Responsibility of the Artist in The Bluest Eye, Faith in a Tree, and Conversion of the JewishToni Morrison, in her work Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation, expresses his opinion on the responsibility of the artist and proclaims that art should be political. I would like to look at the short stories of Grace Paley and Phillip Roth and Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. Each of these works can be considered political and I believe they fit Morrison's idea of ​​what literary fiction should be. Strongly political themes emerge in both Paley's and Roth's work. Paley's short story, "Faith in a Tree", deals with the Vietnam War and Roth's short story, "Conversion of the Jews", deals with religious and moral issues in a public context. Neither Paley nor Roth claim that art should be political, or that it is the artist's responsibility to create a political work. Their work, as illustrated in the stories above, however, is decidedly political in nature, as is Morrison's work, exemplified in his novel, The Bluest Eye. Morrison's definition of an artist's responsibility is limiting in terms of what kind of art is good. and useful." "I am not interested in indulging in some private and closed exercise of my imagination that only fulfills the obligation of my personal dreams, i.e. yes, the work must be political... It seems to me that the best art is that political and you should be able to make it indisputably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.' ” (Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation) Here, Morrison not only claims that political art is better than simply beautiful art, but also implies that it is the artist's responsibility to create art that… in the middle of paper… ...does Rison's definition of art say about more speculative works, such as As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, or Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger? These works do not directly address any major political themes, so they are automatically minor on the Morrison scale simply because they do not defend an ideal that is not accepted by the majority of the public. Although Morrison's The Bluest Eye was an incredible book in many ways, in the end I have to strongly disagree with his views on what art should be and about. responsibility of the artist. Adopting Morrison's ideals would mean devaluing entire artistic movements and many important works and artists, without taking into account their other merits. Works cited Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye, New York, Penguin Books Ltd, 1994. Paley, Grace. Huge last minute changes, USA, Harper C.Collins Canada Ltd. 1995.