The Bluest Eye: Migration
Morrison depicts a large part of African American culture when she places the characters in an urban area. The change of environment from the north to the south plays a key role in the loss of communal ties. African Americans are extremely affected given that they are displaced and are attempting to conform to northern cultural standards. The emphasis in the north is on material wealth and beauty, whereas the south is more family oriented.
The migration may have displaced many people, however it does provide job opportunities as well as economic gain. Pauline and Cholly were migrants from small rural towns. Upon getting married, Cholly suggested a move "`way up north. . .where steel mills were begging for workers" (92). The surge of industrial workers created a strong working class, allowing African Americans to purchase homes. The open job market made owning property attainable for many African Americans. New wages and job opportunities enhanced the quality of living for the new residents. Purchasing power took on significance in the African American home, and love is replaced with material items.
Love is replaced with gift giving, and the gifts must conform to white ideals. Claudia experiences this phenomenon at Christmas when she receives a "big blue eyed baby doll" (19). Claudia reflects on how she felt about the doll when stating, "I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see what it was made of to discover the dearness, to find the beauty" (20). In Susan Willis' critical essay "I Shop Therefore I Am" she discusses the reasoning behind Claudia's anger towards the doll. Upon receiving the doll, Claudia's main purpose is to discover the rootedness of white domination. The onl...
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...ass citizens in white America, given that they were brought over as slaves.
The enslavement of African Americans by whites severed any cultural ties and dehumanized the slaves. Masters convinced African Americans that they were incapable of culture in order to create a paternal relationship. The loss of identity forced the slaves to act as their masters deemed appropriate. African Americans' migration to the north parralled this concept-they must conform to the standards of white culture that they are trained to obey. Identifying with their own culture in a new environment is difficult, because conformity is essential to fit into white society. The migration from the south to the north changed African American values from community to commodity, destroying cultural ties.
Works Cited:
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.
Winthrop D. Jordan author of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812, expresses two main arguments in explaining why Slavery became an institution. He also focuses attention on the initial discovery of Africans by English. How theories on why Africans had darker complexions and on the peculiarly savage behavior they exhibited. Through out the first two chapters Jordan supports his opinions, with both facts and assumptions. Jordan goes to great length in explaining how the English and early colonialist over centuries stripped the humanity from a people in order to enslave them and justify their actions in doing so. His focus is heavily on attitudes and how those positions worked to create the slave society established in this country.
Do you know who Babe Ruth is? Babe Ruth is one of the greatest baseball players that ever lived. After doing some research on him, I learned lots about his baseball career, his life growing up, and much more.
After his departure from the Army he joined the Kansas City Monarchs, an all African-American baseball team, of the Negro League. Due to low pay and constant traveling, he decided he did not want to make baseball a career although he was one of the top players. Until 1947 only white players were allowed in Major League Baseball but in 1945 Clyde Sukeforth, a scout for Branch Rickey who was the Brooklyn Dodgers club president, had been looking for an African-American player and was watching Jackie for a while.
should know Babe Ruth is for the most important reason, that being the way he
Barbara Morrison, an educated woman who grew up in a nuclear family home, their home included “[her] parents and children living in one household” (Moore& Asay, 2013). They lived in Roland Park in Baltimore Maryland. Living the “Average” lifestyle in her parents’ home she felt as if she were an outsider. Morrison decided to go to Western Maryland and pursue her collegiate education. She could not take the racism that went on in 1970 and decided to uproot her life for the better. Worcester, Massachusetts is where Morrison’s life would further take its course, she finally felt at home in this city. Morrison met her closest friend Jill who would also be an important benefactor in Barbra’s life; the first thing that she explained to Morrison was “The vast majority of people on welfare were white and lived in rural areas, not inner cities” (Morrison,2011).Morrison did not understand this until she was faced with the reality of poverty. In order to survive she needed to bring in resources, which are “anything identified to meet an existing or future need” (Moore& Asay, 2013).In Morrison’s case ...
Race was a very important factor in American slavery. In other nations, slaves would be of the same race as their master. An ex-slave could re-enter society with their past forgotten and be accepted once again. On the other hand, American slavery was closely connected to racial differences that led to racial segregation and discrimination. Master and slave could physically be distinguished from one another, which ultimately distinguished one as human and the other as chattel.
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Georgia. On this day, a legend arrived. Jackie was raised by his mother, and his mother alone. His father left before Jackie was born, and he didn’t remember one thing about him. Jackie had many siblings, brothers and sisters. Jackie had an older brother named Matthew, who was also very athletic. Jackie’s mother tried the best she could to raise these boys right, and teach them that no matter what the whites called them...they were special.
Slave’s masters consistently tried to erase African culture from their slave’s memories. They insisted that slavery had rescued blacks form the barbarians from Africa and introduced them to the “superior” white civilization. Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of African culture in the slave community added slave resistance to the modification of African culture. Some slaves, for example, answered to English name in the fields but use African names in their quarters. The slave’s lives were filled with surviving traits of African culture, and their artwork, music, and other differences reflected this influence.
This country, especially the southern United States, was built using African slave labor. Africa slaves were not allowed to be educated. All most every African slave could not read or write because it was against the law to educate slaves for over 200 years. The master/slave relationship caused assimilation to be very difficult. Values and convictions were formed during those years and are still evident to this day (Parrillo, 2009).
Africans changed or rebuilt their societies as a result of their travels and interactions with other cultures. The enslaved black people built a tradition of opposition to slavery that manifested itself in significantly weakening the systems of slavery. They developed new traditions and a new sense of identity that incorporated appreciation for their ancestral life as well as the new realities or slavery. Migration, whether forced or done freely contributed to a new identity (Manning 38).
I want to start with the history of slavery in America. For most African Americans, the journey America began with African ancestors that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. In America, this event was first recorded in 1619. The first documented African slaves that were brought to America were through Jamestown, Virginia. This is historically considered as the Colonial America. In Colonial America, African slaves were held as indentured servants. At this time, the African slaves were released from slavery after a certain number of years of being held in captivity. This period lasted until 1776, when history records the beginning of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage showed the increased of African slaves were bought into America. The increase demand for slaves was because of the increased production of cotton in the south. So, plantation owners demanded more African slaves for purchas...
...al stereotypes to allow the readers to make their own assumptions based on their personal thoughts and beliefs. Many of the stereotypes that Morrison chose to use portray more of a socioeconomic class and not discriminating by race. As the setting or environment changed, it will be seen as a symbol of transformation of both Roberta and Twyla friendship. Each circumstance that they went through was distinctive. It tested the strength of their relationship with one another and exemplified their struggles they were facing in society. They had to adjust their beliefs to match the changing phases in the United States as many blacks and whites today still face problems in society about racial stereotypes and segregation. Toni Morrison portrayed racial identity not by black and white, but as irrelevant to relationships but rather by means of distinguishing between people.
The Great Migration was a huge rural movement that occur in the southern United States, it was the movement of 6 million blacks. It began in the earlier 1900 all the way the 1970. The 14 states the blacks were moving from were from the south. The main states were Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. The first big movement was between the 1910 and 1930s. There was around a little bit over 1.5 million people moving from rural areas to the industrial cities in the north.
Mobley, Marilyn Sanders. “ Toni Morrison.” The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith, and Trudier Harris. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.508-510.
Today, with the dominance of black players in professional sports, it seems unfathomable that a mere 50 years ago, not only were black athletes absent in all mainstream sporting arenas, it was simply not an option and even illegal in some states. His legacy is the inspiration he gives to athletes and people of all color. Robinson is heroic, in part, because of the excellence of his athletic achievement and equally important, for his political commitment to racial equality.