The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

Extraits de l'exposé

[...] Not only do her parents and pets refuse to play with her, but they seem to refuse any direct communication with her. When Jane approaches her mother to play, the mother simply laughs, which makes us wonder if the mother actually is, as we have been told, ?very nice.? When she asks her father to play, her father only smiles. The lack of connection between sentences mirrors the lack of connection between the individuals in this story. Morrison uses this technique to emphasize how lessons are often ?drummed? into children at an early age until the lesson become fact. [...]

[...] The master had said, are ugly people.' They had looked about themeselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement [ . ] And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with p.28 The way each Breedlove deals with this ugliness gives the reader insight into their character. Mrs. Breedlove uses her ugliness for ?support of a role she frequently imagined was (p.29) Cholly and Sammy use their ugliness as an excuse for being violent toward others. [...]

[...] Beauty is the second theme of the novel introduced in this chapter. Morrison most notably uses the cultural icon of Shirley Temple hugely popular child actress of the day) and the popular children's dolls of the 1940s to illustrate mass culture's influence on young black girls. Claudia naively takes apart the doll to search for its beauty: I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only (p.14) She has not yet learned that beauty is a matter of cultural norms and that if the doll is considered beautiful it is because the culture she lives in believes that whiteness is superior. [...]

[...] -The story developed out of a conversation Morrison had in elementary school with a little girl longing for blue eyes. Brief Summary of the novel Prologue The Dick-and-Jane Narrative Second part written in italics: narration by an unnamed narrator. Autumn: Chapter pp. 5-23 Theme of injustice: being a child, being poor, being a woman, being black Theme of beauty: racism distorts beauty standards Love-hate relationship between blacks and whites Pecola's desire to internalize white values Coming of age Autumn, Chapter pp.24-27 Shift in narration Playright's instructions for a set, sympbolic objects No positive symbols in the Breedloves's home, only suffering and degradation Autumn, Chapter pp.28-44 The Breedloves's ugliness Pecola's longing for blue eyes The three prostitutes, happy without society's acceptance The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison's Biography Toni Morroson was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. [...]

[...] John Bishop wrote in his article called ?Morrison's The Bluest and published in 1993: ?Morrison makes clear that the community has failed to save Pecola, and this failure is figured as blindness?, for indeed, what destroys Pecola most, is that the Mr. Yacobowski does not even see her (p.36). After she leaves the grocery store, she briefly experiences a healthy anger, but it gives way to shame. She decides dandelions are ugly, whereas blonde, blue- eyed Mary Jane, pictured on the candy wrapper, is beautiful: ?Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. [...]