Love: A Novel

Like many of Morrison’s novels, Love delves into the experience of Black Americans as they grapple with the legacy of slavery and the realities of racism. Love spans a roughly 50-year time frame, from the 1940s to the 1990s of the novel’s present day. The novel takes place in a small fictional town but frequently references real historical events which offer a rich backdrop to the story. Some of these references include racial violence and lynching, the effect of desegregation on Black-only communities, and conflict within the civil rights movement.

The violence of racism and the Jim Crow South are a constant backdrop to the events of the novel, though they are only briefly alluded to on the page. Guests at Cosey’s Resort see it as a refuge from the threat of violence: “[I]t was a school and a haven where people debated death in the cities, murder in Mississippi, and what they planned to do about it other than grieve and stare at their children” (34). May is terrified in 1955 when news of the lynching of Emmett Till reaches their community, and even L. says, “[w]e all shivered about what they did to that boy” (103). Till was a 14-year-old Black child who was abducted and lynched by white men in Mississippi after a white woman accused him of flirting with her; the men were never prosecuted but later admitted their guilt (Whitfield, Stephen J. A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991). May’s fear is that this violence will penetrate the refuge of the hotel and put her family in danger. Other characters are also aware of the delicate balance that Cosey and other Black characters must negotiate between deference and friendship with local law enforcement. Sandler knows that the sheriff and his men might pretend to be friendly on Cosey’s boat “until they docked. Then the sheriff could put his badge back on and call the colored physician a boy” (110). Though the resort is a haven, it is not immune to the racism of the outside world.

Some critics have placed the location of Cosey’s Hotel and Resort in the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia. The hotel flourished prior to integration because it offered a place for wealthy Black Americans to vacation in luxury at a time when many establishments were white-only. After integration, the hotel declines because the clientele can now vacation at other resorts. In an interview, Morrison spoke about the effects of integration on Black-only spaces:

There were these fabulous black schools, high schools, insurance companies, resorts, and the business class was very much involved. They had worked very hard to have their own resorts outside Detroit and New Jersey where they were all black and very upscale. Those stores are gone; those hotels are gone (Showalter, Elaine. “A Tangled Web.” The Guardian, 2003).

The decline of Cosey’s is linked to this moment in history.

Christine and May also represent different attitudes in the Black community about the civil rights movement. Christine and her boyfriend, Fruit, are involved in the radical aspects of the movement and run a sleeper organization formed after the Emmett Till lynching. May, on the other hand, is comfortable with the idea of segregated communities and sees the benefits of “separate schools, hospitals with Negro wards and doctors, colored-owned banks, and the proud professions designed to service the race” (79). She fears that the radical aspects of the civil rights movement will trigger white violence against her and the hotel, but she also fears violence from groups like the Black Panthers. This family quarrel is emblematic of a larger divide at this time because Americans questioned what path forward would be the best for America.