The Nobel Prize and The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison's Nobel prize acceptance speech has many interesting parallels between that and her novel The Bluest Eye. The speech opens up new ideas and interesting correlations between the address and the story. In this paper, I will document how parts of Morrison's speech uses situations in The Bluest Eye.
The first being that of the story about the blind woman and the bird. Morrison says, "Her answer can be taken to mean: if it is dead, you have either found it that way or you have killed it. If it is alive, you can still kill it. Whether it is to say alive, it is your decision. Whatever the case, it is your responsibility." The characters in the novel are also responsible for their own actions, regardless if situations happen beyond their control. Meaning that the characters in the novel cannot lament their life because things got away from them. While there is incest and a subsequent pregnancy involved, it is possible that the character is able to reach beyond the path set for them and exceed anyone's expectations. By talking about responsibility, Morrison is able to make people think about their lives and make them realize that it is possible to have things be better.
"Sexist language, racist language, theistic language all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas." This quote by Morrison seems rather unusual, considering that she did incorporate some of these ideas into her work. It sounds as though in this quote that by using such characteristics in a work, it somehow loads it down with extraneous details. However, in Morrison's The Bluest Eye, it only enhances the reading and furthers the reader's understanding of the time.
In accordance with the understanding of the reading and the enhancement of the words on the pages, Morrison fulfills the obligation of the following quote in The Bluest Eye: "The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers.
Undoubtedly, Michael Tritt uses a psychological strategy to critically analyze “Young Goodman Brown”. He carefully constructs his criticism through quotes from other critics and the short story. Sigmund Freud is also quoted because he theorized the projection process.
Rushdy, Ashraf H.A. "'Rememory': Primal Scenes and Constructions in Toni Morrison's Novels." Contemporary Literature 31.3 (1990): 300-323.
As Harper Lee phrased the famous quote, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Lee’s quote appears in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which explores racial and cultural stereotypes, exemplifies the differences between good and evil, and challenges the reader to find empathy for societal outcasts. Growing up in Lorain, Ohio during the Great Depression era, Morrison, raised by parents who moved to the North to escape southern racism, learned to value African American heritage and recognize situations, regarding alienated people, as unfair. Morrison’s unique upbringing has developed a conscientious perspective within her that gives her the advantage to speak not only with truth, but experience as well. While possessing a thoroughly defined perspective herself, Morrison is capable of weaving topics and messages meaningful to her into the divergent viewpoints of her many characters. Toni Morrison uses different points of view throughout the novel, The Bluest Eye, to give the reader a more detailed and realistic understanding of the characters’ situations and backgrounds and the novel as a whole. Morrison
First, the government used a dangerous literal interpretation of a Biblical passage as justification for adultery under the guise of reproduction. Second, the state constantly reinforced its falsified morality by saturating daily routines with religious expressions. Lastly, the regime altered Biblical references to further its political goals, and then prohibited language to prevent exposing its duplicity. Although Gilead rather effectively erased women’s values to construct a hyper-patriarchy, The Handmaid’s Tale provides a voice for this silenced population.
There is a sense of repetition the persistent repugnance within the black community’s view of their own race. Although black families such as the Breedlove’s are incessantly discriminated against in all aspects of life, it could be argued that their ugliness is only added to by their issues of self-loathing, ‘No-one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly’ (p.36). The Breedlove family have built up a vigorous detestation for themselves, therefore they cannot escape from their own past loathing that repeats itself through generations. However, it could also be argued that there are some who are trying contradict past history living in the present. Morrison herself reiterates in the foreword of the novel ‘Most others, however, grow beyond it’ (p.5). As a result, it could be argued that The Bluest Eye is an on-going battle of those who want to move on from past idealistic appearances and those who are left behind to wallow in their own
In both novels, Toni Morrison does not want to point the finger at any characters. She wants to give the reader all the information about the characters' life, and their subsequent behavior and let them decide who really is at fault, if there is anyone.
The sympathy for Cholly evoked in The Bluest Eye from the reader is not deserved. By definition, sympathy means feeling pity or sorrow for the distress of another, or compassion. The skillfulness of the author manipulates the reader into feeling a certain way towards particular characters. Sympathy for characters – Cholly being no exception – derives from an author’s ability to use words and the construction of the story to lead a reader into a certain emotional direction. The reader is the prime reason the author constructs a story. Because all authors are completely aware that an audience exists for their stories, authors are, in turn, completely aware that their words can manipulate their readers. It is this awareness that allows all sentence structures and idea portrayal to be the product of an author’s manipulation. Because there exists an audience, there exists someone to persuade or influence. Thus, an author, like Morrison, builds a textual relationship between the characters in her story and that of the reader digesting her story. Morrison, like all authors, understands that the reader searches for a...
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
After his mother dies, Frankenstein attends a university in Ingolstadt, where Professor M. Krempe influences him to change his major from alchemy to the study of natural philosophy. Throughout Frankenstein's study of natural philosophy, he becomes "acquainted with the science of anatomy: but this was not sufficient, [he] must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body" (Shelley 30). Frankenstein's obsession with the study of anatomy causes him to isolate himself in his apartment from family, friends, and society and slowly develop the creation of a creature, imagining the creation of a new race of wonderful beings. The creation of the monster to Frankenstein is an "initial romantic animation slowly eroded by the materialism of his construction, alienating him from the rest of humanity and transforming him into nothing more than a metaphor of the rampant scienti...
In the 500 word passage reprinted below, from the fictional novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explains the pent-up anger and aggression of a man who is forced to keep a steady stance when in the presence of his white masters. She uses simple language to convey her message, yet it is forcefully projected. The tone is plaintively matter-of-fact; there is no dodging the issue or obscure allusions. Because of this, her work has an intensity unparalleled by more complex writing.
Has anyone ever deliberately left you? Left you alone, feeling deserted, isolated, and by yourself? Imagine you were abandoned by those who were supposed to love you from the day you were born until this present day. How would that make you feel? In Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, she examines the causes, effects, and consequences of abandonment through one character, Cholly Breedlove. As well as the ways he eventually destroys himself and also those around him.
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.
In an analysis of her own work, Morrison states that she thought of “the plot in that novel as the melody of the piece”. She wanted to convey that there was more to give, yet won’t give it- just like a true musician. Although it is obvious that Violet, Joe and Dorcas bring altogether unique elements into the story, the narrator exercises unrelenting control over how much of their personal stories will be
Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about the racism of lighter colored blacks against darker colored blacks and rich blacks against poor blacks. Along with racism within the black community, sexism is exemplified both against women and against men. As Morrison investigates the racism and sexism of the community of Lorain, Ohio, she gives the reader more perspective as to why certain characters do or say certain things. Morrison provides the reader with a light-skinned black character whose racist attitudes affect the poorer, darker blacks in the community, especially the main characters, Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”: A Marxist reading of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye