An Existential Reflection on Suffering in James Baldwin's Just Above My Head and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

Abstract

By examining the suffering and by extension the trauma that are experienced in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970), and James Baldwin's Just Above My Head (1979) I propose the question raised by DuBois nearly a century ago; "What meaneth black suffering"?. I argue that the blues expression of psychological and emotional pain in these narratives not only draws attention to the suffering individual, but more importantly, accents the various ways that Black people have responded to systematic and normalized dehumanization. Through the encounters with their wounding, some characters are completely destroyed and alienated by their suffering while others transform their pain into something positive. On the other hand, I glean from Baldwin and Morrison's text a philosophy that black suffering is multiple and can be debilitating but can only be transcended when those experiences are shared with others who are suffering under and near the margins of that society.Thus, I argue that the task at hand in both writers works is more than an assertion and exposition of suffering and trauma, but a dialectical confrontation with what it means to be a human being whose fundamental humanity is called into question by a racist and sexist society.