Mary Edmonia Lewis & Toni Morrison: Trailblazing Women in Art & Literature - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mary Edmonia Lewis was born on July 4, 1844, in Greenbush, New York and died on September 17, 1907, in London. She was an American sculptor who had created many neoclassical works that had diverse themes. Both classical and religious themes received interest and won praises in the late 20th century. Toni Morrison was a Nobel Laureate who was born on February 18, 1931 and died in august 5, 2019. Before writing her first piece, she started as a reader and then progressed as a writer. Her bestselling work explores diverse themes, especially black identity and the experience of black women. Ms Morrison wrote 11 novels alongside essay collections and children books. The paper focuses on the similarities and differences between Writer Toni Morrison and Artist Edmonia Lewis.

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Similarities

Both Lewis and Morrison used the diverse aspects of art and literature. In her artwork and sculptures, she directly represented the intended image based on a well- known event. An example is a sculpture created in 1875 representing Hagar, an Egyptian housemaid, after being evicted from Abraham's house (Junior, 2019). Through that, she employed imagery and the imagination of her target audience. Likewise, Morrison uses features such as imagery and metaphors in her work. Morrison knew how to invite a reader into a scene in her story. She invites the reader's imagination through her use of detail. An example is an image created by the dark red light in Beloved (Whitehouse, 2019).

Both use myth, truth, magic and superstition in their work. The narratives of Morrison mingled the voices of women, ghosts, men and children in layered polyphony. She inextricably intertwined all these with everyday activities; hence it led her to be liked and supported by other realist writers such as Gabriel García Marquez. She based her narratives on truth like the slavery of black Americans and the legacy that was left behind. Also, Lewis employed myth, reality and truth in her art. She became an international sculptor through these threads (Copeland, 2013). She did not limit herself to little expectations while creating her sculptors. An example is a sculpture on the death of Cleopatra. The work was so artistic such that, some viewed it as a masterful marble sculpture.

Both Ms Morrison and Lewis represented and had experience dealing with the whites. Lewis was educated by her brother, even though she did not get a degree. During her college life, she was accused of poisoning her colleagues (Copeland, 2013). She was also accused of stealing which led her to be discontinued, though that, she hated the experience of dealing with whites. Ms Morrison's uses her novel Beloved to stand for and represent the depiction and the metaphor for the 20th century even though it was set in the 19th century (Whitehouse, 2019). Through it, she shows how black Americans viewed the whites. Through the novel, she represents her anger towards anybody white. She describes how whites perceived blacks, as they could do anything that crossed their minds while interacting with the African American citizens. The writer describes how whites could not only dirty a black person; they could maim or kill them. In events where they chose to dirty a person, they did it so bad that the involved lost self-worth.

Differences

While Lewis wanted to receive all the credit about her life and her work, Ms Morrison had some boundaries on how she wanted to be praised. Lewis was savvy while trying to woe and win over the press and her supporters. Several critics describe how she wanted to create her biography (Gold, 2012). Sometimes, they argued how the knowledge that her supporters have concerning her life was taken with a grain of salt. She always used and shifted her tales concerning autobiography to win support even though she did not appreciate reactions of condescension or pity.

On the other hand, Toni Morrison created boundaries concerning the type of support she got since she disapproved of being called a poetic writer. She did not shift between tales to create attention. Ms Morrison believed that her talent paid off being lyrical. She denied resonance and power. Even though all her work was critical and famous, she afforded to choose the type of praise channelled to her. While Toni Morrison liked to be lined as a black woman, Edmonia Lewis did not like it. There are several classifications that Morrison rejected; however, she embraced being titled as the "black woman writer" (Whitehouse, 2019). However, Lewis did not approve supporters giving her praise because of being a coloured girl. She argued that her supports should instead identify her other defects.

Conclusion

Both Toni Morrison and Edmonia Lewis had differences and similarities. They both had many supporters who approved their work as among the best. After Edmonia Lewis moved to Boston after being discontinued, she was supported by William Lloyd Garrison until she set up her studio. They both had a rough start in their career. Edmonia Lewis' parents died while she was young and she had to struggle. Also, Toni Morrison did not start shining in her first work. Before becoming a writer, she was just as reader and essayist. They both welcomed praise from supporters. Also, they both felt the impact of whites in their lives. Therefore, both can be compared and contrasted.

References

Junior, N. (2019). Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible. Oxford University Press.

Copeland, H. (2013). Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America. University of Chicago Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mvphAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Compare+and+Contrast+On+Writer+Toni+Morrison+and+Artist+Edmonia+Lewis%5C&ots=10wwU5R1kU&sig=SzVb0G7wqlJHTZOl_mRGyD5Oj68

Gold, S. W. (2012). The Death of Cleopatra/The Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair. Biography, 318-341. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23541247

Whitehouse, R. (2019). Toni Morrison, Beloved, Race and Tragedy. https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/35367