| This study examines Toni Morrison's naming within her six novels and demonstrates that although the names function on many levels, overall, they tend to connect her characters to their community and to their heritage. Names are an integral part of Morrison's fictive world. Few animals, businesses, organizations, places or characters, no matter how insignificant, pass through that world unnamed, and if they do, that lack of a name is notable. Morrison's names do not merely identify but often function as self-contained character sketches, alerting us to characters' possible actions, characteristics, or even fates. Names often serve as connections to her themes, especially those involving personal and cultural identities.;Morrison uses names to firmly ground the inhabitants of her African-American cosmology within a specific time and place. Within this cosmology, names also serve as connections between characters and their communities. Although these connections may not always be positive ones, they are necessary for the characters' survival, often creating symbiotic relationships. After all, no Morrison character physically separates him/herself from the community; indeed, the community is necessary for the character's survival and names often attest to this.;Inherent in Morrison's naming patterns is a mistrust of the heritage of slave names derived from the white culture's use of the Bible and classical mythology. Such names often contain irony or an inadequate allusion. By subverting two important myth systems within the white culture, she subverts its power.;To counteract the inadequacies of the white culture's naming, the names of some of Morrison's strongest characters are derived directly or indirectly from Africa. Through names she connects characters not only to their past and/or their present, but also when she names from Africa, she often promises her characters (Sethe, Son, Solomon--aka as Milkman) a future.;This study includes an alphabetized listing, by novels, of the characters in Morrison's fiction, with pertinent information given for each. |
