Frequently Asked Questions


I receive a surprising amount of email about these pages and I really appreciate it when people take the time to write. To save you time and effort I decided to answer some popular questions here.
Q. What does Morrison mean when she writes . . .

A. If you are writing a paper on Morrison please keep in mind that I am not a teacher and your instructor is the best person to talk to about your questions. You are more than welcome to look around this site for inspiration or a paper topic.

I know profs can be scary sometimes but if you make an appointment to speak to yours you will probably be surprised by how friendly and helpful they are (especially the scary ones). Make an appointment now, not the day before your paper is due. :)

Reading stories about late papers makes me sad and I can't do anything to help. All the information I have about Morrison is on these web pages. I don't know her: email address, snail mail address, publisher's address, social security number, or birthday. I don't have access to any more information on Morrison (like magazine and newspaper articles). What you see is what you get! :)

I enjoy reading comments and ideas from the people who read my pages. I really can't answer specific questions about Morrison's writings, mostly because I don't feel qualified and I don't have the time. (Remember, this page was just a project I threw together for a class a few days before it was due. I had no intention of leaving it up for the world to see until some people told me they found it useful.)

To sum up: Talk to your instructor if you have questions!


Q. I need your name so I can cite you in my paper.

A. This is how you should cite my webpage, based on the APA Style:

World Wide Web: 

St. John, K. (1995, May). Toni Morrison's Novels [Online].
Available: http://www.az.com/~andrade/morrison/start.html
[1998, July 9]

Important note: The last date (shown here as July 9, 1998) should be changed to the date you accessed my homepage.

Here is how you should cite my webpage, according to the MLA Style Citation:

St. John, K. "Toni Morrison's Novels." May, 1995.
Online. Available http://www.az.com/~andrade/morrison/start.html
Accessed 9 July, 1998

Important note: The last date (shown here as July 9, 1998) should be changed to the date you accessed my homepage.

My source for this information: http://www.cyberbee.com/citing.html


Q. What about Tar Baby?

A. I ran out of time at the end of the quarter. It's a good book, but I don't see it being taught in a lot of classes so its absence from this page is not a huge loss.


Q. What about Paradise?

A. I created these pages in the Spring of 1995. Paradise was published in January of 1998. I work full-time now and I don't have plans to update these pages so chances are Tar Baby and Paradise will never appear on my Morrison pages.


Q. Do you know you left out [insert topic] in [insert book title]?

A. There is plenty I left out (on purpose) and a lot of issues I never found the time to discuss on-line. Bonnie (my Independent Study prof) and I talked about a lot that never made its way to the web. I hope you can find one or two topics here that make you think about the books again.

Personally, I think Sula and Song of Solomon are the most interesting sections while it's painfully obvious that my Beloved section is very weak. If you've read Beloved then you might understand. I can talk about that book for hours on end but when it came time to committimg my thoughts to virtual paper I realized how little I understood! Beloved is a book that should be read by two friends and then discussed at great length. It really doesn't lend itself to "topics" and themes. In many ways it goes beyond all that.


Q. What is your favorite Morrison novel?

A. This is a tough question but I'd have to say Sula. I like them all though and several would be on my Top 20 Favorite Books list (if I were to ever actually sit down and write such a list).


Return to the Toni Morrison HomePage.
I can be contacted via e-mail: andrade [at] az [dot] com