The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is an intense and truthful novel that is often excluded because of the book’s graphic sexual content and honest reality. Toni Morrison is an award winning author whose work should not be banned for its challenging and deep storyline.
The novel starts in Lorain, Ohio where young Claudia and Freida MacTeer take in Mr. Henry and Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is a shy 9 year old girl who worships the beauty of the white world. Pecola deals with many tough situations at home, one being her father, Cholly, who is an abusive alcoholic. Pecola prays every day to have blue eyes and blond hair, and hates herself for not being white. At school Pecola is made fun of by the other kids. Her trouble at school causes more problems at home and her mother kicks her out of the house. The novel then takes a step back to view Pecola’s parent’s childhood. Cholly’s life has been consumed with violence and anger. One day he comes home drunk and finds Pecola in the kitchen and rapes her. Pecola becomes pregnant with his child and in need of guidance she visits a church. Pecola desperately asks for blue eyes because she feels it will take the pain away and set her free. Soon word of her pregnancy spreads to Claudia and Frieda who hope the baby will live. Pecola’s baby does not survive, and she and her mother move. After the move Pecola begins to lose her mind, and truly believes she has blue eyes.
The Bluest Eye challenges readers understanding of true pain and suffering. The brutal life of Pecola is sometimes considered too graphic and inappropriate for some venues to obtain.”In 1994 the novel was removed from the 11th grade curriculum at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska, after parents complained that the lang...
... middle of paper ...
... book. Toni Morrison wrote this book to reveal truth not to cover up real life situations. Morrison uses specific points in the book to help the reader understand the characters. When reading this book the reader connects on personal levels with the characters through their experiences. I felt this book gave insight to harsh realities that most people cannot grasp and overall taught many lessons. This novel is a story that many people can relate to because of its personal stories and background information on the characters. In conclusion, I do not belief the book is inappropriate or pornographic. The book should not be banned from schools and venues, however I feel the book may not be the best selection for young readers. People need to be given the opportunity to understand and read about the topics the book covers and should not be hidden from them (Bayles 79).
In addition, this novel can drag on quite extensively in summaries or scenes that are seemingly page fillers. A teacher brought this to my attention by asking posing the questions “Is this novel boring? Do you think they put Pecola’s pregnancy by her own father is included in the beginning so that it would not be” (Works)? While I did not edit this book, this suggestion does seem to be very possible, and if true, a great amount of the novel’s integrity is lost. Yet, Morrison’s writing does captivate readers at times in the novel that are ruined by coincidences such as Geraldine returning home right after her beloved cat is killed by her son Junior.
"And Pecola. She hid behind hers. (Ugliness) Concealed, veiled, eclipsed--peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask" (Morrison 39). In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Pecola, comes to see herself as ugly. This idea she creates results from her isolation from friends, the community, and ever her family. There are three stages that lead up to Pecola portraying herself as an ugly human being. The three stages that lead to Pecola's realization are her family's outlook toward her, the community members telling her she is ugly, and her actually accepting what the other say or think about her. Each stage progresses into the other to finally reach the last stage and the end of the novel when Pecola eventually has to rely on herself as an imaginary friend so she will have someone to talk to.
This book discusses the viewpoints of many expert critics through extracts of their critical essays on the novel “The Bluest Eye”. Harold Bloom states Michael Woods narrative is the best he has seen of the book, “Each member of the family interprets and acts out of his or her ugliness, but none of them understands that the all-knowing master is not God but only history and habit; the projection of their own numbed collusion w...
I believe in the fact that everyone has their own opinion and the right for freedom of speech and press. People might say that I have no opinion or that I dont know what I am talkin about because I am under 18, but I still stand behind my opinion. The recent controversy over the censorship and banning of Toni Morrisons "The Bluest Eye" is simply a group of people trying to give thier opinion. They got their right and where able to challenged the book, but are now taking this too far. I believe this should be eliminated and they should not be able to get their way by threatening their point. The mother who has challenged this book has every right to censor what her child reads. As for other parents they might want their children to read this book. I dont see how this women really sees herself as Bakersfields "parental figure" and takes it among herself to say what other peoples children may read. Personally I feel as if she thinks me and my peers too stupid to understand the meaning of the book, and not mature enough to seperate the reality of those 11 "pornographic" lines. Sex, incest, and rape are all things that are real and happen in our world. Many children are exposed to these unpleasant realities. I believe that this women is out of touch with her daughter if she thinks that her daughter does nott know what these things are. I am very insulted at the fact that she thinks it her job to take on the responsibility to choose what I can not read. I have two parents already that make fine descisions for me, I don't really need another one. Those 11 lines are said to be pornographic and probably are when taking out of text. Those 11 lines are merely particles of the total piece of literature. I have not yet read "The Bluest Eye," but plan to. This book is said to be very eduactional and a great piece of literature. Should students really be banned from reading this book because of 11 lines? If any parent does not want to have their child read a book they have every right to not let them, but this women should have no say over any one elses child except her own. Also I think it very ridiculous of her to carry this on any further than it has already gone.
Portales, Marco. "Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: Shirley Temple and Cholly." The Centennial Review Fall (1986): 496-506.
Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye provides social commentary on a lesser known portion of black society in America. The protagonist Pecola is a young black girl who desperately wants to feel beautiful and gain the “bluest eyes” as the title references.
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 the novel “The Bluest Eyes”, by Toni Morrison, Racial self-loathing and hatred is a major theme through the text, and is even evident in the title. Instead of making the plot center around events over racism, the book shows a deeper portrayal of racism, emphasizing on the way racial self-hatred and loathing plagues the black characters. The novel shows an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards distort the lives of the black characters. The author shows this by having African Americans who have lighter features, Maureen Peal, Geraldine and Soaphead Church, and characters with darker features, Pecola and her Parents Cholly, and Pauline Breedlove. Through them we are able to see racial self-loathing, there
Self-hatred is something that can thoroughly destroy an individual. As it was fictitiously evidenced in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, it can lead an individual to insanity. Toni Morrison raises the idea that racism and class can detrimentally influence people’s outlook on themselves.
At a time when blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple is idolized by white and black alike,
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and the brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with, and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when it concerns gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society.
Two of the major instances of sexual abuse present in the novel involved both Mr. Henry with Frieda and Cholly with Pecola. The incident with Mr. Henry, while very serious...
For example, Pecola has this conception in her head believing blue eye will make her parents stop fighting, people to treat her better, and for individuals like Mr. Yacobowski to treat her the same as a white girl. This idea that only blue eyes will allow for her life to become better seems childish and unpractical, yet Pecola believes this is possible. It doesn't dawn on her that it's biologically impossible, but she continues to believe the possibility of blue eyes into her insanity. Claudia also illustrates childlikeness in her remarks about Frieda's molestation. For instance, when Mr. Henry touches Frieda inappropriately she is caught crying and starts telling Claudia what had happened. Instead of comforting Claudia, she comments on how she always gets things last, referring to being touched. This shows the immaturity of Claudia because the only thing she processed was how Frieda got something she didn't ,even thought it isn't something anyone would want. These examples illustrate the similarities in Pecola's and Claudia's
She believes that if she could have blue eyes, their beauty would inspire kind behavior from others. Blues eyes in Pecola’s definition, is the pure definition of beauty. But beauty in the sense that if she had them she would see things differently. But within the world that Pecola lives in the color of one’s eye, and skin heavily influences their treatment. So her desperation for wanting to change her appearance on the account of her environment and culture seems child-like but it is logical. If Pecola could alter her appearance she would alter her influence and treatment toward and from others. In this Morrison uses Marxism as a way to justify Pecola’s change in reality depending on her appearance. The white ideologies reflected upon Pecola’s internal and external conflicts which allowed her to imagine herself a different life. The impacts of one’s social class also impacts one’s perspective of their race. The vulnerability created by the low social class allows racism to protrude in society and have a detrimental effect for the young black girls in “The Bluest Eye” (Tinsley).The quotes explained above express the social and economic aspect of the Marxist theory. The theory that centers around the separation of social classes and the relationship surrounding them not one’s internalization of oneself
Throughout The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison includes a number of background stories for minor characters along with the main plotline in order to add dimension to the novel and further convey the intense racial prejudice felt by almost all African Americans. Her main story tells of the outrageous landslide of wounding events that Pecola Breedlove experiences, a young black girl constantly patronized by her peers, and the things that eventually make her go crazy. The struggle for a deep black skinned person can be significantly different from what a lighter skinned black person feels, and Toni Morrison adds secondary story lines to stress that difference, and the extremes that racism can force people into. The back-story of Geraldine expresses the desire to be white supported by social circumstances, the comparison of how much easier whiter life could be on Pecola and her family, but also the poor results that can come from shying away from one’s own nature and history.