BOOKBROODER

I like Toni Morrison’s prose. I still faintly remember some stuff from Beloved which I had flicked through years ago. After reading this book I have made a plan to revisit Beloved again. I have a copy. Her first novel, The Bluest Eyes is also in the race. There are these four lines on the first page of Beloved, that I have,

“I will call them my people,
Which were not my people
And her beloved,
Which was not beloved.”

It seems to me as if these lines carry forwarded to this book as well, in some sense.
Oh, God! Help the children!
The sad thing is that this turned out to be her last. Morrison’s writing is easy in flow and solid in structure. In this book too, I loved her prose, her sentences, her dialogues, and above all her hermeneutics! Those hermeneutics are brief yet stately!
Sofia Huxley was in prison for 15 years. Lula Ann Bridewell, also known as ‘Bride’ in the book, she was only eight years old when she lifted her arm and pointed her finger at Sofia in the courtroom. Bride was a witness. There was a case of child molestation; it remained a sort of mystery till the end. She comes out after fifteen years.

“She did do me a favor. Not the foolish one she had in mind, not the money she had offered, but the gift that neither of us planned: the release of tears unshed for fifteen years. No more bottling up. No more filth. Now I am clean and able.”
TONI MORRISON

But this book is not about a mystery nor it’s only about child molestation. Morrison has tried to achieve something else. I am aware that the racial divide has been a theme in her work. While searching about the authors, I sometimes come across various weird terms, especially those nomenclatures these literary people have coined. This time I came across a word called “black literature”. They said she brought the ‘black literature’ into the mainstream. Though I understand what they mean, I thought this term in itself is creepy. Our skin can be black or white or blue or green or whatever, but literature! Can it be black or white? Literature has only one name of the color, and that’s VIBGYOR. No one color! I am telling you. And this blend of all feasible colors is something that makes literature worthy to read.

Bride was a dark-skinned child of her light skin parents and she is the main character in the story. Bride grows up and becomes a successful businesswoman. She was moving on a highway in her Jaguar and met with a minor accident while speedily turning. She damages her ankle and stuck there. One little girl comes and then she brings with her one man. This man helps her come out of the crashed car and takes her home. There is his wife and this little daughter and they help and take care of her. She spends some weeks with her broken limbs there. And she is surprised by their unconditional help and care. This was one of the scenes in the book I liked.

“They had not asked her where she was from and where she was going. They simply tendered her fed her arranged for her car to be towed for repair. it was too hard too strange for her to understand the kind of care they offered- free, without judgment or even a passing interest in who she was or where she was going.”
GOD HELP THE CHILD

Booker was her boyfriend and one day he suddenly leaves her saying, “you are not the woman I want.” Booker had his own troubles as his brother was murdered when he was a kid. This relationship between Bride and Booker was very unforthcoming and both of them did not divulge some secrets and which made the relation erroneous and misleading.

There is a tone of constant sobriety throughout the book. It did not diminish for a moment for me; these modulations were not out of sight even at the moments of jubilation among the characters. This book is filled with tropes of women sensuality, gloom and obscurity, race discrimination, and child molestation. There are also falsehood, hurt, love and relationship issues. But I found the self-loathing and abandonment, through the Bride’s self-imposed narration, the two most dominant attributes of the entire plot. And Morrison has entwined them in a very suggestive manner.

Though I liked the book, the overall magic that I was expecting was missing. The story did not sprawl in the end. The book is fast-paced and its flow does not get interrupted at any moment. It was a bit perplexing in the beginning when I tried to acquaint myself with the characters. Once I knew who was who, It kept me bound all the time. This is the sad little story of hurt and sorrow- some long ago troubles and pain, life dumped on someone’s innocent soul! But its end was comforting. I liked the mild anarchy of the plot.

BUY THE BOOK ON AMAZON

Are pigs really cleverest of the animals?
Why that large rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar is so dominating a figure in this farm of animals? Why did Orwell give this Boar the name Napoleon?

These questions were the first few questions, that approached me at the beginning of this book when I started reading this book for the first time like an intelligent reader, trying to decode the euphemism obscured behind this exotic tale. I had been suggested such an approach. Though this book did not give me any sort of such feelings in the beginning. It looked like a fairy tale. A ravishing one. I moved on slowly and gently and encountered more questions…

Why.. this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement?
Why the cows lowed it, dogs whined it, the sheep bloated it, the horses whinnied it and the ducks quaked it?

Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the golden future time

Soon or late the day is coming,
Tyrant Man shall be o’erthrown,
And the fruitful fields of England
Shall be trod by beasts alone.

In fact, they were all being preached the principle of Animalism. They were about to learn that all animals are equal and that Man is their enemy.

For the fulfillment of this, the wiser ones wrote down “Seven Commandments”.

Then these commandments were said to be reduced to a single Maxim, namely

FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD.

When birds first objected that they also had two legs, it was conveyed to them in a very tactful manner that

“A bird’s wing, comrades,’ is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should, therefore, be regarded as a leg. The distinguishing mark of Man is the hand, the instrument with which he does all the mischief.”

AND…Thus in a very systematic way, with all courage and valor, on one fine day, the Man was banished. The reign of equality was established.

The MANOR FARM had been converted into the ANIMAL FARM.

Up to here, everything was fine. It was a charming fairy tale…Nothing much great. But after the establishment of the rule of Animals, the real affair begins, of this novella. The game of power begins. The true allegory of the story starts manifesting itself through the words of Orwell. I know that people relate this book with the concepts of communism, or with a sort of political ideology of power. And that is probably where this book has gotten high praise for its allegorical and metaphorical inferences. Orwell has that genius to say something big through those simple words that literally do not mean it and I have already experienced his brilliance in 1984. This book shows how those in power spread rumors against them who they feel, impede their path… how things are manipulated and how the initial commandments which were the tenets of the rebellion could easily be changed in favor of the ruling one. How those are indoctrinated who do not know how to use their minds.

This book is both funny and sober together at a time in its language and treatment. I especially liked the segment where all the animals were indoctrinated to believe that whatever was happening on the farm was happening well and it was all happening because of the charismatic leadership of their leader Napoleon. The credit for every achievement goes to Napoleon. You would hear one hen remark to another,

“Under the guidance of our leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days”;

And two cows drinking at a pool would exclaim,

“Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!”

But if a school-going child, who is unaware of all these lofty ideals of communism, socialism, and power politics, will read this book…Will he adore this book? He certainly will. And that’s probably the reason many such children across the world have adored it for its imagination, its vivid and animated character portrayal, and its simple language. So, in my opinion, this book has been doubly successful in its purpose and reach. At one moment it’s a fairy tale and an alluring parable. On the other hand, it has a classic inference and implication to those political ideologies with some very important and cardinal morals for all of us.

Toni Morrison’s last novel: God help the child!

What was in Animal Farm?