Trauma, Mind Style, and Unreliable Narration in Toni Morrison’s Home

Whitt, Richard J.

Abstract

This article provides a twofold reading of Toni Morrison's novel Home. In the first instance, the stylistic representation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is explored in relation to Frank's mind style; this is done through a focused examination on passages related to Frank's misremembered murder of a girl during his time as a soldier in the Korean War. Frank's guilt and faulty memories, and his lingering experience of PTSD, lead to the issue of narrative unreliability. This article shows how not just Frank himself but also the unspecified third-person narrator is just as unreliable as Frank, if not more so. The seemingly contentious relationship between Frank and the other narrator ultimately leads to Frank's realization about his hand in the murder of the Korean girl, and hence to a coming to terms with and recovery from war-induced PTSD.

Citation

Whitt, R. J. (2023). Trauma, Mind Style, and Unreliable Narration in Toni Morrison’s Home. Style, 57(2), 187–204. https://doi.org/10.5325/style.57.2.0187

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 19, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 18, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 18, 2023
• Journal: Style
• Print ISSN: 0039-4238
• Electronic ISSN: 2374-6629
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 187–204
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5325/style.57.2.0187
• Keywords: Toni Morrison, Home, mind style, narration, unreliability
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/15926874
• Publisher URL: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/style/article-abstract/57/2/187/379066/Trauma-Mind-Style-and-Unreliable-Narration-in-Toni?redirectedFrom=fulltext