ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that places in Morrison’s Paradise both stem from and present processes of transformation. Ruby is a place striving for stasis; yet transformation is inherent in the town through certain moments of openness. By juxtaposing the text with historical accounts found in the archive, the study shows how features of an actual all-black town are transformed into the fictional town of Ruby. The chapter shows how the landscape is exposed through vision, tactility, and reflection, and how place draws attention to narration and imagination. The Convent is displayed as a place of transformation—of embezzling, in the sense of diversion from an original place into a different function. Literary devices are used to expose the Convent not only as a changing place but also as one that is firmly structured around themes of killing and death, traits also underscored in Morrison’s manuscripts. Influences of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé partake in the transformation of the cellar into a place of telling. Candomblé becomes an implicit transformational force not only in the fictional world but also in Morrison’s writing. The paradise that concludes the novel reverberates with artistic creation as images of music, colour, and poetry form an imperfect paradise, a place that constitutes a second diversion of place, this time from the diverted Oklahoma setting into paradise.
