Precarious Patriarchs in Toni Morrison’s Paradise: A Butlerian Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present article aims to explore the Butlerian notion of precarity in Morrison’s Paradise in an attempt to realize if and in what ways Butler’s conception of the term can be read into the novel. It attempts to discover what makes the male characters of the novel feel precarious and how they react to their alleged precarity. The central questions of the present research are: How does masculinity contribute to the feeling of precarity among men in an all-black community? And how do the precarious patriarchs respond to their sense of precarity? To answer these questions, the present study bases its arguments on Butler’s conception of precarity and precariousness and focuses on such key terms as patriarchy, tradition, self/other dichotomy, and domination. The article reveals that male chauvinism, exercised and monitored by Ruby men, put the Convent women in a precarious situation as they are constantly vilified and demonized and treated as temptresses and eccentrics. However, gender-induced precarity also affects the patriarchs; they feel precarious because they cannot dominate the Convent women or prevent the rebellion or self-reliance of the feminine other.