Abstract

The trilogy of Toni Morrison is set against the backdrop of slavery and Re-construction of African-Americans. The historical scenario provides Morrison with a context to explore the emotional and psychological trauma particularly inflicted upon women of the society, thus reminding the contemporary reader the significance of past and its influence upon the present. In Paradise, physical and mental evasion of Mavis from domestic violence helps her to confront the situation confidently and bravely. The severe treatment of the woman by her family-members results in emotional break-down leading towards confusion and nervousness. I investigate various ways in which evasion is registered, through the character of Mavis, which becomes a strategy to survive amid atypical circumstances. Essentially the paper argues my stance that in certain cases, events have to be evaded by the survivor, only then they can be decoded into non-traumatic experience making the survival probable amid nonconforming conditions.