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Works Examined |
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Meridian (1976) explores the quest for womanhood through the novel's title character Meridian Hill and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Told in three parts, the novel follows Meridian from her childhood on a southern farm, through college and activism, to New York City. Throughout the novel, Meridian will confront struggles to affirm herself as both a woman and black. In this novel, the subject of the self is explored through the lens of racism and sexism. Meridian Hill is a young woman of high intellect with very limited options by the time she reaches high school. Her mother, a devout churchgoing woman, fails to comprehend or appreciate Meridian's struggles at constructing an identity for herself, as her efforts fall outside of the traditional church structure. A rather narrowly focused woman, Mrs. Hill's response for dealing with struggle is to rely simply and solely on faith. She lacks personal engagement in regards to events and people around her. The novel presents a strong critique on notions of "motherhood" and the concept of domesticity. In the chapter "Have You Stolen Anything" Meridian reflects upon her mother's life and her distant relationship towards her children. Although her mother had been happy in her marriage and fulfilled in her career, Meridian considers her mother as not being suitable for motherhood. She should not have had children and in doing so, child rearing removed her mother's autonomy. She would always be defined by her children. With this lack of closeness and open communication between mother and daughter, Meridian finds herself pregnant at seventeen. Unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex, Meridian is forced into marriage and out of high school. In examining herself as a young woman, Meridian realizes immediately that marriage and child rearing are incompatible with her nascent sense of self. She is not clear on what she hoped for in her life, but she is aware that this marriage and motherhood will not settle well with her. She soon loses interest in her home life and eventually finds herself separated from her husband. At seventeen she is rapidly moving towards single motherhood. Meridian's marriage ends and she fails to establish maternal bonds with her young son. She is searching for something and finds interest in a group of young college students who have come South to initiate voter registration within black communities. Intrigued by their efforts she one day finds herself volunteering. She is a high school drop-out with only herself to offer. This would be the first stage of Meridian's growth and movement towards self-awareness and womanhood. Shortly following her volunteer work with the group Meridian is offered a chance to attend college, on scholarship, at Saxon College in Atlanta. She accepts this offer for several reasons: an undeniable need for fulfillment, the experience of a college education, the chance to leave the rural South, and to be near Truman Held, the young man who has captured her interest as a civil rights worker and who also attends college in Atlanta. Similar to Sula in Walker's novel, Meridian commits an unthinkable act within the black community. Whereas Sula commits her grandmother to a nursing home, Meridian gives her young son up for adoption to a good home. She will be haunted by dreams of her infant. Her mother condemns her actions and offers no encouragement or support in Meridian's attempts at constructing a newer, more promising life for herself. While in college, Meridian encounters the "Wile Chile," an orphaned thirteen year old who fends for herself wearing cast-off clothes and eating discarded food. The Wile Chile turns up pregnant and Meridian makes a concerted effort to help her. Frightened, the Wile Chile rejects her, runs, and is fatally killed in a car accident. Wanting to offer her a fitting burial, Meridian attempts holding a memorial service for the Wile Chile in the campus chapel. The university rejects her efforts and Meridian holds the services beneath the Sojourner, a mythical tree with an immense folklore surrounding its history. The Sojourner was the largest magnolia tree in the country and had been intertwined with the history of the slave Louvinie. The Sojourner represents a continuous connection to nature and imagery for Meridian which had started as early as her childhood experiences of ecstasy with the Sacred Serpent, similar to those of her paternal great-grandmother Feather Mae. During her college years, Meridian continues her participation in civil rights activities. In her involvement she experiences personal, psychological changes that parallel the social changes she is attempting to secure for the community. Her changes are given outwardly physical representations including her androgynous appearance, her physical ailments, and her states of disembodiment. In particular, her moments of disembodiment and ecstasy in communion with nature represent aspects of Native American culture. Here, Meridian reflects the interconnectedness of African American and Native American experiences in America. With each fainting spell Meridian experiences, she comes to consciousness with a renewed commitment to the struggles against injustice and oppression. As a novel, Meridian offers a critique of the dominant patriarchal system in America and, particularly, within aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. Most noted and disturbing is the construction of problematic relationships by Truman Held. Truman is caught between wanting Meridian to have his "beautiful black babies" for the revolution, and Lynne, a white exchange student from the North who is volunteering for the cause. As a biracial couple, Truman and Lynne fail to develop a fully engaged relationship as a biracial couple. Rather, they descend into the superficial stereotypes applied to their identities. Meridian, on the other hand, makes the radical decision to have her tubes tied, after a one night stand with Truman who had left her pregnant and facing an abortion. As a result, Meridian constructs an image of womanhood that neither centers on motherhood or heterosexual relations. Her image as woman becomes self-contained based upon her commitment to social justice, personal autonomy, and her increasing connections with the past. The novel moves through the various struggles in Meridian's life as an activist while simultaneously updating the reader as to the actions of Truman and Lynne. Most interesting Meridian's college friend, Anne-Marion, fails to remain politically engaged in the struggle although once a radical black activist. It was during Meridian's physical decline that Anne-Marion declared her inability to afford their friendship. Similar to Morrison's Sula and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God the friendship pairings serve as symbols of development for both self and community. Throughout the novel, as Meridian Hill moves towards higher levels of consciousness she rejects material objects. Her womanhood becomes one that is rooted in the simplicity of intimate self-respect and respect for the humanity of all things. Uncompromising in her commitment, she moves towards an existence of limited means but infinite resourcefulness accepting the community's generosity. In doing so, her life represents fulfillment, self-awareness, and the substantial ability to affect positive change in society through committed engagement.
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Program content by Violet Bryan,Ph.D. and Robin Vander |
