“It’s Not My Freedom or Free”: The Big Box and Toni Morrison’s Meditations on Violence, Justice, and Power

Abstract:Toni Morrison’s 1999 book The Big Box, coauthored with her son, Slade Morrison, depicts three children who are locked up because they “just can’t handle [their] freedom.” Ostensibly written for children, the text nonetheless engages issues of sociopolitical power, authority, and justice which affect readers of all ages, challenging them to reconsider the terms of freedom by which we operate. In this way, the book channels issues and themes central to Morrison’s oeuvre, including the many works of nonfiction in which she explores the dynamics of violence and power in the United States and our global community. Indeed, the book’s prescient central refrain is particularly relevant to our contemporary moment as we confront the persisting dis-ease concerning Black and brown bodies in the United States and our ongoing struggle to ensure “freedom and justice for all”.This essay positions The Big Box as a lens through which we may read Morrison’s nonfiction meditations on the tensions between freedom, authority, justice, and power in the United States. Combining various essays in recent publications such as The Source of Self-Regard (2019) and The Origin of Others (2017) with other pieces of Morrison’s nonfiction, this essay explores how The Big Box channels Morrison’s broader concerns about freedom and justice in the United States that continue to resonate today.