Claudia Dialectical Journal Essay

618 Words2 Pages

Entry #1

Quote: “I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me, Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs- all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl treasured.” (Chapter 1, page 20)

The quote above stood out to me, even though I am still in the youngest stage of the novel, due to the impact I felt it had on the theme and message of the novel as a whole. Even though I still am relatively unfamiliar with the main character, Pecola Breedlove, at this point of the novel, the message Claudia is sending in the quote demonstrates foreshadowing …show more content…

The “blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned” figure of endearment seemed to scare her and even evoke hatred within herself. Claudia, as explained in the quote above, tries so desperately to discover what makes everyone else swoon for these dolls, when she cannot even shed a single drop of love for the doll. In this stage of the novel, Claudia is very young, approximately nine-years-old. Understanding this, it allows me to understand the sensitive and inquisitive nature of the character, as well as how much this one curiosity she has will continue to influence her for the remainder of her life. I believe Morrison incorporated this to introduce the theme of beauty obsession and how even this harmless doll’s physical features can invoke admiration in all of those that encounter her. Even though Claudia’s mentality has not reached maturation, she still registers that everyone around her has basically defined the American standard of beauty for her, due to their constant raving about the doll, but for her the question is why they are the universal beauty standard. She even tries to tear the doll apart and find something attractive on the inside, but even after demolishing it, she is still left disappointed because she has yet to discover the secret to the doll’s

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