Quote of the Day: Toni Morrison
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“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was” (Toni Morrison, BrainyQuote)
Hello everyone,
I am going to try to post a quote every day again now that I am used to my schedule for the second semester. I chose a quote by the author Toni Morrison who is well-known for her novels Song of Solomon and Beloved. I read Beloved over break, but I admit I did not like it as much as the previous book mentioned. I respected the form of the novel and how the story flowed, but overall I do not think it was as beautifully written as Song of Solomon. The above quote I feel shows how Morrison can write in a deep moving way and still talk about a serious subject. Morrison, like many other African-American writers, focus their stories around people finding their roots and understanding their past. In my opinion, this quote can tie into these themes and shows the importance of ancestry.
Q: What do you think this quote means? Do you think that Morrison may be talking about the importance of knowing one’s past?
Thanks for reading, please post your comments below!
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weareliterarycritics 
It is like Siddhartha’s river. The river is always the same river and at the same time it is not the same river it was just a moment ago.
I have always wanted to read Siddhartha, it looked like an interesting book. I agree, water is always moving and so the water cannot be in the same place twice. I am unsure if Hesse is trying to make the same claim in his novel, but I believe Morrison always discusses the past and history in some way in her stories.
I have read everything Hesse wrote. I wanted to do a long paper on his stuff but never got around to it. The main apprehension of mine was that throughout his work there are seeming contradictions in many sentences over and over again like the river reference which is a true expression of the yin and yang in the evolution of character and plot. Unique that a Westerner esp a German would be possessed of the Tao so completely and express the essence so well weaving it into his writing. Siddhartha is a quick read and is the initiation into his mind and should be the first read if one cares to take a trip with Hesse. I think he is magical. The after images of his imagery once read remain with me to this day.
I think yes, she always uses this as an underlying theme, and realizing that gives you perspective and context.
I don’t know what she meant, but on it’s own, out of context, it makes me think of regret or lost innocence. As we age, and life moves so quickly, and gain experience, it’s not really possible to go back to the time when you were young, before you knew about emotional pain: loss, betrayal, hurtful words, rejection, etc. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the innocence, but without losing the lesson (how far the river has flowed)
Sorry, “we gain experience”.
Sometimes I also want to go back to the days of innocence, but I feel we still have a lot to look forward to in life and the best thing to do is to be positive about what is to come.
She is saying that we are all made out of water, and we are all trying to go back to some unified source like a river flowing to the ocean. Water tends to collect together.