Spirituality, Cosmology, And Christianity In Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye'

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Sound of Silence: an analysis of African Spirituality, Cosmology, and Christianity in The Bluest Eye

Introduction Toni Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye fully embodies the distinct characteristics of African American Literature by artistically blending the elements of African Spirituality, Cosmology, and Christianity, providing readers with a new dimension to interpret the tragic story of Pecola. A closer look at the context shows that the motif of “silence” is evident in this novel, strongly related to those three elements mentioned before. To be clear, the “silence” discussed in this essay is defined in two ways: firstly as in the sacred silence often employed in religious practices, and secondly as in a strategy to isolate someone …show more content…

The discussion of the motif “silence” in this essay attempts to reveal that while it may appear to some readers that the black community’s cold-blooded exclusion is partially held responsible for Pecola’s tragedy and should be reprimanded, what is really happening is that the balance emphasized in the African Cosmology is disturbed by Pecola’s severely crippled family and the foreign notion of white supremacy, and this fatal imbalance leads to a lack of essential spiritual power, which makes Pecola - not the other members in the black community - the victim. Moreover, Pecola’s duality of knowing the reason of her exile, …show more content…

In the prologue, the MacTeer sisters resort to their own magic in the wish of the safe delivery of Pecola’s baby (prologue the Bluest Eye). Claudia and Frieda’s act of planting marigold seeds with money sacrifice and verbal prayer closely resembles the protocols in the traditional African ritual practices (Zauditu-Selassie 10). When they discovered that the marigolds did not grow and Pecola’s baby died in spite of their prayer, instead of casting doubt on the effectiveness of the ritual, Claudia blamed herself for planting the seeds too deeply. Claudia’s belief in ritual practices shows the powerful and unshakable place Spirituality has in African-Americans’ life. Furthermore, Morrison demonstrates the MacTeer sisters’ spiritual sophistication by describing their sensitiveness to the nature (Zauditu-Selassie 10) - “We always responded to the slightest change in weather, the most minute shifts in time of day. Long before seeds were stirring, Frieda and I were scruffing and poking at the earth, swallowing air, drinking rain….” (Morrison 52) Unlike Pecola, Claudia and Frieda’s ability to access spiritual power provides them with strength to survive in the “unyielding earth” (prologue the Bluest Eye), which refers to the white-dominated society they live

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