Essays

Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Speech Essay

Toni Morrison was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, college professor, and an inspiration to all. She was the first African-American woman to win The Nobel Prize in literature. She was most known for writing about experiences with racism and life as a black woman. Morrison has many powerful writings, one of them being the lecture that she presented when she won the Nobel Prize. She wrote about a story about an old woman, who in her version is an African American woman. In Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize lecture, she uses many literary devices including allegories and personification in order to show her audience that language is a powerful thing.

    Toni Morrison starts off her speech with a story, and explains that in the version she knows the old blind woman is African American, and a daughter to slaves. One day the woman was visited by a group of kids who held a bird in their hands, and asked her if the bird was dead or alive. Morrison uses this story to compare the relationship between the children and the bird to a writer and language. An allegory is a literary device that uses a fable or story to show hidden meanings. In this case, Morrison uses an allegory by writing about the fable of the blind woman and children with the bird, to express her message. For example, “For parading their power and her helplessness, the young visitors are reprimanded, told they are responsible not only for the act of mockery but also for the small bundle of life sacrificed to achieve its aims. The blind woman shifts attention away from assertions of power to the instrument through which that power is exercised.” The last sentence is used to convey her message, which is that language is a powerful thing and it’s a big responsibility. She uses the word instrument to refer to language, and how it can be used for good. Toni Morrison uses the fable and the relationship between the writer and language to convey her message that language is so powerful that it can be used to create good, but also that language is misused and can be destructive. 

    After using the story to start off her speech, Morrison goes into depth about her perception of the story. She explains how she thinks of the bird as language and the woman as a practiced writer. As Morrison continues to explain the importance of language, she uses personification to show how detrimental it can be when used for hate or discrimination. For example, “Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge… It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.” Morrison explains the harmful effects of language when misused, like sexist, racist, and theistic language. Toni Morrison uses personification in her lecture to further show the audience how powerful language can be. Morrison’s main goal by using personification was to show that language is alive, and how it impacts the world in big ways. 

    Language is a spectrum. It is a powerful tool used in almost every aspect of the world. Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize lecture used literary devices to spread her message that language is a powerful and amazing thing, while also spreading awareness on how language is used to discriminate.