| Three female African-American writers, Toni Morrison, (Beloved , 1987); Zora Neale Hurston, (Their Eyes Were Watching God , 1937); and Paule Marshall, (Praisesong for the Widow, 1983) create female protagonists whose lives examine the infinite variations and meanings of the slave experience in America. For some, the notion of an African-American female hero is an oxymoron, primarily because the female exists in a milieu which marginalizes her. These writers articulate themes that celebrate the heroic dimensions of their characters who exhibit qualities that are associated with archetypal heroes.;Toni Morrison constructs Beloved as a tribute to the strength of a slave mother's love using an authentic human calamity---infanticide---as the basis for her meditation. Morrison transforms the seeming perversion of maternal values into an exquisite act of love when juxtaposed to the institution of American slavery. Cast as a modern odyssey and containing many parallels with Homer's Odyssey, the novel explores the issues of American slavery and the predicament of a slave mother, Sethe, who only wants to love her children. Morrison's protagonist undertakes an odyssey, thus earning the heroic concept of kleos ---fame enshrined in an oral tradition.;Zora Neale Hurston's novel posits a female protagonist, Janie, who is a prototype of the African-American female hero. Hurston's hero's struggles (like the struggles of the traditional Occidental hero) are as much with the supernatural as with the forces that limit the lives and dreams of women and repress their aspirations. Janie exhibits a tenacity that enables her to chart a course that challenges the patriarchal forces which inhibit and denigrate her desire for self-fulfillment. She embarks on a path to self-discovery, self-valuation, and self-affirmation, a journey to confidence and consciousness.;Paule Marshall's novel, Praisesong for the Widow, enacts the creation of an African-American female hero. Marshall inverts the odyssey as a voyage of the adventuresome hero, and constructs a work which can be characterized as anti-epic and anti-odyssey. Marshall's protagonist, Avey Johnson does not want to undertake an odyssey, and vigorously resists any action---human or supernatural---that will disturb the complacency and lethargy that dominate her life. |
