Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Relevant issues on bluest eye by toni morrison
Gender, sexuality and race in the bluest eye
Relevant issues on bluest eye by toni morrison
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Relevant issues on bluest eye by toni morrison
Toni Morrison (1931- ) is a Noble Prize and Pulitzer Prize—winning writer, who has emerged as one of the major contemporary Afro-American women novelists on the literary scene of American literature. The burden of history, the devastating effects of race, gender or class on an individual and especially on a woman in American white, male-dominated society constitute her thematic concerns. Morrison in her very first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), examines the debilitating effects of race, class, and gender on three pre-teen African American girls, Pecola, Claudia and Frieda, in 1940s’ Ohio. Mainstream white culture and cultural products re-emphasize black people’s ‘difference’ from the (white) norm and successfully alienate them and instill a deep sense of inferiority and self-hatred. Moreover, this legacy of self-alienation in one’s own country and privileging of everything white conditions black parents who, in turn, impress upon their children the insecurities that can traumatize the most vulnerable section of American society, the black children.
The superstructures of race in USA inform, deform, and complicate the identities of the marginalized along lines of gender, class, and family structure. Effectively, a type of domestic colonialism, exercised by the respective national elitists, silence and exploit the subaltern women and emasculate the men. This repression from above disrupts the respective family structures in the societies, traumatizes the children, and confuses the relationships between all the members of the families. While some subaltern children may survive disastrous experiences, others may be traumatized into silence. Representation bears witness to these traumatic silences and the silencing processes. In The Mod...
... middle of paper ...
...logical state of the subaltern for the dominant group as it relentlessly imposes its values on the marginalized and traumatizes them.
Works Cited
Bjork, Patrick Bryce. The Novels of Toni Morrison: The Search for Self and Place Within the Community. New York: Peter Lang, 1994. Print.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage Intl., 2007. Print.
Mutalik-Desai, A. A., comp. and ed. Indian Views on American Literature. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998. Print.
Prasad, Murari. “Articulating the Marginal: Arundhati Roy’s Writings.” Arundhati Roy:
Critical Perspectives. Ed Prasad, Murari. Delhi: Pencraft International, 2006.
Print.
Swain, S. P., and Sarbajit Das. “The Alienated Self: Searching for Space in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Sula.” Modern American Literature. Eds. Rajeshwar Mitta Palli and Claudio Gorlier. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2007. 89-97. Print.
Davis, Cynthia A. "Self, Society, and Myth in Toni Morrison's Fiction." Contemporary Literature 23.3 (1982)
Rushdy, Ashraf H.A. "'Rememory': Primal Scenes and Constructions in Toni Morrison's Novels." Contemporary Literature 31.3 (1990): 300-323.
Gates, Henry Louis and Appiah, K. A. (eds.). Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York, Amistad, 1993.
Pruitt, Claude. "Circling Meaning in Toni Morrison's Sula.” African American Review 44.1/2 (2011): 115-129. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
In the novel, “The Bluest Eye”, Toni Morrison exposes the roots of a broken community, unveiling the effects it has on its members. Morrison illustrates various disturbing characters that are insecure, lost and troubled. Through extended metaphors she is able to trace back these behaviors to the characters’ past. The structure of her novel follows a repetitive rationale of the character’s behavior after revealing their gruesome actions. The passage (116) further develops the text’s theme of a dysfunctional community. Although the exposure the effects of racism seems to be the main theme, Morrison goes deeper and explores the reason how and why the community continues to live in oppression.
"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...
Samuels, Wilfred D., and Clenora Hudson- Weems. Toni Morrison. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1990. 53-78. Print.
Levine, Robert S. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th Edition. Volume B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1696. Print.
Work Cited PageCentury, Douglas. Toni Morrison: Author New York: Chelsea Publishing, 1994Childress, Alice. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" "Conversation with Alice Childress and Toni Morrison" Black Creation Annual. New York: Library of Congress, 1994. Pages 3-9Harris, Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison Knoxville: The university of Tennessee press, 1991Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Plume, 1973Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume, 1970Stepto, Robert. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" Intimate Things in Place: A conversation with Toni Morrison. Massachusetts Review. New York: Library of Congress, 1991. Pages 10- 29.
Social class is a major theme in the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison is saying that there are dysfunctional families in every social class, though people only think of it in the lower class. Toni Morrison was also stating that people also use social class to separate themselves from others and apart from race; social class is one thing Pauline and Geraldine admire.Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda are affected by not only their own social status, but others social status too - for example Geraldine and Maureen Peal. Characters in the book use their social class as another reason for being ugly. Readers are reminded of the theme every time a new character enters into the book.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a 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 concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about the racism of lighter colored blacks against darker colored blacks and rich blacks against poor blacks. Along with racism within the black community, sexism is exemplified both against women and against men. As Morrison investigates the racism and sexism of the community of Lorain, Ohio, she gives the reader more perspective as to why certain characters do or say certain things.
508-510. “Toni Morrison.” Literature Resource Center. Feb. 1, 2004. The Gale Group.
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.