Sweetness Overview
In Toni Morrison's short story, Sweetness, first person narrator Sweetness reflects on her fraught relationship with her daughter, Lula Ann. When she receives news of Lula Ann's pregnancy, Sweetness is submerged into messy recollections of her daughter's birth and childhood. Throughout the short story, Sweetness tries convincing herself and the reader that her cold, detached method of parenting was for her daughter's own good. The short story explores themes including, guilt, shame, and awareness.
Study Pack
The Sweetness Study Pack contains:
Sweetness Study Guide
Toni Morrison Biographies (7)
2,040 words, approx. 7 pages
Toni Morrison (born 1931) was best known for her intricately woven novels, which focused on intimate relationships, especially between men and women, set against the backdrop of African American cultu...
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4,312 words, approx. 15 pages
"When they say I'm a great American novelist," Toni Morrison commented to Gail Caldwell in an interview published in Conversations with Toni Morrison, "I say, 'Ha! They're trying to say I'm not black....
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2,833 words, approx. 10 pages
One of the most prominent contemporary analysts of the black experience, Toni Morrison has, within a decade, established herself as a significant American novelist. As a senior editor at Random Hous...
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8,430 words, approx. 29 pages
When her picture appeared on the cover of Newsweek in 1981 and her fourth novel, Tar Baby, was on the year's best-seller list, Toni Morrison was an anomaly in two respects: she is a black writer who...
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12,322 words, approx. 42 pages
[This entry was updated by Catherine E. Lewis (University of South Carolina) from the entry by Denise Heinze (Western Carolina University) in DLB 143: American Novelists Since World War II, Third Seri...
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9,565 words, approx. 32 pages
Biography EssayToni Morrison is one of America's most important writers of fiction. She has received critical acclaim, most notably the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987), the 1978 National Book C...
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6,928 words, approx. 24 pages
Toni Morrison was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio. "Only The Bluest Eye, my first book, is set in Lorain. In the others I was more interested in mood than in geography.... [However], no matter what I ...
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Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison