Tony Morrison's Paradise

I recently read Toni Morrison’s Paradise and it is a story filled with moral ambiguity that transcends stereotypical racial issues. In this way it is very similar to “Recitatiff” because it becomes an issue of what one human being does to another, not what one race does to another race. For this novel Morrison also chooses to unfold events in a non-linear style, a device which we have become familiar with from her other works. The book literally starts at the beginning of the end. The story is unfolded in a series of back stories that build up to the brutal events at the start of the book which opens with, “They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.”
Paradise is the intertwining story of a community of former slaves and a small group of misplaced women in a former convent. Morrison follows the journey of these ex-slaves as they carve out a place of their own in the harsh world around them. Initially they form a town named Haven which serves as a place of safety for its tightly knit black community. However the situation in Haven eventually unravels and a group of the more committed members of the community uproot and seek a fresh start for their town. Eventually they find a new beginning for their town in a place completely isolated from hostile outside forces. In this way they find a way to escape the cruelties which the world has inflicted upon them. In their new town, Ruby, they never have to deal with racism from whites, or hostility from members of their own race. Each of these brutalities has been experienced in plenty by the residents of Ruby and they have now circumvented that in the safety of their own little “paradise”.
The women of the convent live on the outskirts of Ruby. They have a very similar story to that of their neighboring residents. Each of these women has gone through many hardships and journeys to find a place of rest and peace at a new home. They have found a place to live outside of the world’s malice and to simply enjoy their own version of “paradise”. However the two similar journeys of these communities begin to spiral out of control as each begins experiencing problems from within. The men of Ruby soon place the blame for their current problems on the “strange” women of the convent and choose to take action. We are shown the culmination of these events as the men of Ruby massacre the women of the convent in the very first chapter.
As we are slowly shown the histories of various characters, places, and events, deciding who controls the moral high ground quickly becomes a very ambiguous decision to make. Although the residents of Ruby have spent their entire lives trying to escape the evils which have persecuted them, they have now become that which they fled from and hated. They received brutality at the hands of whites and rejection at the hands of blacks and now they in turn hand out brutality and reject those that are not one of their own. Similarly, the women of the convent flee from their horrible lived to find peace, only to meet with new troubles in “paradise”.
I liked Paradise for three reasons. Firstly, I found the concept of a community that overcame racism by the “furrow of their brows” a very redemptive take on the racism issue. It was refreshing to see a community of former slaves fearless and willing to deal out justice regardless of skin color. Secondly, I enjoyed the characters of Paradise. They were all very strong characters with harsh histories that made them more likeable and steadfast. Thirdly, I like how Morrison transcended racism in this novel. Rather than dealing with racism more directly, she took an obvious evil of the world and showed the reader that it is not the ultimate problem. The real issue is the evil which drives one human to strike out against another. It is how each person wrestles with their own morality, not their skin color, which determines how “humane” they truly are.