She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness.... Phlegm and impatience mingle in his voice. (Morrison 49) but Pecola endures this discomfort and rejection, not so she can establish her empowered Blackness as a consumer, but so she can purchase candy. The candy is not to satisfy her bodily, physical sexual or even stomach's appetite. Rather, it is merely so she may consumer and own, for a time Mary Jane's "Smiling white face. Blond hair in gentle disarray, blue eyes looking at her out of a world of clean comfort. The eyes are petulant, mischievous. To Pecola they are simply pretty. She eats the candy, and its sweetness is good. To eat the candy is somehow to eat the eyes, eat Mary Jane. Love Mary Jane. Be Mary Jane." (Morrison 50).
Consuming, in this capitalist world that…...
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Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Knopf, 1970.
Many scholars and scientists truly believed that physical beauty and grace were indicative of other "internal" traits, and that the "less beautiful" races (i.e. all non-whites, though there were gradients established in this regard) were of poorer moral quality and intelligence, and had other undesirable internal characteristics as well (Gibson 1990). This means that the concepts of beauty that are expressed in the book have both direct and symbolic implications.
This is evidenced in the fact that Pauline, Pecola's mother -- and one of the primary characters by which Pecola learns that "standards" of beauty -- is only truly happy when she is in the presence of rich white people that typify what she thinks of as "proper," "beautiful," and accomplished. Even though she herself was an Afircan-America, the indoctrination into mainstream society that she had lived through -- in a past that was arguably as disruptive and horrible as…...
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References
Gibson, D. (1990). Text and Countertext in the Bluest Eye. In Toni Morrison's the Bluest Eye, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Chelsea House.
Klotman, P. (1979). Dick-and-Jane and the Shirley Temple Sensibility in the Bluest Eye. Black American Literature Forum 13(4): 123-5.
Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eye. New York: Knopf.
Rosenberg, R. (1987). Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in the Bluest Eye. Black American Literature Forum 21(4): 435-45.
Eichelberger states that Morrison's work shows that the novel "in its particular cultural setting portrays domineering aggression as the true motivation for many cultural conditions that are commonly regarded as agents of freedom" (2). This ideology (i.e. The dominant mindset) is what characters use to destroy other characters' sense of self.
Both the Bluest Eye and hen the Legends Die have a resounding theme of homelessness and this relates to the sense of self. Pecola has a house and a family, but she does not have safety, which is what truly makes a home a refuge. She is raped by her father and chastised and beaten by her mother and she doesn't have a sense of home. Likewise, Tom's quest for his identity leads him to the wilderness, back to Pagosa, and on the road as a bronco rider. He is sent from place to place and thus there is…...
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Works Cited
Borland, Hal. When the Legends Die. Laurel Leaf; reprint edition. 1984.
Eichelberger, Julia. Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and Eudora Welty. Louisiana State
Her mother, like her daughter, is said to be filled with a sense of self-hatred and rejection. "She [Pecola's mother] was confronted by prejudice on a daily basis, both classism and racism, and for the first time, the white standard of beauty. These experiences worked to transform Pauline into a product of hatred and ignorance, leading her to hold herself up to standards that she didn't fully understand nor could realistically attain. These standards and feelings of rejection are the qualities that Pecola inherits from Pauline. Her mother, from her birth, placed upon her the same shroud of shame, loneliness, and inadequacy." (illis, 2006)
This is perhaps the most tragic aspect of Morrison's novel at all. Pecola soaks up self-hatred in mass culture, but she has no pure, black past to turn to, given how white culture has already influenced and penetrated the previous generation of African-Americans. Thus, The Bluest…...
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Works Cited
Bennett, Juda. "Toni Morrison and the Burden of the Passing Narrative." The Bluest Eye.
Kuenz, Jane. "The Bluest Eye': notes on history, community, and black female subjectivity." The Bluest Eye. Site created by Anniina Jokinenon May 21, 1997. Last updated on May 31, 2006. [7 Nov 2006] http://www.geocities.com/tarbaby2007/bluest3.html
Moses, Cat. "The Blues Aesthetic in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye." African
Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye is deals with the historical and psychological effects of defining beauty according to race. The Bluest Eye is essentially about how concepts of beauty are instilled from a very young age. It is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio. The novels focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl who is trying to conquer a bout with self-hatred. Every day she encounters racism, not just from white people, but mostly from her own race. In their eyes she is much too dark, and the darkness of her skin somehow implies that she is inferior, and according to everyone else, her skin makes her even uglier. She feels she can overcome this battle of self-hatred by obtaining blue eyes, but not just any blue. She wants the bluest eye. Morrison is able to use her critical eye to…...
It is possibly or probably Morrison speaking from her own personal heart, maybe remembering her own childhood as a black girl in a time when black children were not very often used as characters in books; meanwhile, author Morrison has Claudia saying (62) "hat was the secret?" Of Maureen's magical whiteness and social power. "hat did we lack? hy was it important? And so what?"
Morrison also offers readers a little history lesson about how life was for Southern African-Americans who migrated north in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Through the character of Pauline Breedlove, Pecola's mother, who moved to Lorain, Ohio, readers learn that Pauline wasn't used to "so much white folks. The ones I seed before was something hateful... [and] they was everywhere - next door, downstairs, all over the streets - and colored folks few and far between." Even the "colored folks" were "different" in the north; "No…...
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Works Cited
Byerman, Keith E. "Beyond Realism: The Fictions of Toni Morrison" in Modern Critical
Views: Toni Morrison, Ed. Harold Bloom, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990.
Harris, Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1991.
Kuenz, Jane. "The Bluest Eye: Notes on History, Community, and Black Female Subjectivity."
Doom in the luest Eye and the Voyage Out Doomed From the eginning:
The Inevitability of Death in the luest Eye and the Voyage Out Commonality is a funny thing. Who would suppose that a young, white twenty-four-year-old, turn of the twenty-first century, English lady might have a great deal in common with a young, adolescent, black American girl? This is exactly the case, however, between Virginia Woolf's main character, Rachel in The Voyage Out, and Toni Morrison's Pecola, in her work, The luest Eye.
Despite their differences in time, location, culture, and circumstance, the characters in the two novels share a common fate based on a common cause. oth characters begin life in unfortunate circumstances that foreshadow the inevitable doom that results from their respective positions in life.
Morrison's The luest Eye, opens with the words, "Here is the house."
It starts out innocently enough -- yet, even before the reader finishes the…...
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Bibliography
Gordon, Lyndall. Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life. New York W.W. Norton, 1984.
Hussey, Mark. Virginia Woolf A to Z. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1995.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume, 1994.
Woolf, Virginia. The Voyage Out. Oxford: Oxford University, 1992.
The author uses this stereotyping to show how harmful it can be - black or white, or any other color for that matter. She shows that any stereotype is just a generalization and is not the truth, but people take stereotypes to be the truth, which gives the stereotype control over them. Pecola's idea that having blue eyes will make her beautiful eventually consumes her and ruins her life. Morrison writes of Pecola's mother, who instill the stereotypes of white American beauty in her daughter, "She was never able, after her education in the movies, to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one she absorbed in full from the silver screen" (Morrison 95). Morrison seems to be saying that "buying in" to any stereotype and giving it control can ruin a life, and create discontent…...
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References
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Jazz. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1998.
Pecola Breedlove's experiences in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye symbolize the internalization of sexism and racism. On the contrary, Anita Hill's willingness to stand up and speak out against a powerful male official represents the externalization of sexism and racism. Anita Hill lacks the self-hatred embodied by the character of Pecola, but in spite of her confidence and poise, lacks the power or wherewithal to undermine institutionalized sexism. Although Hill had an opportunity to make the personal political, her failure to convince members of the Senate about Clarence Thomas's misconduct highlights the ongoing struggles for all women and especially women of color to reclaim power. When The Bluest Eye was written, the prospects for women of color were even poorer than they were when Anita Hill testified. Yet the outcome of Hill's testimony proves that patriarchy remains entrenched in American society.
A core similarity between Anita Hill's experience and that of…...
Therefore we see through Nick's eyes the ways and lifestyle not only of Tom, Daisy, Jordan and others, but also the mysterious, nouveau riche Gatsby, wealthy from bootlegging and other criminal activities. hen Gatsby seduces Daisy, she, too, is drawn into his orbit, which later results in Myrtle's and Gatsby's deaths. hen Tom learns Daisy is involved with Gatsby, he becomes furious. Gatsby is later killed by the husband of Myrtle, who erroneously believes Gatsby struck and killed Myrtle while driving (this was not Gatsby, but Daisy).
Reflecting on the decadence all around him Nick decides to head back to the Midwest, realizing Gatsby's love for Daisy had been not only illicit, but corrupted from the start, by Gatsby's shady past. Moreover, as Nick reflects near the end of the novel, the soul of the American Dream itself is now dead, having been replaced by pursuit of money.
In both novels,…...
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Works Cited
Bass, Ellen, and Laura Davis. The Courage to Heal. 3rd Ed. New York: Harper And Row, 1994. 24.
orchestrate the plot such that the characters are forced to make crucial decisions regarding their most centrally held values and beliefs; whichever action a specific character chooses serves to inform the audience as to what type of individual he or she is. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the motif of abuse, in particular, occurs in tales throughout history; but also, considering each story's social context allows for insight into these singular characterizations, as well as, a better grasp of the underlying values permeating their settings. Through the characters in The Bluest Eye and Bastard out of Carolina their particular moral settings become clear, and the similarities seem to span many of the divides of race. Centrally, the key issues in both novels seem to be poverty, oppression, and their emotional consequences; in other words, the themes within The Bluest Eye and Bastard out of Carolina are similar…...
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Works Cited:
1. Allison, Dorothy. Bastard out of Carolina. New York: Dutton, 1992.
2. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume, 1970.
Gertrude Stein, The Gentle Lena
The most obvious thing about this story was that nothing really happened. At the start, continually reading about the "patient, gentle, sweet and german" Lena and her "peaceful life" I was expecting there to be some twist to the story, perhaps with Lena snapping and becoming something other than patient, gentle and sweet. However, this twist did not come, which is probably what makes the story work so well. It is a simple and sad story about a life lived without consequence. Having Lena resolve the situation in some way, would not be true to the story, since any action would mean Lena's life did have some meaning.
Overall, it is a story of a woman accepting her life without questioning it. Lena does not appear either content or happy, instead it is more like she is numb. This is emphasized by the fact that nobody seemed…...
omen in Novellas
Gender, as opposed to the physical classification of sex, has always been based upon societal construct. The current psychology of the masses dictates what proper or improper behavior for the given genders is. Things have progressed, but there is still a vast difference between the roles and responsibilities of males and their female counterparts. The conflict of the modern age often stems from an intersection of gender and ethical dilemmas, both based upon societal rules. Fictional characters are written by flesh and blood human beings. Thus, the norms of the social order will bleed into their fictional creations. Female characters in a fictional work will have the same gendered notes as a human being. If they do not prescribe to the norms of their given gender, it is always for an artistic purpose which functions as the purpose of the piece. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death…...
African-American authors have been essential to elucidation of the race and gender issues that face Blacks living in America. In particular, Black female authors have confronted the woes of societal stereotypes and idiosyncrasies that reflect life in America for people of color. The intention of this discussion is to examine how women writers analyze the race, class, and gender discrimination that black women have often faced. e will examine the works The Color Purple by Alice alker and The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison.
Alice alker
First let's examine The Color Purple which was published in 1982 and subsequently became an academy award nominated screenplay. There are several aspects of the novel that explore race, class and gender. The novel is narrated by a character named Celie. The primary theme of this novel has to do with plight of Celie and explores the manner in which women are treated by the…...
hile it is true that Lester's life is not worthless per se, it is important to realize that because he thinks it is and behaves as though it is, he has already given up in the sense that Morrison suggested. Lester has resigned himself to the fact that his life has reached its peak. In other words, he has placed himself into spiritual and mental sleep. At one point, he admits to Brad that he has "nothing left to lose." Here we see that Lester has all but given up because he believes that there is nothing of value left in life.
In addition, Lester's life is worthless because he is not proactive. He proves Morrison's point succinctly when he lives so apathetically and selfishly. Instead of working on things with his wife, he allows himself to become distracted with a silly fantasy about Angela. He lives in a dream…...
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Works Cited
American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning. 1999. Videocassette. Dreamworks.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume Books. 1970.
The Title's Influence on Abortion Portrayal in Literature
The title of a literary work serves as a potent gateway into its thematic landscape, setting the tone and shaping readers' expectations. When the subject matter involves the sensitive and polarizing topic of abortion, the title's influence becomes particularly profound.
Signalling the Taboo
The mere mention of "abortion" in a title can trigger instant reactions, evoking strong emotions and preconceived notions. It can instantly convey the novel's controversial nature, signaling to readers that the work will grapple with complex ethical dilemmas and societal divides. Titles such as "The Abortion" (Ann Oakley), "Abortion: A Woman's Right....
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