Misdirected Anger Depicted in The Bluest Eye
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison shows that anger is healthy and that it is not something to be feared; those who are not able to get angry are the ones who suffer the most. She criticizes Cholly, Polly, Claudia, Soaphead Church, the Mobile Girls, and Pecola because these blacks in her story wrongly place their anger on themselves, their own race, their family, or even God, instead of being angry at those they should have been angry at: whites.
Pecola Breedlove suffered the most because she was the result of having others' anger dumped on her, and she herself was unable to get angry. When Geraldine yells at her to get out of her house, Pecola's eyes were fixed on the "pretty" lady and her "pretty" house. Pecola does not stand up to Maureen Peal when she made fun of her for seeing her dad naked but instead lets Freida and Claudia fight for her. Instead of getting mad at Mr. Yacobowski for looking down on her, she directed her anger toward the dandelions she once thought were beautiful. However, "the anger will not hold"(50), and the feelings soon gave way to shame. Pecola was the sad product of having others' anger placed on her: "All of our waste we dumped on her and she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us"(205). They felt beautiful next to her ugliness, wholesome next to her uncleanness, her poverty made them generous, her weakness made them strong, and her pain made them happier.
When Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove, was caught as a teenager in a field with Darlene by two white men, "never did he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters"(150), rather her directed his hatred towards...
... middle of paper ...
...(than shame). There is a sense of being in anger. A reality of presence. An awareness of worth"(50). the blacks are not strong, only aggressive; they are not compassionate, only polite; they were not good, but well behaved; they substituted good grammar for intellect, and rearranged lies to make them truth(205). Most of all, they faked love where felt powerless to hate, and destroyed what love they did have with anger.
Toni Morrison tells this story to show the sadness in the way that the blacks were compelled to place their anger on their own families and on their blackness instead of on whites who cause their misery. Although they didn't know this, "The Thing to fear(and thus hate) was the Thing that made her beautiful, and not us"(74), whiteness.
Works Cited:
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Afterward by Toni Morrison. New York: Penguin, 1994.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
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.
As Harper Lee phrased the famous quote, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Lee’s quote appears in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which explores racial and cultural stereotypes, exemplifies the differences between good and evil, and challenges the reader to find empathy for societal outcasts. Growing up in Lorain, Ohio during the Great Depression era, Morrison, raised by parents who moved to the North to escape southern racism, learned to value African American heritage and recognize situations, regarding alienated people, as unfair. Morrison’s unique upbringing has developed a conscientious perspective within her that gives her the advantage to speak not only with truth, but experience as well. While possessing a thoroughly defined perspective herself, Morrison is capable of weaving topics and messages meaningful to her into the divergent viewpoints of her many characters. Toni Morrison uses different points of view throughout the novel, The Bluest Eye, to give the reader a more detailed and realistic understanding of the characters’ situations and backgrounds and the novel as a whole. Morrison
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a tragic coming-of-age story that switches between the first person point of view of character Claudia MacTeer and an omniscient third person narrator. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio 1941, a time when racism was still extremely prevalent, especially in the southern United States. African American women often faced many setbacks, simply because of their race and gender. Toni Morrison’s background helped to lay the foundation for her novel The Bluest Eye; racism, self-hatred, women’s roles, and rape culture are all societally imposed elements that follow Pecola Breedlove, Morrison’s main character,
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.
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. The book seeks to define beauty and love in this twisted perverse society, dragging the reader through Morrison’s emotional manipulations. Her father Cholly Breedlove steals the reader’s emotional attention from Pecola as he enters the story. In fact, Toni Morrison’s depiction of Cholly wrongfully evokes sympathy from the reader.
In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays the barbarity and cruelty of slavery. She emphasizes the African American’s desire for a new life as they try to escape their past while claiming their freedom and creating a sense of community. In Beloved, "Much of the characters’ pain occurs as they reconstruct themselves, their families, and their communities after the devastation of slavery" (Kubitschek 115). Throughout the novel, Morrison uses color to symbolically represent a life complete with happiness, freedom, and safety, as well as involvement in community and family. In many scenes, Morrison uses color to convey a character's desire for such a life; while, in other instances, Morrison utilizes color to illustrate the satisfaction and fulfillment, which the characters experience once they achieve this life.
In a world that is rapidly becoming faster paced, finding various means to keep up with the changing environment is a must. Cell phones are one of the most practical inventions of time that make this possible. However, the subtle effect they have on our culture today, their invasion of our privacy, and the possible health risks they may cause are reasons to reassess the value of this intriguing device. While cell phones may be valuable, they are also potentially harmful.
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.
The first effect is the fact that it can greatly affect peoples sleep patterns in a bad way (American Academy of Sleep). For instance, Studies show that only 50 minutes of cell phone use increases brain cell activity. This means that it wears your brain out, making you more tired. Also phones that were turned off did not create the same brain cell activity as it did when it was on. Another example, would be the fact that it has not yet been fully proven that the cell phone has any danger to your health at all(Dellorto, Danielle). Also, The radiation from the cell phones affects younger people more because their skulls are thinner making it easier for the radiation to penetrate deeper into the skull. This is makes teenasgers more at risk than adults. Also, in order for the brain to be impacted the cell phone needs to be close to your head. Also, The radiation from the from the cell phones has been proven to cause sleep insomnia. Its different for everyone for how the cell phone can affect you. Some people don’t get enough sleep because of phones and some aren’t able to sleep because of them, and some are not affected at all.
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.
Cellular phones are a phenomenon that has engulfed people in the nineties. They have become a common occurrence whether you are waiting in line at the super market or in a movie theatre. One professor at Murray State University said, “Many students are carrying them, I had a student get a call in the middle of a test last semester.” Although many people have accepted the thought of carrying a telephone wherever they go, others have not taken the onslaught of cell phones quite so easily. Cell phones have become part of everyday life, and with the dramatic changes that have been made, there is no sign of their existence diminishing. Today, cellular service is available in all 306 Metropolitan Statistical Areas across the country and all of the 428 Rural Service Areas.
...t of cells and cell products. Thus, a whole organism could be understood through the study of its cellular parts. In 1858 the German pathologist Rudolf Virchow's theory, that all cells come from preexisting cells, led to the development of ideas about cell division and cell differentiation.
In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, she exposes the suffering produced by the problems caused by gender and race oppression through the experiences of African-American children. During the 1940’s, the United States had composed an identity through mass media with books such as “Dick and Jane”, and movies like “Sherley Temple.” These media sources provided a society based on national innocence. In the novel, Morrison relates to and exposes the very real issues that were hidden by the idea of the stereotypical white middle-class family.
They are very useful for communication with people in many different ways; let it be through text, video calls, voice chats, and even pictures, cell phones will always keep you in touch with your friends and family. “The global society has already become cellphone centric (Gupta Web).” Cell phones have changed many lives and without it, we would not be able to call our loved ones and know whether they are safe or if they are going to the movies and you forget what time you have to be there. These devices can keep us informed on the people we call and safe when nobody is around. One simple call can make very big changes.