In the “Windup Girl, Bacigalupi used the third person narrative to describe the link that exist in an action of brutal murder done to a superior by a subordinate and the rape that cause the action. Likewise Morrison in “The Bluest Eye” approached the topic by narrating how the brutality of the powerful over the powerless in the case of rape and the cause that triggered it. Although both authors discussed the same topic, they used different approaches to show the causes of the collapse of the society.
Although Bacigalupi and Morrison allowed us watch the collapse of the societies as the personal experiences of the characters unfold, they see it from different perspective. Bacigalupi revealed the brutality evoked into politics as caused
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by an action of the powerful and powerless which invariably has a link between each other, that is, the spontaneous murder by Emiko was caused by an action of rape towards her. On other hand, Morrison showcased the link of humiliation of the powerless to what happened to Cholly over a period of time as a cause of the rape action towards Pecola. The “Windup Girl”, is a third person science fiction narrative about a story of civilization in twenty third century Bangkok where food production and distribution are in the hands of government controlled companies. The entire species of life are becoming extinct because of the deadly viruses and diseases that consumed the world’s food supply. This result to a civil war and Emiko , a windup girl created in Japan is used to assassinate one of the most important men in the vicinity “His Eminence the Somdet Chaopraya’s neck has been ripped entirely away, breaking it, snapping and tearing so that though the spine seems attached still, it acts as a hinge rather than a support”(306). This clear view of the extent of brutality showed the negative perspective of what exactly happened. The extent of this action illustrates the extent to which civilization is butchered. Bacigalupi exposed the relationship between political decay that happen in the society and the effect it might have in the social activities of the people. Again the rape of Emiko in front of the government workers and her patron is another scene that attacked the feminism. This action led to “Emiko in bed, huddled. Sobbing. Her body torn and scratched”(276). This narration described the action of the superior to the subordinate and is the scene that linked to the event of murder. The author used this action to suggest that the mistreatment of women also bring about the collapse of the society. Kannika exploit on Emiko’s submissiveness in the incidence of rape shaped Emiko’s response to an action of brutality. . In “The Bluest Eye”, Morrison expresses freedom by using third person narrative to present the influence of racism on the twenty third century which transverse through space of time.
The story of Cholly loosing his virginity was used to highlight what is happening between the superior and the subordinate. “Darlene froze and cried out. He thought he had hurt her, but when he looked at her face, she was starring wildly at something over his shoulder. He jerked around. There stood two white men. One with a spirit lamp and the other with a flashlight. There was no mistake about their being white, he could smell it. Cholly jumped, trying to kneel, stand, and get his pants up all in one motion. The men had gun.”(147). The guns is the representation of superiority and being held by white men shows the extent racism is allowed in the society. This experience repeated itself over time in the case of Pecola being raped. By the way both stories was told, the author made it known that the vulnerable are being treated brutally by the powerful. The men thought that Cholly was enjoying the act with their watchful eyes on him, and by judging the facial expression on Darlene, this defined the influence of racism on the twenty century. Morrison’s narration of the action that happened to Cholly was in extension viewed as the cause to what happened to Pecola, “his knowledge of the world”, both actions showed the extent of the power to which the higher authority have over the
powerless. Bacigalupi introduction of third person narrative help to highlight the extent to which characters regarded as powerless can exert their powers. The extinct of food production was seen as the extinct of the powerful since the author made the link between food and power seems interwoven. Emiko’s sadistic rape showed that the society is at the verge of social disorder and collapse thereby making it possible for the mistreatment of women in the society. On the other hand, Morrison used time to bring two actions together which showed commitment to the way and pattern the narration was conveyed, thereby linking the second action to an after effect of the first action, the consequence being the rape to feminism. The third person narrative is in a form of story, Morrison used this to narrate the actions that happened over a space of time. The rape that happened to Pecola was indirectly seen as the effect of what happened to Cholly, this exposed the vulnerability of the weak and the powerless towards the powerful despite the negative influence that such action will have, as Cholly narrated “The sequence of emotion was revulsion, guilt. Pity, then love”(161). Yet the action was allowed to happen. Bacigalupa on other hand, used spontaneous action to show that the third person narrative view of action between Somdet Chaopraya and Emiko has an immediate negative impact on the powerful and superior which is instant annihilation of the power that be. Morrison also exposed the effect an action can have on the society when perpetrated to a class of people by their same class of the people (Cholly and Pecola). Likewise Kannika and Emiko being both windup yet Kannika act towards Emiko was seen as a humiliating act towards same kind. While both Bacigalupi and Morrison agree that the brutal murder of Somdet Chaopraya and Pecola’s rape was an after effect of an action, Bacigalupi focused on the brutality of the Emiko the powerless to the powerful while Morrison focused on the brutality of the powerful to the powerless Pecola. The third person narrative is useful in a book that has many characters, this allow the lives of the characters to unfold over time. Both Bacigalupi and Morrison affirm that the social-political lives of the people is governed by the activities of the powerful and the powerless. The murder of Somdet Chaopraya was caused by Emiko, a windup who was raped by her own fellow windup in the presence of the government officials in order to please them. Likewise the rape of Pecola by Cholly which was the effect of the racial humiliation he encountered. The act of socio-political decay is seen in the society which invariably caused the collapse of the system of the government. Though Bacigalupa narration is based more on the effect of socio- politics effects on the economy in the lives of the Bangkok people, Morrison is more stylish in the ways the actions of the characters relates and linked to each other over time. Reference ; Bacigalupi, P. The Windup Girl. New York: Night Shade Books, 2009. Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eye. Vintage International Edition, May 2017. New Yorker. Surber, K. (2015). Third person narrative: Definition and Example. Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/third-person-narrator-definition-example.html
The human eye is an organ that allows a person to see, the sense of sight. The eye is composed of several parts including the cornea, lens, pupil, retina, optic nerve etc. There are two portions the eye is broken into, the front third is the anterior segment and the other two thirds is the posterior segment. The anterior segment includes the lens, cornea, iris, and ciliary body. The posterior segment of the eye essentially is the back portion of the eye. In detail, the posterior segment is the portion of the eye behind the lens that includes the retina, macula, optic nerve, choroid, and vitreous humor. There are many diseases that affect the eye and those in particular affecting the posterior segment will be discussed in detail.
As a result of racism and white supremacy, Cholly did not know where to place his anger. He does not direct his anger towards white men (who are socially superior to Cholly) but instead towards black women (who are socially inferior to Cholly). Cholly takes the example of the white men by abusing his own social power over Pauline. This longing for superiority and skewed view of love also contributed to the rape of his
At Aunt Jimmy’s funeral, Cholly is placed into a traumatic world of racism when two white hunters interrupt him having clumsy sexual intercourse with a young girl, Darlene. He immediately transfers his angry energy to Darlene because he realizes that hating two white men would not be the smartest thing to do in a segregated racist world. “Never did he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters. Such an emotion would have destroyed him…--that hating them would have consumed him, burned him up like a piece of soft coal, leaving only flakes of as and a question mark of smoke” (119). The white men are out of his reach, and Cholly grows to hate and kill white men. His masculinity was revoked when those two men forced him to continue having sex while they hilariously watched.
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.
that her son does not kill the cat. She trust him more than Pecola. Pecola
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.
During Schoolteacher regime on the plantation he tries to pursue his knowledge by observing the ways his nephews raped Sethe. Not only that, Schoolteacher’s nephews also stole the Sethe’s breast milk for her baby so by the time Sethe reached her child she wouldn’t have anything to feed the baby with. Not sure if she’s able to deliver her milk for her baby in time strove Sethe to survive because she “had to get milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me” (16). Of course, Sethe was desperate to feed her child so it wouldn’t starve to death, it’s necessary for a mother to breast feed her newborn baby in order to keep it vitalize. Morrison portrayed Schoolteacher’s character as a cruel, relentless, and harworking racist with the inability to feel compasssion or sympathy; that makes someone like Schoolteacher capable of many cruel deeds. How? Let’s not forget how he assigned his nephews to raped a defenseless pregnant woman, stole the milk she stored for her baby, and treated her like a common
...ror of Pecola’s first sexual experience: her father rapes her), and a difficult marriage situation (caused by his own drunkenness). The “bads” certainly outweigh the “goods” in his situation. Thus, the reader ought not to feel sympathy for Cholly. But, Morrison presents information about Cholly in such a way that mandates sympathy from her reader. This depiction of Cholly as a man of freedom and the victim of awful happenings is wrong because it evokes sympathy for a man who does not deserve it. He deserves the reader’s hate, but Morrison prevents Cholly covered with a blanket of undeserved, inescapable sympathy. Morrison creates undeserved sympathy from the reader using language and her depiction of Cholly acting within the bounds of his character. This ultimately generates a reader who becomes soft on crime and led by emotions manipulated by the authority of text.
Morrison also does not emphasize the way blacks were discriminated against white people in early 20th century. Through Cholly we do see a glimpse of how African Americans were discriminated through the woods scene, but she did this to show the reader why he acted the way he did. The novel instead focuses on another element that usually does not get discussed in literature, which is self-loathing. Wether the character was lighter skinned or darker skinned African American, we see how all of them want to conform to the white culture instead of embracing their
With the stereotypes and myths that are seen throughout the areas, we are able to see how things make a difference when it comes to how things are portrayed. Victims of rape should not blame themselves or see the situation as a joke, which is proven in Patricia Lockwood’s poem, “Rape Joke”. She uses a very unique style of a story-like poem to tell a story of an instance that could happen and how to see the situation afterwards. There is the aftermath of how victims feel and act after going through the traumatic experience of a rape. Lockwood is able to portray that experience in detail in her poem “Rape Joke.”
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison is an African American writer, who believes in fighting discrimation and segregation with a mental preparation. Tony focuses on many black Americans to the white American culture and concludes that blacks are exploited because racism regarding white skin color within the black community. The bluest eye is a story about a young black girl named Pecola, who grew up in Ohio. Pecola adores blonde haired blue eyes girls and boys. She thinks white skin meant beauty and freedom and that thought was not a subject at this time in history. This book is really about the impact on a child’s state of mind. Tony Morrison has divided her book into four seasons: autumn, winter, spring, and summer. The main characters in this book are three girls, Claudia and Frieds McTeer, and Pecola Breedlove. Why was Pecola considered a case? Pecola was a poor girl who had no place to go. The county placed her in the McTeer’shouse for a few days until they could decide what to do until the family was reunited. Pecola stayed at the McTeer’s house because she was being abuse at her house and Cholly had burned up his house. The first event that happens in the book was that her menstrual cycle had started. She didn’t know what to do; she thought she was bleeding to death. When the girls were in the bed, Pecola asked, “If it was true that she can have a baby now?” So now the only concern is if she is raped again she could possibly get pregnant. Pecola thought if she had blue eyes and was beautiful, that her parents would stop fighting and become a happy family.In nursery books, the ideal girl would have blonde hair and blue eyes. There is a lot of commercial ads have all showed the same ideal look just like the nursery book has. Pecola assumes she has this beautiful and becomes temporary happy, but not satisfied. Now, Pecola wants to be even more beautiful because she isn’t satisfied with what she has. The fact is that a standard of beautyis established, the community is pressured to play the game. Black people and the black culture is judged as being out of place and filthy. Beauty, in heart is having blond hair, blue eyes, and a perfect family. Beauty is then applied to everyone as a kind of level of class.
... It should be understood that Morrison's novel is filled with many characters and many examples of racism and sexism and the foundations for such beliefs in the black community. Every character is the victim or aggressor of racism or sexism in all its forms. Morrison succeeds in shedding light on the racism and sexism the black community had to endure on top of racism and sexism outside of the community. She shows that racism and sexism affect everyone's preconceived notions regarding race and gender and how powerful and prevalent the notions are.
Quest for Personal Identity in The Bluest Eye A main theme in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is the quest for individual identity and the influence of the family and community on that quest. This theme is present throughout the novel and evident in many of the characters. Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, and Pauline Breedlove are all embodiments of this quest for identity, as well as symbols of the quest of many of the many Black people that were moving to the north in search of greater opportunities.
Throughout Toni Morrison’s controversial debut The Bluest Eye, several characters are entangled with 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 should be 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. According to literary educator Allen Alexander, even though Cholly was cripplingly flawed and often despicable, he was a more “genuine” person to Pecola than Pauline was (301). Alexander went on to claim that while Cholly raped Pecola physically, Pauline and Soaphead Church both raped her mental wellbeing (301). Alexander is saying that the awful way Pecola was treated in a routine matter had an effect just as great if not greater than Cholly’s terrible assault. The abuse that Pecola lived through was the trigger that shattered her mind. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the characters of Cholly Breedlove and Frieda McTeer to juxtapose sexual violence and mental maltreatment in order to highlight the terrible effects of mental abuse.
In “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, the audience is shown the skewed idea of beauty and how whiteness in the 1940s was the standard of beauty. This idea of beauty is still prevalent today which is why the novel is powerful and relevant. Narrated by a nine year old girl, this novel illustrates that this standard of beauty distorts the lives of black people, more specifically, black women and children. Not only was it a time when being white was considered being superior, being a black woman was even worse because even women weren’t appreciated and treated as equal back then. Set in Lorain, Ohio, this novel has a plethora of elements that parallels Toni Morrison’s personal life. The population in Lorain back then was considered to be ethnically asymmetrical, where segregation was still legal but the community was mostly integrated. Black and white children could attend the same schools and neighborhoods by then would be inhabited by a mix of black and white families. The theme of race and beauty is portrayed through the lives of three different families and stories told by the characters: Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda. Through the exploration of the families’ and character’s struggles, Morrison demonstrates the horrid nature of racism as well as the caustic temperament of the suppressed idea of white beauty on the individual, and on the society.