# data[].attributes.body
Space of remembrance. In Toni Morrison's Paradise, the Oven was a monument space of remembrance. When the community left the original paradise of Haven and set up in their new location of Ruby, they took the Oven with them through great difficulty, and set it up as a monument in the town.

The  symbol of freedom became an idol to some and a source of contention for the town. The ideas of the ancestors were replaced by an image. "A good thing...but it had went too far. A utility became a shrine" (Morrison 103). It's purpose became lost and history was repeating itself in a different form. The leaders in Ruby were becoming what they fled from.
"They think they have out foxed the whiteman when in fact they imitate him" (Morrison 306).

"The Whited Sepulchre." The Black Book. Eds. Harris, Levitt, Furman, Smith. Random House Publishers. NY. 2009. pg. 28.

# data[].attributes.body
This represents creative space, weaving together the past and present. Toni Morrison wove different races and cultures into her novel Paradise. At times it was unclear what race was being represented at the Convent. The novel opens with "They shoot the white girl first" (Morrison 3) the reader never learns who the white girl is. Does it matter? Morrison seems to be challenging our familiar notions of labels and the categorizing of people.

The Convent is a tapestry of women from different backgrounds, histories and race. Morrison does tell the reader that Connie (Consolata) is Native American. She had been taken by Mary Magna who had "Kidnapped three children...in 1925. Mary Magna, a sister, not a mother, then, flatly refused to to leave two children in the street garbage they sat in"  (Morrison 223). Mary Magna began a "school for Indian girls" (Morrison 224). This is later known as the "Convent" where the shooting occurs.

Photo Taken from:
N.A. The Black Book. Eds. Harris, Levitt, Furman, Smith. Random House Publishing, NY. 2009. pg.104. Slave -made piecework quilt from the home of Sidney Lanier done in Fan pattern and "Log Cabin " design.

# data[].attributes.body
Toni Morrison in her non-fiction work What Moves at the Margin,  wonders: "Do we really have to to go back to Shongo and university to Timbuktu to find some reason for  going on with life? Is the far and misty past really helpful--or just away to escape and transcend the awful reality of this day...Compared with some aspects of contemporary Black Studies, the Black Church comes off as the most pragmatic and realistic institution we ever had. (Where, for instance, could a person go scream out his grief among people he trusted and not be embarrassed except in church?"(Morrison 35).

The church represents a space of safety and acceptance.  In Ruby, even this safe space could not be trusted. It was used for power-hungry men to gain a platform.Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. "Black Church." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1859. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-73c9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

# data[].attributes.body
Toni Morrison uses the ownership of an automobile as a defining space in her novel Paradise.
"As though they knew from the start that the Cadillac would someday be notorious" (Morrison 28).
Ownership defines some of the characters as a space of worthiness, prestige, value, and even pride.
"Every day weather permitted, Deacon Morgan drove his brilliant black sedan three fourths of a mile...He laughed with his friends at his vanity" (Morrison 107).
Although Mavis' Cadillac is a death trap for her twins, it is also her mode of escape from her past.
"The neighbors seemed pleased when the babies smothered. Probably because the mint green Cadillac in which they died had annoyed them for some time" (Morrison 21). Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Repairing tire on road near Knowlton Plantation, Perthshire, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi, October 1939." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1939. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-f8c4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

# data[].attributes.body
Oklahoma, open space, but is it a land of promise for weary post-slave African Americans seeking safety, prosperity, and hope? The towns of Haven and later Ruby, were established in Oklahoma. This land was vast and drew the weary travelers in search of a space to call home.

It is said that "Oklahoma became a premier haven for African Americans moving westward from 1865-1920. By 1890, Oklahoma could claim over 137,000 African American residents living in all black towns across Oklahoma" (Folds3ancestory)
Fold3ancestory "Black Towns In The Old West" fold3.com/page/1226_black_towns_in_the_old.west#descritpions
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Indian Territory [Oklahoma]." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1889. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/98946e97-affe-c4fd-e040-e00a1806468c

# data[].attributes.body
The quest for this answer is perhaps an epic journey through tumultuous waves of injustice, seeking  an illusive  space that defines hope, safety, happiness. In her novel Paradise, Toni Morrison utilizes unique forms of space to define her characters, their personalities, desires and flaws. Does space define paradise?

Lindsey M. Christopher in "The Geographical Imagination in Toni Morrison's Paradise" says: "The unconscious tendencies to understand space as 'just there' leads us to collapse space into time, thinking that time only begins when we encounter a particular geographic space" (Christopher 91).
This ideology, whether understood or unconscious, can lead people down an endless path of searching for the perfect paradise, yet not living because they have yet to arrive.

In Toni Morrison's novel Paradise,   the search for this safe haven begins post slavery. Families seeking a refuge band together, and through many difficulties the town of Haven is established.
This artifact "Threat of Separation" speaks to the longing for a safe haven, a space to feel secure.Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Threat of separation." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-4923-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99