Strangers by Toni Morrison

Strangers by Toni Morrison The short story Strangers by Toni Morrison, published by the New Yorker and released on October 12,1998, explores people’s opinions of others; the narrator meets a woman by a river and instantly grows fond and connects with her. However, when he returned the next day to the river, he noticed she was not there. He immediately felt like He had judged the woman a bit because she appeared strange and different. The narrator states, “my instant embrace of an outrageously dressed fisherwoman was due in part to an image on which my representation of her was based.” which means that the moment he saw the fisherwoman, he instantly judged her without getting to know her first. Overall, the story says that strangers are not just people we do not know. They are more like a manifestation of ourselves that we have not discovered yet. We are inclined to look at strangers differently since we do not know them. This essay is in some way saying that we are all the same. Toni Morrison wrote about strangers' identities and how they fit into this world. I see that many people can look at a person, and they quickly get a presumption about the person when in reality, they don't know anything about that person. As Toni Morrison expressed after he had judged the woman, “he sentimentalized and appropriated her”. Overall, Morrison wants to explain how strangers can change your point of view and show more empathy towards people you don't know. When meeting a stranger, you don't know what they have been through in life; they have seen more of life than you have. When reading Strangers, you can't help but think of that one person you had come across in your life that you had judged right away, but when you communicated with them, you quickly realized that they were different from what you expected. However, in almost everyone you meet, there is a tiny part of you in them; I believe that was what Toni Morrison was trying to get across to everyone. We must look deeper into a person we don't know; we can't just judge them on their appearance and looks. My parents always told me never to talk to strangers, because they could be dangerous as I grew up. However, I met this one stranger a few years ago by the name of Sarah. She was a significantly older woman, maybe in her 60’s or 70’s. We met each other in church; Sarah once said that people would constantly come in and out of your life. Some may stay, but most will go. It is hopeless to hold on to every single relationship you ever had. No matter how hard we tried. What she said had stuck with me till this very day, and what she said about people leaving you is very accurate. I believe you can learn something new from anybody that you allow into your life. I learned the importance of people and how they can change your view of life and open your eyes to understand the world and everyone around you better. Morrison is a photographer who is trying to find identity in people, trying to see who they really are on the inside. Toni Morrison gives a feeling of self-consciousness to the reader, and certainly a feeling of guilt. We know every time we see a person we don’t know we judge them, but in the back of our minds we feel guilty about what we are doing. We should help strangers and strangers can help us. I believe that strangers seek solely to be seen as an equal from other people. I trust that it’s important for a person to know who they truly are. You have to be comfortable with who you are so that you can be comfortable with strangers and new people that you meet. Toni Morrison tells us all not to judge but to accept people the way they are and for who they are. After reading strangers it made me realize that we are all just people, we are all the same. Yes, we all have different appearances, but we are all the same in one way or another. We need to quit judging people so quickly, and come to a realization that most strangers have the option to judge us and our appearance but they don’t, they show us empathy and kindness but we dont give that in return we need to to stop judging their appearance and know that we all have our own stories.