The Bluest Eye Symbolism

Toni Morrison begins her novel, The Bluest Eye, with an emblem, Dick and Jane. Since she started writing this emblem which says, “Here is the house” (page 3), it made me question why she began her book talking about a house? In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses symbolism and allegory to demonstrate how the homes in which people live, are a reflection of how the people live and who they are.

In the prologue of Dick and Jane, their house is said to be “green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty” (Page 3). The use of the word pretty shows that the house is something attractive and appealing, similar to the people that live in the house. The line after the one above says, “Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the

To describe Geraldine’s home, Toni Morrison writes, “Pecola stepped inside the door. How beautiful, she thought. What a beautiful house. There was a big red-and-gold Bible on the dining-room table. Little lace doilies were everywhere⎯⎯on arms and backs of chairs, in the center of a large dining table, on little tables. Potted plants were on all the windowsills. A color picture of Jesus Christ hung on the wall with the prettiest paper flowers fastened on the frame… More doilies, a big lamp with green-and-gold base and white shade. There was even a rug on the floor, with enormous dark-red flowers. She was deep in admiration of the flowers” (page 89). Clearly, Geraldine’s home is beautiful, yet is it an accurate representation of who she is? The answer is that it is not, but this does not make my thesis incorrect. The way that Geraldine’s house looks is a representation of who she would like to be. Geraldine would like the home to be an extension of who she is, but it’s not. Multiple times in the quote above, Toni Morrison uses the adjective beautiful multiple times and there must be a reason for it. The reason is that the person within the home is a person of color and throughout the story, they would be referred to as ugly. The word beautiful is what Geraldine would like to be and she would like beauty in a sense that she seems

The allegory of Dick and Jane was to show their perfection similar to the perfection of their home. Dissimilar to Dick and Jane, we saw the lives of the Breedloves reflected by their home, full of sadness and sorrow. Finally, Geraldine who, unlike the other characters, had a home that reflected who she wanted to be. Although this was how Toni Morrison chose to represent her characters, it is most likely not an accurate representation of modern society. The looks of someone’s home probably represent their financial situation and their sense of decoration which could be considered a slight representation of a