Missing Mom: The (Re-)Assessment of Gender and Motherhood in Richard Wright's Black Boy, Toni Morrison's Sula and Jazz, and Audre Lorde's Zami

Abstract

This paper will examine the dynamics of mother-child relationships within African American literature and the ways in which children internalize socially constructed gender roles within not just a male-dominated society, but a white male-dominated society. Richard Wright's Black Boy (1945) and Toni Morrison's Jazz (1992) present examples of works that invest heavily in the relationships between mother and son; Morrison's Sula (1973) and Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982) deal with the ties between mother and daughter. The following study will focus on these four works and the way their protagonists -- two real people, and two fictional characters -- evaluate the extent to which mothers fulfill their children's expectations of mothering. [From Introduction]