Existentialism, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison has written several novels, many of which show the influence of existentialist thinking; however, Beloved and The Bluest Eye both strongly illustrate all of the major existential themes. Beloved is a novel about a woman, Sethe, who escapes from slavery with her children. She is haunted both physically and psychologically by her experience, as evidenced by the scars she carries on her back from a severe beating, and the scars she carries in her mind from the horrible treatment she suffered. A few weeks after her escape, Sethe's owner hunted her down to reclaim her as his property. Under the fear of capture, Sethe decided that for her children, death would be better than slavery. She killed her second-to-the-youngest child before she was stopped. Beloved is the story of Sethe, and how she must live with the ramifications of her terrible, necessary decision to kill her baby girl.
The Bluest Eye is a similarly haunting novel. It is the story of Pecola, a little ugly black girl trying to grow up in rural Ohio during the 1940's. She is despised by white society because
she is ugly, black and female, and because she is the antithesis of all that white western culture idolizes: white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. On a disastrous parallel, Pecola is also despised by black society: the society whose support she needs desperately to counter white negativity towards her. Instead of receiving that life-giving support, Pecola is regarded as an ugly, passive, pitiful girl. Her mother, herself twisted by the ideals of white society, loves a young, white, blond child she cares for more than her own daughter. Her father loved her so much, he r...
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---. The Bluest Eye. New York, New York: Plume, 1994.
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We can determine that Chaukamnoetkanok only had a single story of the United States—one that left out the prevalence of racism and prejudice. Chaukamnoetkanok focuses on how we was in disbelief when he arrived, realizing that the land, which all of his friends back home were envious of, was nothing but a fraud. He states that the so-called “land of opportunity” is a place where “…racism exists and most people will not easily accept immigrants” (Foner 334), which is something that he never expected. Overall, we can conclude that he was upset that he believed that the United States was perfect, which ultimately resulted in his disappointment upon his arrival. Chimamanda, on the other hand, did not have her expectations crushed. When I say this, I mean that she did not have high expectations but rather low expectations that were exceeded. For example, Chimamanda thought that Fide’s family was suffering endlessly because they were so poor, but when she ended up visiting them, she was astonished to find out that while they were poor, they were also hardworking. In addition to this, prior to her trip to Mexico, Chimamanda made a connection to Mexicans and immigrants—specifically those who were “…fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border” (Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story”). However, upon her arrival, she was surprised to witness
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Perhaps Edith Wharton's reason for writing Ethan Frome, was that it so vividly reflected her own dreary life. Abandoned of any love as a child from her mother and trapped in a marriage similar to that of Zeena and Ethan, Wharton found herself relying on illicit love. This illicit love was also her favorite topic of writing, which helped her to escape her own tragedies. She spent many nights in the arms of other men searching desperately for the love she believed existed, but had never felt, which is evident in all of her writings.
...7, the Pentagon, and Shanksville. Things outcome of events cannot be changed now, but the American people can be informed as to what the government is capable of doing to its own people. Amid the attacks, political corruptions, and many other government scandals, Americans have stayed loyal to their nation. Although there is nothing positive to be said about what happened on that dark day in 2001, the best thing that can be taken out is that perhaps the United States nation was brought closer together in a time of need. For a while after the attacks, people didn’t look at each other as black or white, young or old, and rich or poor, they were all Americans. Despite the side taken towards the argument, it is just sad to see thousands of innocent people lose their lives in the attacks, and numerous soldiers had to go fight for a nation’s selfish political agenda.
Morrison studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities. She pursued an academic career at Texas Southern University and Yale. She has had a chair at Princeton University since 1989. During these years she has also worked as an editor at Random House, a literary critic, and she has written and given many lectures focusing on African-American literature. Morrison's maternal and paternal influences greatly affected her outlook on life and this influence is palpable in her works and their characters and themes. From her father she learned to distrust whites and that she merited self-worth despite the white opinion of those of the black race "She readily admits: My father was a racist. As a child in ...
His isolation manifests itself throughout the book with either characters speaking about him, or through depictions of the author, Edith Wharton. One example where this unveils itself is when Harmon, who develops a lot of the town gossip, speculates on the cause of Ethan Frome 's ruined and prematurely aged appearance. He speaks about Ethan saying, “Guess he 's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away” (Wharton 6). His remark expresses the theme of the landscape 's shaping of character and fate. This describes the theme of isolation as it says that Ethan has been in Starkfield too long, and is essentially isolated. Here, it becomes apparent that through his stay in Starkfield, an ironically stark place, he transforms into an isolated human being. Another way in which Ethan’s isolation becomes apparent occurs in the prologue, where Wharton describes Ethan in comparison to the setting of the book. Wharton exclaims he represents “a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface… in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access” (Wharton 14). The book takes place in the fictional place of Starkfield,
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.
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love both as a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to proceed; through the experiences of the run-away slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through the comments of Paul D and Ella regarding the motherly love of Sethe towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which evidently promises that the loved one of a slave will be hurt. On the other hand, love is portrayed as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to move on with her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures do not matter due to the fact that she must live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love finally emerges as the prevalent force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life.
A reader might easily conclude that the most prominent social issue presented in The Bluest Eye is that of racism, but more important issues lie beneath the surface. Pecola experiences damage from her abusive and negligent parents. The reader is told that even Pecola's mother thought she was ugly from the time of birth. Pecola's negativity may have initially been caused by her family's failure to provide her with identity, love, security, and socialization, ail which are essential for any child's development (Samuels 13). Pecola's parents are able only to give her a childhood of limited possibilities. She struggles to find herself in infertile soil, leading to the analysis of a life of sterility (13). Like the marigolds planted that year, Pecola never grew.
In Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” the young African American protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, has an
As citizens of the contemporary world, we apt to regard ourselves as unique and nonpareil individuals. We regard our personal identity as something to which we alone have privileged access and in which we are especially entitled to speak. We, citizens of the free world, think of ourselves as singular beings, who are capable of self-knowledge and who can differentiate between the authentic self and the unauthentic self. So therefore with this self-knowledge, we tend to project our own belief onto the less fortunate. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, one of the main characters, Pecola Breedlove wants blue eyes. In the 21st century, this is possible, but in 1941, the dream was not feasible. Pecola bought into the conviction that a person who has blond hair and blue eyes can achieve success because of their appearance.
Pecola and Claudia are two of the main characters that show a sister like connection, yet they show qualities that seem to be contrasting. As the story continues, their ideas and characters unfold, showing their perspective on the world. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola and Claudia are seen as two girls who are dissimilar in their views on societies beauty standards and similar in their child like qualities.
The blue eyes themselves can be seen as a form of resolution to racism, whether that be gaining the cachet of whiteness or eliminating the ignobility that seemingly swarms around black culture. Additionally, it is important to note that—although Pecola is perhaps the perfect example of the dissension orbiting race—she is not the only character to desire repudiation of her own skin color. Soaphead sees Pecola, “a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes,” and believes that her ambition is “the most poignant and the one most deserving of fulfillment” (Morrison 174). He sees the reasoning behind her desires, and abides by them, because he believes they are more justifiable than any other wish he’s been asked to grant. This is true credence in the removal of bigotry from