in which you apply Morrison’s ideas to Everett’s Erasure
- Which characters do you think to adhere to ideas about American Africanism? Which characters do you think challenge those ideas? How and why might these characters believe in or challenge Africanist ideas? How might American Africanism influence how characters in the novel think or act? Do you think the characters who are trying to disrupt American Africanism are successful in the end? Why or why not?
- How is the novel constructing or imagining whiteness and blackness? Why might the novel be constructing or imagining whiteness and blackness in these ways? How and why might the portrayal of whiteness and blackness be linked in Erasure? How and why might characters of different races be affected by ideas about whiteness and/or blackness? Do you think Monk is always stuck in how blackness is constructed, or does he find a way to be his authentic self in the end? Is it possible to escape the social and cultural construction of race? Why or why not?
