Exploring The Legal And Social Congruity In Toni Morrison's The Origin Of Others

Sanchi Chadha, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

ABSTRACT

The book 'The Origin of Others' written by Toni Morrison is a series of essays or stories developed from a series of lectures Morrison delivered at Harvard in the year 2016 provides an insight on existing aspects of race and racism by questioning the structures that construct 'Otherness' in the contexts of literature and lived experience. The novel starts with a story of social construct that how an individual becomes racist as no person is born a racist, and there is no genetic study to sexism. A person learns Othering not by any lecture or instruction but by examples. As the instance provided, Morrison tells a 1955 short story by Flannery O'Connor, in which a white person tries to educate his nephew in the concept of 'Othering.' The story came to an end with uncle and nephew staring together at the statue of a black jockey, feeling their differences finishing, each believing himself to have acquired reputability through the common recognition of being an 'Other.' The book revolves around recollections, as well as history, politics, and, most importantly, literature, in her quest for answers. The purpose is to challenge and destroy this literary heritage by portraying race, demonstrating how malleable and worthless the idea was. The novel portrays a concise exploration of the existence of prejudices and hates in a world where black lives don't matter, where white people believe their culture is better to others and are recognized and elected to public office, and where poor or migrant children are disowned for no offenses other than being an 'Other.' This study intends to focus on the complicated, problematic position of black characters in Morrison's work through these interpretations, and to supplement their restricted and negative critique with a more positive one by bringing up the legal perspective.

Keywords: Racism, Oppression, Society, Morality, Patriarchy, Justice