Establishing the Bondmother: Examining the Categorization of Maternal Figures in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Paradise

Literary scholars have been examining and recreating the experiences of
“bonded” female characters within Toni Morrison’s novels for decades. However, the
distinct experiences of these enslaved women, that are also mothers have not been
astutely examined by scholars and deserves more attention. My thesis fleshes out the
characterization of several of Morrison’s bonded-mothers and identifies them as a part of
a developing controlling image and theory, called the bondmother. Situating these
characters within this category allows readers to trace their journeys towards freedom and
personal redemption. This character tracing will occur by examining the following Toni
Morrison novels: Beloved (1987) and Paradise (1997). In order to fully examine the
experiences of these characters it will be necessary for me to expand the definition of
bondage and mother.