl for her racialcounterpart in pursuance of her existential meaningfulnessand her identity. In this respect, by dint of her disclosure,“my sign didn’t make sense without Roberta’s” (Morrison,1983, p.16), Twyla acknowledges that her sign, whichsymbolizes the intricacies of her intellectual life, cannotCopyright Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culturebe granted the slightest significance without Roberta’ssign, that is, Roberta’s existence. So, the lives of thetwo girls who are paragons of the white and black racesare inextricably dependent on each other. In the samevein, Roberta and Twyla drastically need each other toaffirm the shared memories of their past at St. Bonny’sorphanage, especially those about Maggie’s race, as a sinequa non of their racial identities. In other words, each girlneeds “to work out her relationship with [the other] tohave a stable sense of her past and her identity” (Reames,2007, p.140). As a result of their interdependence, theirrelation can be discerned as typically anti-essentialist.So as to seal the aporetic ambivalence whichstructures the racial relationship between Twyla andRoberta, Morrison artfully contrives a reconciliatorycharacter: Maggie. What is peculiar about Maggie is thather racial identity remains a more indecipherable enigmathan the girls’ races, since, while having witnessedthe same memory of Maggie, Roberta conceives ofher as black, whereas Twyla relentlessly rebuffs thischaracterization. In this context, it may be inferred thatMorrison’s obfuscation of Maggie’s race unearths herintent to radically dismiss the racial barriers impeding thedevelopment of human relations; instead, she ransacksa far deeper signification. Put differently, pondering onMaggie, Twyla depicts her as follows: “Maggie wasmy dancing mother. Deaf, I thought, and dumb [.] Iknew she wouldn’t scream, couldn’t-just like me- andI was glad about that” (Morrison, 1983, pp.17-18). Inthis reflection, Twyla identifies her mother as well asherself through Maggie. Similarly, at the end of the story,Roberta’s mention of Maggie comes unexpectedly justafter the reference to her mother as if to parallel betweenthe two. Thereupon, both Twyla and Roberta identifytheir mothers as well as their own selves with the muted,tyrannized and powerless Maggie who is elevated to aprototype of the “subaltern” in either race. Therefore,Morrison’s foremost end is the reconciliation betweenwhites and blacks through her removal of racial barriersand through her subtle assertion that what deservesutmost attention is every subaltern “Maggie” regardlessof her race. Under these circumstances, Roberta’sresonant question, “What the hell happened to Maggie?”(p. 20), is but a recondite alternative of another question:Has the subaltern spoken?3. BLACKNESS: THE CONFLICT WITHINAND WITHOUTFinally, Baldwin purveys a double-facetted account onracial politics within his story “Sonny’s Blues” as thelatter expounds at once the implacable racism towardsAfrican Americans and the conflict instigated within theblack community as a crucial repercussion of racism.Indeed, racism in “Sonny’s Blues” is quintessentially88

Chakour Khaoula (2018).Studies in Literature and Language, 17 (1), 86-90articulated through the vivid memory of the narrator’smother in which she recollects the tragic, savage murderof the narrator’s uncle by the white men for the sakeof pleasure and fun, which depicts the apex of racism.This incident is symptomatic of the cruelty of racismwhich situates Sonny’s family within “a history ofviolence, victimization, and suffering that is specific toAfrican American people obviously at the hands of whiteAmericans” (Panish, 1997, p.73). However, Baldwintranscends this facet of racial politics to delve into adeeper level: the conflict amongst African Americansthemselves. In this respect, this conflict is spurredbetween the narrator and his brother, Sonny, by the racialdynamics of class and music which engender a schismwithin the black community. In fact, in his attempt toescape the ramifications of racism, the narrator centralizeshis life on preserving his relatively privileged, middleclass position as an algebra teacher as opposed to Sonnywho chooses to become a jazz musician and is eventuallytrapped in heroin addiction from which he strives torecover. The narrator’s class initiates his assimilation intothe white culture, and this is demonstrated through hisreaction to his mother’s account on the brutality of racism:“I guess I didn’t want to believe this” (Baldwin, 2009,p.29). Subsequently, through his immersion in the whitesystem dictated by his class, the narrator disavows hisracial identity and sets himself in acute contradistinctionto Sonny, whose class as a jazz musician buttresses histies with his black folks, to the extent of raising a racialconfrontation between the two as the narrator imparts: “hetreated these other people as though they were his familyand I weren’t. So I got mad and then he got mad” (p. 36).Moreover, this racial dilemma is further perceived throughmusic, more particularly the jazz-blues. It is worthmentioning here that “The Blues-singer describes firstperson experiences, but only such as are typical of thecommunity and such as each individual in the communitymight have” (Jahn, 2007, pp.149-150), which makes ofSonny’s music a cultural repertoire of his community’sand his experience. Accordingly, this induces a culturalantagonism between Sonny and the narrator given thatthe latter fails to grasp the cultural connotation of thismusic through his pondering: “I simply couldn’t see whyon earth he’d want to spend his time hanging aroundnightclubs, clowning around on bandstands” (Baldwin,2009, p.31).Probably, the essence of Baldwin’s racial politics isencapsulated in Sonny’s blues which are advanced bothas resistance and reconciliation in racial terms. Indeed,the blues as a metaphor of the African American identitygenerate resistance through the violence which suffusestheir “discourse”. This is best exemplified in the narrator’srendering of the drama occurring within Sonny whileplaying the blues: “Everything had been burned out of[Sonny’s face] [.] by the fire and fury of the battle whichwas occurring in him up there” (p. 46). This image pointsto the intractable violence present in the blues; it is “thekind of violence committed by whites against blacks [and]the anger blacks feel as a response to the oppression theyhave experienced and continue to experience” (Panish,1997, p.73). More significantly, this violence is eventuallyfollowed by the narrator’s feeling of freedom as engulfingthe setting, which transmutes the blues into a racial patternresisting the hegemony of racism. In addition, the blueshave a reconciliatory drift through their rapprochement ofthe two brothers. That is, the narrator at the end opts forgoing beyond listening to the blues to “understanding”them; consequently, he succeeds to vicariously senseSonny’s suffering through all the memories ingrainedin his own soul: his mother’s, his uncle’s, his littledaughter’s, his wife’s as well as his own tragedies. In thelong run, this stands for the history of suffering of theAfrican American prototype and, hence, reconciles thenarrator with his brother and his black heritage.CONCLUSIONTo conclude, it can be inferred that in their endeavorto represent their culture, history and identity, AfricanAmerican authors substantially focus on the narrativizationof racial politics within their societies as these formthe quintessence of their legacy. Yet, what is strikinglynoticeable is that this issue is approached quite differentlyby the pioneers of the African American literature. Inthis regard, a meticulous examination of Hurston’s“Sweat”, Morrison’s “Recitatif” and Baldwin’s “Sonny’sBlues” unveils multifariousness in their approach toracial politics. While Hurston establishes a parallelismbetween racism and sexism as forms of oppressionwhich she dissolves through her call to resistance,Morrison molds her story as a middle ground for a racialambivalence fluctuating between essentialism and antiessentialism which she settles through her solicitation ofa racial reconciliation as a necessity to reinforce humanrelationships. As for “Sonny’s Blues”, Baldwin seems toshowcase the black communal experience of sufferingwhich is concretized in the racist oppression and in theschism the latter creates amongst African Americans;that’s why, he incites resistance and reconciliation on thepart of blacks in furtherance of their thorough freedom butmore momentously of their communion.REFERENCESBaldwin, J. (2009). Sonny’s blues. In S. Feinstein & D. Rife(Eds.), The jazz fiction anthology (pp.17-48). Indiana UP:Bloomington.Gillespie, C. (2008). Critical companion to Toni Morrison: Aliterary reference to her life and work. New York: Facts OnFile, Inc.Hurston, Z. N. (1926). Sweat [Online]. Retrieved from http://wwwi.mcpherson.edu/ claryb/en255/handouts/sweat.pdf89Copyright Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture

Racial Politics in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, Toni Morrison’s“Recitatif”, and James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”Jahn, J. (2007). Neo-African literature: A history of blackwriting. Quoted in J. M. Reilly, “Sonny’s Blues”: JamesBaldwin’s Image of Black Community. In H. Bloom (Ed.)Bloom’s modern critical views: James Baldwin (pp.149-155).New York: Infobase Publishing.Jones, S. L. (2002). Rereading the Harlem renaissance: Race,class, and gender in the fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora NealeHurston, and Dorothy West. London: Greenwood Press.King, L. (2008). The Cambridge introduction to Zora NealeHurston. New York: Cambridge University Press.Maynard, M. (2003). ‘Race’, gender and the concept of‘difference’ in feminist thought. In H. Afshar & M. Maynard(Eds.), The Dynamics of ‘Race’ and Gender: Some FeministInterventions (pp.9-25). London: Taylor & Francis.Milne, I. M. (2007). Sweat. Short stories for students, 19, 187209.Copyright Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental CultureMorrison, T. (1983). Recitatif [Online]. Retrieved from ity/Domain/1073/Morrison recitatifessay.ddo.pdfObadike, M. L. (2003). Music. In E. A. Beaulieu (Ed.), TheToni Morrison encyclopedia (pp.225-230). Westport,Connecticut: Greenwood Press.Panish, J. (1997). The color of jazz: Race and representation inpostwar American culture. United States: University Pressof Mississippi.Reames, K. L. (2007). Women and race in contemporary U.S.writing: from Faulkner to Morrison. New York: PalgraveMacmillan.Werner, C. H., & Shannon, S. G. (2011). Foundations of AfricanAmerican modernism, 1910–1950. In M. Graham & J.W. Ward, J. R. (Eds), The Cambridge History of AfricanAmerican Literature (pp.241-265). New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.90

and James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” Chakour Khaoula[a],* [a]Master student. Studies in Literary and Cultural Encounters, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, Morocco. *Corresponding author Received 24 March 2018, accepted 9 August 2018 Published online 26 August Abstract The African American literature is a committed literary