Lovelessness passed
...eason is there are not many societies who want to remember a past were their ancestors were kidnapped, put in bondage, and raped repeatedly. A society does not want to forget the past because no one can escape his or her past but they do wish to put the misery and shame of it behind them. The final result being the society moving forward because of there past. However, not all societies can ignore and repress their past like those of the African-American society. Many African-American authors deal with slavery and the problems of being a former slave in their works. Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison believes that the past is the key to unlocking the future. For the Black community the past is what glues them all together. The past is that one common denominator that they all share within their lives. An example of this can be found in Jazz or at least this is what Morrison believes. Morrison uses the repression of past experiences to show why African-Americans cannot forget the past. In the book Jazz the majority of the characters are first and second generation freed slaves who are incapable of love mainly because they were never taught how to love. In this story the characters have to be able to remember the past because with out it the wounds of slavery can never be healed. You can see this theme by looking at the main character Violet. Violet must be able to overcome her husbands sins and rise above her past by learning how to love. Through out African-American history the past has been told through verbal stories. This story is the weaving of individual stream of consciousness into a greater whole of history. The chronology of these stories is not important. The importance is the continuing c...