Racial stock and 8-rocks: communal historiography in Toni Morrison's 'Paradise' - Critical Essay

Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 2001 by Rob Davidson

There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.

Walter Benjamin (258)

With the publication of Paradise in 1998, Toni Morrison completed a trilogy of historical novels that began with Beloved (1987) and Jazz (1992). Broadly speaking, Morrison's trilogy is concerned with "re-membering" the historical past for herself, for African Americans, and for America as a whole: Beloved reconsiders the periods of Emancipation and Reconstruction, Jazz reconsiders the Harlem Renaissance, and Paradise is principally concerned with the Vietnam and civil rights era of the 1960s and 1970s.

One of the most important concerns in the trilogy is the "use value" of narrative. Storytelling is historiography in Morrison's fiction, and in each novel she carefully examines the role of narrative in the reconstitution of both the individual self and society at large. But Morrison's method and focus for her project have evolved and widened over the course of the trilogy. Beloved and Jazz are principally concerned with the process of the individual reconstitution of the self, most notably for the characters of Sethe, Paul D, and Violet and Joe Trace. In Paradise, Morrison no longer concentrates on the individual process of reconstitution. While the individual process is still important--and intimately related to the communal--Morrison is more interested in assessing the role of narrative in the community as a whole. The protagonist of Paradise is, in fact, the community of Ruby, Oklahoma--including the rag-tag band of Convent women who live on its fringes.

This essay will focus on the Ruby--centered narratives in Paradise, which focus on the patriarchy and emphasize a rigidly controlled communal historiography predicated on the subordination of the individual to the group. (1) Steward and Deacon Morgan-Ruby's recognized leaders--employ, enforce, and defend this communal narrative. The "Patricia section of Paradise then offers a complex counter-reading of Ruby's patriarchal historiography. The essay will conclude with a consideration of how the town as a whole narratively responds to the Convent massacre, and how that event impacts the patriarchal structure of the town.

Isolated from the outside world, its very existence predicated on racial separatism, Ruby, Oklahoma, is experiencing growing pains in 1976. The descendants of its founding fathers--the 8-rocks, as Patricia Best Cato calls them (2)--control every essential aspect of the town, from the general stores to the banks. Deacon and Steward Morgan are twin brothers at the heart of the patriarchal system that has governed Ruby since its founding. Descendants of one of the original founding fathers, they are deeply engaged in preserving their idea of what Ruby should be. Their motivations are not solely--or even principally--moral or idealistic. Rather, the Morgans zealously desire to preserve the status quo, which means to preserve their power.

Ironically, neither Steward nor Deacon Morgan have any children. Steward and Dovey are infertile, while Deacon and Soane's sons died in Vietnam. Their nephew, K.D. Morgan, is "their hope and their despair" (55)--the sole male heir to the Morgan fortune and power. In the opening pages of the "Grace" section of Paradise, the Morgans and the Fleet--woods meet at the Fleetwood house to discuss a problem: K.D. has struck his girlfriend, Arnette Fleetwood (daughter of one of the town's most prominent families). The men want to settle the problem on their own terms. In Ruby no outside judicial force is wanted or needed. The men like to believe a woman is safe enough to walk around the town at night unescorted because "Nothing for ninety miles around thought she was prey" (8). Given the violent opening section of the book, that line is savagely ironic.

Of course, no women are present when the men discuss K.D. and Arnette. The men have, however, called in an outsider to negotiate a truce: Richard Misner, Ruby's Baptist preacher, whom the Morgans consider a potential threat. His socially progressive ideas are part of the problem, but to the Morgans, the real threat is that Misner "could encourage strange behavior; side with a teenage girl; shift ground to Fleetwood. A man like that, willing to throw money away, could give customers ideas. Make them think there was a choice about interest rates" (56).

To the elder Morgans, K.D.'s brashness presents less a moral problem than a threat to the status quo. The need to call in an outsider like Misner to negotiate between the 8-rock families weakens the Morgans' position. Despite the moral talk in the heated exchange at the Fleetwood house, the Morgans want, above all else, to remain in control. When the verbal negotiations begin to stall, Misner unwittingly threatens the status quo by asking K.D. why he hit Arnette: "He expected this forthright question to open up a space for honesty, where the men could stop playing bear and come to terms" (59). Jeff Fleetwood, Arnette's father, curtly responds: "We don't care about why.... What I want to know is what you going to do about it?" (60).