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 history except as it is composed. There are no failed revolutions, only lawless conspiracies. All history is contemporary history, says Benedetto Croce in History as the Story of Liberty: "However remote in time events may seem to be, every historical judgment refers to present needs and situations. "That is why history has to be written and rewritten from one generation to another. The act of composition can never end. (160-61)

The younger generation of Ruby wants to do precisely that--rewrite history. Again, the real issue for the Morgans is power, which the older men will not give up. When the youths claim that changing the motto to "Be" would reinforce the idea that "We are the power," the older men cry blasphemy and Steward Morgan ends the debate with a blunt threat: "If you, any one of you, ignore, change, take away, or add to the words in the mouth of that Oven, I will blow your head off just like you was a hood-eye snake" (87).

In Paradise, every potential threat to the status quo becomes an emergency for the Morgans and their sympathizers. It may be something as commonplace as a car full of white teenagers whistling at young girls; in this case, the gun-toting men of the town surround the offenders and wordlessly bully them into leaving (12-13). When the threat becomes more palpable, as with the younger men who seek to assert themselves by reinscribing the message on the Oven, the older men threaten them verbally .And as the assault on the Convent demonstrates, to preserve their power the older men are capable of terrible violence. Walter Benjamin writes:

The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. (259)

This captures the essence of the Morgan mentality: the perpetual "state of emergency" is one of their chief tactics for retaining power, as it justifies--in their minds, at least--practically any course of action.

Of course, the Morgans are not merely brute terrorists. Their strategy for maintaining their position can be more subtle: they understand, on some level, the power of narrative to establish moral authority, and this is why communal historiography--that is, a tightly controlled version of the town's

history--becomes paramount. As the Oven debate shows, when anyone challenges the elders' position, the elders offer a recitation of communal history, because the community's extant historical narrative recounts a long history of terror and abuse--from the horrors of slavery to the modern-day exodus known to the residents of Ruby as the Disallowing--and this narrative serves as a justification for their "state of emergency." Paradise foregrounds this strategy in its opening section: