The Clear Message of The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye fits into our study of the American novel because it tells the story of a group of Americans, men and women and children who are descendants of slaves, and live in a society where, even though many people deny it, the color of your skin determines who you are and what privileges you are entitled to. I think that Morrison does a wonderful job of telling a story that is real, that makes the reader feel something, and that makes the reader relate, regardless of your skin color.
I cannot say that I can relate to what it must have felt like for Pecola to be called a "a nasty little black bitch" and accused of killing a cat when she did nothing. But, I can say that I know what it is like to feel ugly and scared. Pecola is an extreme example of a person who is treated horribly by everyone she encounters, whether it is because she is black or ugly or both. Her mother ignores her, her father rapes her, her friends betray her, little boys and girls and adults call her names, and even a cat and a dog are killed in her presence. All of these things are experienced by people all of the time, however, it might not be as extreme or it might just be one or two of the things. Something that seems as trivial as name calling is something that happens to all Americans.
Morrison takes American experiences and characteristics, such as violence, growing up, love, family, hatred, race, beauty and ugliness, and illustrates them in a way that is so clear, yet so painful. These American experiences are not covered up or toned down to seem less serious; they are real and they are heart-breaking. Every one of Morrison's characters can be related to in one way or another because they are Americans and they are human. I think that Morrison sums up how The Bluest Eye impacted me in the following quote: "So it was with confidence, strengthened by pity and pride, that we decided to change the course of events and alter a human life" (191).
Claudia MacTeer in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye looks longingly upon society from the outside. Growing up the youngest in the family as well as in a racial minority leaves Claudia feeling excluded and left out. She desires a place within the group society has formed without her. She desires to fit in and be accepted. Claudia desperately wants to experience life to the fullest. She does not want to miss out on any event. Claudia's curiosity is often her conscious motivation to get involved, but the reasons that she acts the way she does go deeper than that. Her personality and character traits make fitting in unfortunately hard to accomplish.
There are a few characters in The Bluest Eye in which Morrison takes away a negative connotation from their actions. In the Afterwords, she writes, .".., I mounted a series of rejections, some routine, some exceptional, some monstrous, all the while trying hard to avoid complicity in the demonization process Pecola was subjected to. That is, I did not want to dehumanize the characters who trashed Pecola and contributed to her collapse" (211).
Her novels reflect both the lack of hope that racism creates as well as the positivity that has encouraged the African American people to succeed despite the racist ideology that slowly tears them down. Morrison’s father showed “blatant hostility towards white people” through her younger years (Mobley 508). However her mother had a strong feeling that someday racism would come to an end in the United States, and race relations would improve. In her later years, Morrison moved to New York with her two children after being newly divorced and became an editor at Random House, where she worked with mostly black writers. Soon after moving to New York, she wrote her first novel The Bluest Eye in 1964 (508). In previous interviews Morrison states that she wrote the novel after a time of depression, but later revokes the statement by saying how the words she used don’t necessarily hold their true meaning. She says “they simply represent a different state. It’s an unbusy state, when I am more aware of myself than of others” (Smith
Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has grown to become a name associated with horror and science fiction. To fully understand the importance and origin of this novel, we must look at both the tragedies of Mary Shelley's background and her own origins. Only then can we begin to examine what the icon "Frankenstein" has become in today's society.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a truly famous novel that has been revisited by many, as well as revised by the author in the many years since its original publication. Within this novel Shelley conveys the tragic fictional story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster that he thoughtlessly brought to life, as well as the lives of those affected by his hideous creation. Throughout the novel it is made quite apparent that the monster was not inherently evil, in fact the monster was quite benign, however through its interactions with society the monster is slowly shaped into a being that can truly be called just that, a monster. All of the aforementioned change to the monster are brought about in part by the societal standards of the time period
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader is lead to sympathize with the monstrous creature, which was created by Victor Frankenstein. Despite any internal contradictions, the creature has the indisputable outward appearance of a monster, one repulsive to even his own creator. Inevitably, the appearance becomes the creature’s most significant quality, which eliminates any recognition of other, more human, qualities. As a result, any possibility of acceptance within human society are completely destroyed. The creature himself even recognizes this fact. Expressing many human qualities, such rejection and the consequential loneliness has a tremendous impact on the creature, especially in the impressionable years after his initial animation. With the psychological effects caused by these factors, the creature is sent on a rampage, causing tragedy throughout the course of the novel. Many may question Victor’s culpability and lack of responsibility over his creation; however, the ultimate blame for the events must be placed while considering the situation on a larger scale. Without a structured beginning to life, the creature is subjected to the harsh society around him, whose reactions only lead the creature to exile and psychological torment, justifying his wrongful actions.
Morrison discloses discrimination within the black culture and reveals the hidden truth about intraracial discrimination, “In the Bluest Eye, Morrison took a different approach to the traditional white-versus-black racism. She acknowledged that most people are unaware of the racism that exists within a culture and often the racism that exists within themselves” (Coady). In the bluest eye Morrison shows intraracial discrimination at various places, where people of the same race discriminate each other on the base of their skin color. Pecola is one of the victims who struggle in intraracial discriminate society, “Pecola 's desire then reveals not only her culture 's racism; it reveals her culture 's method of perpetuating racism” (Lynn Scott). Morrison shows that people with light skin feel proud on their color and try to preserve it by marrying to light skin people and if they cannot find any, then they marry within the family. Morrison shows it by describing Soaphead family’s’ background that “they married “up,” lightening the family complexion and thinning out the family features” and “some distant and some not distant relatives married each other” (Morrison 168). This represents that how much preference people give to light skin color that they perpetuate it by doing intermarriages. Some cultures still believe in this skin color perpetuate concept. They feel superior to others who have dark skin color and believe that they got light skin as a gift from
The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison tells the story of several African Americans living in the rural south from 1910 to 1941. One of the main characters in the book happens to be Pecola Breedlove. Throughout the book Pecola encounters many hardships. Her problems range from home, school, extracurricular activities; even if she is walking down the street she has a problem with someone. It is very obvious that during this time period, white people are not that fond of African Americans and you would think that Pecola has the most trouble with. When in all actuality, many of the problems she encountered where her own people so to speak. The people who bullied her felt that because she was a darker skin tone that she was a target.
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.
... distress: she loses her mother, brother, and friend Justine and is separated from Victor for several years while he delves into the more arcane side of science. Finally she is killed by Victor’s creation at the climax of the story. Elizabeth’s death symbolizes the monster’s crushing blow to his creator’s spirit. Mary Shelley uses the Damsel in distress theme to show how Victor’s meddling with the natural order had negative effects, not just on himself but also on his loved ones.
The novel explores the theme of how society can ruin good through human alienation. Shelley powerfully expresses that theme through the development of Victor Frankenstein's failed aspirations, the creature's plight, and the inevitable destruction of Frankenstein.
Throughout The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison includes a number of background stories for minor characters along with the main plotline in order to add dimension to the novel and further convey the intense racial prejudice felt by almost all African Americans. Her main story tells of the outrageous landslide of wounding events that Pecola Breedlove experiences, a young black girl constantly patronized by her peers, and the things that eventually make her go crazy. The struggle for a deep black skinned person can be significantly different from what a lighter skinned black person feels, and Toni Morrison adds secondary story lines to stress that difference, and the extremes that racism can force people into. The back-story of Geraldine expresses the desire to be white supported by social circumstances, the comparison of how much easier whiter life could be on Pecola and her family, but also the poor results that can come from shying away from one’s own nature and history.
African-Americans feel inferior to white people, as a result of white people trying to distance themselves as far as possible from African-Americans. White people want to have clear boundaries between me and not-me, the Other, in order to retain their identity (Kolehmainen). In The Bluest Eye, African-Americans function as the Other for white people, thereby representing everything that they do not want to be. However, without the Other, there is no self. So people that consider themselves to be better than African-Americans can only feel so by contrasting themselves to them. For example, light-coloured Maureen Peal screams to Frieda, Claudia and Pecola “I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos! I am cute!” (Morrison, 56-57), which proves she needs to juxtapose black with cute in order to feel cute herself. Therefore, the vacuum of white people looking upon...
Victor becomes more isolated as his guilt and paranoia rises. Victor feels that he is all alone in the world when the monster kills the last of his family members and friends. With nothing left to lose, Victor lets his anger consume him to the point that all he cares about is revenge. The monster had always wanted revenge on his creator, especially when Victor tore apart his bride-to-be.
She did not believe black is beautiful. Idealization such as these have dominated American culture since the 18th century. In order to appease society, a person will have to achieve specific physical attribute, obtain a particular career and habituate in a particular neighborhood. In The Bluest Eye, characters associate beauty and fulfillment with being white. The African American characters have grown up in a society that does not deem them beautiful because of the color of their skin. Pecola Breedlove is constantly being referred to as ugly. She longs to be what society considers beautiful—blue eyes and blond hair. Pecola’s belief that blue eyes will make her beautiful shows specific effects of racism on young African American girls, which is the envy of white