Bluest Eye and Giovanni's Room
There are several novels written by two of the worlds most critically acclaimed literary writers of the 20th century James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. But I would like to focus on just two of their works, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. In these novels in some way the authors suggest a theme of how the past is rooted in the present. Now each of these authors shows this in a different way. This is because of the contrast in their story outline and the structures of their novels. Yet they both seem to suggest that if the past is not clear then the present or the future can not be clear as well. One can not run from ones past, it will only dictate ones future.
I would like to start with James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. From the very beginning of the novel we see this man standing in the window of his apartment building in France. He begins to reminisce about the things that he had done and the past that had caused his present reality. From this very moment the author begins to suggest to us that something about this man's past is relevant to the plot or story about to be told. The man, whose name is David, tells us about this person named Giovanni, and how he was about to face the guillotine. David also tells us about how his fiancée Hella had left him. And how he told her that he loved her. He begins to go back in time to explain to us how he met and asked Hella to marry him, as well as to tell us that he lived with Giovanni. So what was this dilemma that Giovanni was about to face or had already faced. David dose not tell us at this point, instead he starts to tell us about this guy named Joey who was once his best friend, until that night. The night that h...
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...er known what it should have been like. His past was laced with rejections and so he never knew how to give anything else but rejection. And so even if he thought he loved her, he was rejecting her. Which brings me to Pecola. Pecola doesn't have much of a past because no one allows her to have any. Everyone is always giving her their past, enforcing restrictions upon her and placing her into categories. Because of this she lives vicariously through these much wanted blue eyes. She is given this offspring of hate and rejection and forced to live in a present more vile than any past of any one particular character.
Toni Morrison and James Baldwin make suggestions that the past is rooted into the present in both the novels with depth and clarity. In order to move forward you have to complete the past if not you could wind up in the future of the past for you.
Time: How does the way the writer moves between the past and present and future affect the structure of the book? How might this technique inform my approach?
All of humanity suffers at one point or another during the course of their lives. It is in this suffering, this inevitable pain, that one truly experiences life. While suffering unites humankind, it is how we choose to cope with this pain that defines us as individuals. The question becomes do we let suffering consume us, or do we let it define our lives? Through James Baldwin’s story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the manner by which one confronts the light and darkness of suffering determines whether one is consumed by it, or embraces it in order to “survive.” Viewing a collection of these motifs, James Baldwin’s unique perspective on suffering as a crucial component of human development becomes apparent. It is through his compassionate portrayal of life’s inescapable hardships that one finds the ability to connect with humankind’s general pool of hardship. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” makes use of the motifs of darkness and light to illuminate the universal human condition of suffering and its coping mechanisms.
In "The Ice Palace" and The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the nature of the past. He shows us that we can neither return to nor escape from the past. In "The Ice Palace" he writes about the pasts of two different societies, the North and the South. In The Great Gatsby he writes about Daisy's relationships with two men, Tom and Gatsby. “In both of these stories some characters want to escape from the past and others want to return to the past”(Pendelton, 37). These characters find that neither of these is possible, that the past and the present have become intertwined.
Whether it is miniscule things like Tom’s character and Daisy’s sobriety or larger scale things like buying a house or throwing extravagant parties, the past and the experiences it holds are a major component in people’s present and future lives. Considering all this, I think it’s appropriate to consider what this realization can mean and how one can use it for the better. If it’s so evident that the past affects one future, there must be ways to use this positively and take advantage of the phenomenon. In The Great Gatsby, after all drama had been completed, Nick Carraway ends his narration by deciding to take what has happened and try to move on. Nick affirms, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald
The past often contains many things that we desire, be it something as simple as a peaceful life to something strong such as a relationship with someone who has been lost. We all attempt to return to these feelings or times in many ways, from simple memories or tastes to ways as ridiculous and outlandish as Gatsby’s parties. Whether this feelings are ever truly experienced again or not varies from attempt to attempt, in the case of “The Great Gatsby” it was for only a brief moment before it was ripped from Gatsby with Tom’s
Claudia is the sister of Frieda Macteer and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mcteer. Claudia is important to this novel because she talks mainly on Pecola’s life. An Archetype is the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which the are based. Claudia’s archetype is the sage, the sage is a character that life is based on the truth. She gains experience throughout the novel as she listen to adult conversations and others around her. “A brownish-red stain discolored the back of her dress. She kept whinnying, standing with her leg far apart. Frieda said, “Oh. Lordy! I know. I know what that is!” “What?”Pecola’s fingers went to her mouth.”That’s ministration’.””What’s that?””(Morrison 29) This shows that Claudia learns new things that she did not know her sister knew. Indirect characterization is used to reveal Claudia as
In the creative writing assignment I decided to explore a narrative that revolves around the idea of a connection between one man and his past. In this story, I created a scenario where two individuals become pen pals with one another and begin to write each other letters. Billy is a young boy who enjoys the simple childish enjoyments of life such as the great outdoors who serves as more of a background role in the tale. The majority of tale, however, focuses on a character of the name inmate #48209. Through his name and a series of references and foreshadowing, the reader learns that this character is incarcerated. The character throughout the story deals with the trouble of wanting to know what lies beyond the horizon. As the tale goes on it is revealed that inmate #48209 is actually Billy in the future who is writing to his
After her eyes have experienced her father raping her she can no longer live with having them. She wishes to "rise up out of the pit of her blackness"(174) and see the world with the bluest eyes. Her sanity gives way and she sees the world through what she believes must be the bluest eyes known to man. Pecola no longer sees herself as others do either, for she believes that God has granted her the bluest eyes. The God granted gift of blue eyes is the end of Pecola's sanity and "the damage [is] done total"(204). She is no longer able to see the real world at all, only the veil of the insanity. This veil of insanity is somewhat of a blessing to her for she no longer sees the terrible things she once did. Those watching her from the real world used her pain and ugliness to glorify themselves. Pecola's wish for blue eyes came true at the cost of her sanity and her true sight of the
“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry…Public fact becomes private reality, and the seasons of a Midwestern town become the Moirai of our small lives” (Morrison 187-188). In this passage of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses shortened syntax and chaotic mood to demostrate the difference between public fact and private reality. Morrison writes shorter phrases in “Biting the strawberry, thinking of storms, I see her…The wind swoops her up, high above the houses, but she is still standing, hand on hip. Smiling” (Morrison 187). The passage shows the difference between how Claudia views the storm to be. Morrison writes shorter phrases here to demonstrate the idea that Claudia thinks of when her mother is telling
Many individuals believe that history repeats itself and is on a never ending loop doomed to be repeated once again. However, the past cannot be recreated. The past is the past and while some characters in the novel The Great Gatsby realize this others simply do not. Gatsby has spent the better part of five years trying to recreate the time when him and Daisy were together. Furthermore, Gatsby fails to realize that things have changed and are no long the same as five years ago. The uncertainties of times before are not grounds to repair a current situation in an individual’s life. Reality now is not the same as once before. The old days should be left in former times and when an individual attempts to reconcile these events then corruption
All wise people will tell us that we must never let the sadness of our past and the fear of our future ruin the happiness of our present. However, what happens when this idea becomes an illusion restraining us from actually living in the present? What happens when the only condition to our happiness is that our present returns in the past? The book A long way home, written by Saroo Brierley and its film adaptation, Lion, directed by Garth Davis illustrates the fight of a young man who tries to appreciate his present by reconnecting with his past. Indeed, both literary and visual works present Saroo’s incredible, once thought impossible quest to find his biological family in the indian village he left 25 years ago. Through both narratives, it
Throughout Toni Morrison’s controversial debut The Bluest Eye, several characters are entangled with the extremes of human cruelty and desire. A once innocent Pecola arguably receives the most appalling treatment, as not only is she exposed to unrelenting racism and severe domestic abuse, she is also raped and impregnated by her own father, Cholly. By all accounts, Cholly should be detestable and unworthy of any kind of sympathy. However, over the course of the novel, as Cholly’s character and life are slowly brought into the light and out of the self-hatred veil, the reader comes to partially understand why Cholly did what he did and what really drives him. By painting this severely flawed yet completely human picture of Cholly, Morrison draws comparison with how Pecola was treated by both of her undesirable parents. According to literary educator Allen Alexander, even though Cholly was cripplingly flawed and often despicable, he was a more “genuine” person to Pecola than Pauline was (301). Alexander went on to claim that while Cholly raped Pecola physically, Pauline and Soaphead Church both raped her mental wellbeing (301). Alexander is saying that the awful way Pecola was treated in a routine matter had an effect just as great if not greater than Cholly’s terrible assault. The abuse that Pecola lived through was the trigger that shattered her mind. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the characters of Cholly Breedlove and Frieda McTeer to juxtapose sexual violence and mental maltreatment in order to highlight the terrible effects of mental abuse.
As the novel continues, Claudia goes on to describe the lives and hardships faced by those in her and her sister’s life; the primary person of focus is Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is a fragile young girl who is fascinated with love.
Furthermore, Pecola adores the Mary Jane candy, with the white face and its “blye eyes looking at her out of a world of clean comfort.” The novel further states that “to eat the candy is shomehow to eat the eyes. Eat Mary Janes. Love Mary Jane. Be Mary Jane” (Morrison, 2007: 65 of 221).
... the end, what kind of community we have around ourselves can shape and define us depending on if we give in to the negativity or if we fight for the things we believe in. Claudia and Frieda were defiant and headstrong, and they had a family that was protective and loving. Pecola however never had positive role-models and the community only reinforced what her family already believed about themselves, that they were “ugly” people. Pecola's obsession with having blue eyes could be said to have stemmed from the communities expectations and how she did not fit into them. Her desire to be noticed, loved and cared for became an obsession that she fully embraced after she had been raped by her father Cholly and it only took a small con by Soaphead church for her to go over the edge and become mentally ill. Pecola's reality shattered, and her fragile psyche split in two.