Conflict of cultures in Toni Morrison's Fiction

The aim of the present study is to project conflict of cultures in the American society in shaping up the African American identity, as it is revealed in the writings of Toni Morrison, through the portrayal of African Americans, in the course of different social changes. In talking about notions of race, class and gender, one would first assert that they exist as components of capitalistic society. However, when it comes to the African American’s experiences of capitalism, one has to speak about it in terms of the education that Morrison has given as a reader of her novels. Obviously, to define African Americans in a racial capitalistic society, one has to look at how African American values, generally as a culture, have been evolving out of the capitalistic American society. The most important values associated with being African American seem to be community, family and cultural heritage, which include a knowledge and respect for what the race has endured in America. Maintaining African Americaness in American society would mean not giving up those values in order to adopt white, European values, which mainly revolve around materialism.