Morrison's Sexual Depictions

2192 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racism in psychology

Morrison's Sexual Depictions Toni Morrison incorporated vulgar sexual depictions into her novel with distinct literary intentions. Although many challengers of the novel contest that these scenes contain no value, Morrison composed these depictions with specific intent and purpose. It was not for shock value or merely to be obscene, but to illustrate to her audience the damaging effect society can have on its most vulnerable members. She spoke through the silence to lobby the destruction of an innocent black girl and became the voice for suffering individuals who did not have the ability to speak. She successfully reveals that societal abuse of the African American race as a whole has grave effects on the development of specific individuals. Describing Pecola’s sexual experiences so graphically, and with such brash severity, was meant to impact the reader into inciting societal reform. Her social commentary was not intended to drive simply sympathy for the oppressed children she described, but change. In her novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison demonstrated the repercussions of rejecting a population of people through explicit descriptions of sexual abuse. The cycle of oppression that is illustrated throughout the novel is a prominent cause and result of sexual abuse. Various characters were born in purity and innocence but were degraded by societal treatment. This concept outlines Cholly’s experience in particular. As a child, he was unable to combat or resist oppression. The only reaction he could marshal to injustice was silence, depression and self contained rage. Because he developed under such damaging conditions, he was ultimately unable to love, express compassion or have virtue. Instead, he was only capab... ... middle of paper ... ...female children was an outcome of societal abuse on African American males. By incorporating such sexually graphic depictions, Morrison leaves a lasting impression with her reader and more effectively conveys her message in order to incite reform. Works Cited Lazarescu, Lisa. “Themes of The Bluest Eye.” April 3, 2005. Eastern Oregon University. http://web.cocc.edu/lisal/thebluesteye/themes.htm. 2003. Mayo, James. "Morrison's The Bluest Eye." Explicator 60.4 (2002): 231-235. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Central Oregon Community College Lib., Bend, OR. 12 May 2003 Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York, NY: Plume-Penguin Group, 1994. Napieralski, Edmund A. "Morrison's The Bluest Eye." Explicator 53.1 (1994): 59-63. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Central Oregon Community College Lib., Bend, OR. 12 May 2003

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Black Veil And Rappaccini's Daughter

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    On the surface, a beautiful, poisonous girl and a preacher shadowed by a black veil share no similar characteristics. However, in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, these characters share two remarkably comparable stories. The Minister’s Black Veil and Rappaccini's Daughter both share the symbolic use of colors, yet the characters’ relation to the outside world deviates. Hawthorne expertly contrasts colors to illustrate the battle of good against evil. In The Minister’s Black Veil, Mr. Hooper’s black veil contrasts sharply against the pale-faced congregation, just as Beatrice’s likeness to the purple flowers, described as being able to, “...illuminate the garden,” contrasts the darkness of Dr Rappaccini’s black clothing. These clashes of colors

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Toni Morrison's Speech

    298 Words  | 1 Pages

    I decided to explore the effect that a white male audience has on the tone of a writer who primarily caters to a non-white audience when the speaker, subject, and context remain the same. I questioned how audience and purpose affect a text’s structure and content and found that by changing the audience, I was forced to go into descriptive detail to explain the oppression imposed upon African Americans to white men. By writing a speech, Toni Morrison’s serious and passionate tone towards both race and gender equity are not erased. I refer to the audience as “you” and bring up that they’re in a position of power to force a separation between Toni, an African American woman, and the audience, white men, because the point is not to establish a

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye - Morrison's Attempt to Induce White Guilt

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    When a good salesman pushes an item, the first step is to have the audience succumb to his way of thinking. Morrison's product here is a philosophy, an idea that is the theme of her book. That idea is that physical beauty is "probably the most destructive idea in the history of human thought." She pushes this idea right through the reader's brain. It is the ruin of the black girls. If only they were pretty. If only they had pretty blue eyes.

    Read More

  • Nor Any Drop To Drink: A Case Study Of Denise In AD

    1518 Words  | 4 Pages

    Aside from narrative and detail, Neufeld uses color and type styles throughout the book to indicate the changing atmosphere and moods. Hartman, an expert in trauma theory describes the use of color and light in the trauma novel as “The paradigm of coming-to-knowledge, expressed often as a movement from darkness to light” (Hartman 263). At first in A.D. the colors are uniform, but they begin to degrade and mix as the storm displaces and detaches the New Orleanians amongst it. He begins the story i...

    Read More

  • Responsibility of the Artist in The Bluest Eye, Faith in a Tree, and Conversion of the Jews

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although Morrison's, The Bluest Eye, was an incredible book in many respects, I must ultimately disagree strongly with her views on what art should be and the responsibility of the artist. To adopt Morrison's ideals would be to disvalue entire artistic movements and many important works and artists, without regard to their other merits.

    Read More

  • Anotated Bibliographies for The Bluest Eye

    1994 Words  | 4 Pages

    Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye", is a very important novel in literature, because of the many boundaries that were crosses and the painful, serious topics that were brought into light, including racism, gender issues, Black female Subjectivity, and child abuse of many forms. This set of annotated bibliographies are scholarly works of literature that centre around the hot topic of racism in the novel, "The Bluest Eye", and the low self-esteem faced by young African American women, due to white culture. My research was guided by these ideas of racism and loss of self, suffered in the novel, by the main character Pecola Breedlove. This text generates many racial and social-cultural problems, dealing with the lost identity of a young African American women, due to her obsession with the white way of life, and her wish to have blue eyes, leading to her complete transgression into insanity.

    Read More

  • Living Past: Racial and Social Themes in The Bluest Eye

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morrison’s The Bluest Eye appears to be a commentary that discusses how past history is living present in a political, social, racial and personal sense. The novel was published in 1970, with a setting of Midwest America post The Great Depression, inferring that although many years had passed Morrison still feels that the same issues of society live on. The past oppression of racial discrimination and domestic issues appear to be present in the novel, affecting characters fates and initial choices. These issues surround the novel, taking part in the plot and ultimate downfall of the main characters.

    Read More

  • Macbeth and His Mental Deterioration

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cleckley, Hervey M. Introduction. The Mask of Sanity. New York: New American Library, 1982. N. pag. Web.

    Read More

  • African American Folklore

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...fluence of African- American folklore is all over the novels The Bluest Eye and Sula. With Morrison demanding participatory reading just like an oral tale to the evil and strangeness in some of her characters, Morrison tells stories rich with African- American folklore. Her settings, characters, and the issues she explores, tell of the history of the Black race in America. The oral tradition of African- American folklore is a way for Morrison to educate and analyze what the black race is all about.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison

    1926 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Toni Morrison.” American Women Writers. Taryn Benbow - Pfalzgrat. 2nd ed. of the book.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Ananlysis

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...iological imagination” in 1959; a theory that is basically the scientific way of saying “walk a mile in someone else's shoes.” Chollys actions can never be excused; it would not be fair to his victims to do so. It’s difficult to anybody to understand why someone would do such a thing, in a novel or in real life. The situations only leaves people asking why. Morrison states in an interview that the Breedlove’s are a “little nuclear family that doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for white people or for black people.” Dominance, whether racial, gender or class based, over anyone is destructive to all societal dynamics. Morrison says “you need a whole community, everybody, to raise a child.” An idea suggested by the rejection by the community of Pecola and Cholly. The why is never to clear, “since the why is too difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.”(Morrison)

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Toni Morrison’s controversial debut The Bluest Eye, several characters are entangled in 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 is 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.

    Read More

  • Morrison's Bluest Eye Essay: Self-Definition

    2534 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, the struggle begins in childhood. Two young black girls -- Claudia and Pecola -- illuminate the combined power of externally imposed gender and racial definitions where the black female must not only deal with the black male's female but must contend with the white male's and the white female's black female, a double gender and racial bind. All the male definitions that applied to the white male's female apply, in intensified form, to the black male's, white male's and white female's black female. In addition, where the white male and female are represented as beautiful, the black female is the inverse -- ugly.

    Read More

  • Social Issues in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Marxism Analysis

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel Pecola questions her perception of beauty and the ideal family. She often compares her life with the life of the primer Dick and Jane. Throughout the novel Pecola tries to counter act the tyranny in her life by praying for blue eyes hoping that with this feature her life would change for the better and she would be beautiful. Within the novel the author uses the theory of Marxism. Created by Karl Marx in the 19th century, Marxism is the central analysis of the complex development of relationships between two social classes (Ollman). In the novel “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison questions the essence of true beauty and its influence on societal standards threw the theory of

    Read More

More about Morrison's Sexual Depictions

Open Document