First, prepare a response to the statement below in a Word document using coherent arguments, clear writing, and correct grammar. The initial response should be roughly 500 words in length with vivid and specific details from the text. Once the response is of publishable quality, cut and paste it into the blog thread prepared for the novel you read. You will be posting with students from all of my classes who read the same novel. Second, respond to three (3) students in the same blog (you may respond to students not in your class). Your responses must be at least 150 words in length, well-written, and correct in grammar. Make sure you thoughtfully respond to the initial posting, referencing the original student’s thoughts, as well as anyone else who has responded. Include in your responses informally referenced historical or modern day examples to support your argument. This is a scholastic application of Internet networking – “Internet speak,” acronyms, casual or inappropriate language, off-task communication, or profanity is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Any inappropriate response will be deleted immediately and no credit will be given.
Statement: Toni Morrison strongly comments on American society in The Bluest Eye. Describe the commentary and Morrison's purpose behind it, supporting your analysis with vivid, specific details from the text.
What Toni Morrison is saying about American society in, “The Bluest eye” is that most adults do have different childhoods from youth today, but go through similar situations at times so they understand things youth go through. For example, Pauline, the mother of Pecola, has a very simple back in the day childhood: she went to school at a young age, she stopped going to school when she got a little older and started doing the daily house chores and looked after the kids, then around fourteen or fifteen she went off and got married. Pecola’s childhood was different from her mother in most ways, she in school at age eleven, she joked around and had fun most of the time, she didn’t really have that big of chores to do, and she didn’t have to look after any siblings because her brother is older than her and he does what he wants. Pauline and Pecola were hurt by a key man in their life and they both had false hopes. In Pauline journal she talked about everything she went through and how Cholly was breaking her down. In the book Pauline says, “Cholly commenced to getting meaner and meaner and wanted to fight me all of the time. I give him as good as I got.” She doesn’t want to argue and fight she wants to have a happy life but it’s a vibe that gets tossed around and she just fights back not thinking about the little voice in her head that says stop and talk about your problems like simple human beings. Pecola is also scared by her father. In the book Pecola’s father, Cholly, molests her knowing it’s his daughter but thinking it’s his wife. The funny thing is they didn’t describe this situation from Pecola’s point of view they did it from Cholly’s point of view. I think if they wereswitched thoughts we be a little different. I think if it was from Pecola’s point of view she would fill ashamed of herself because she already doesn’t like her appearance and now she will think the only person that really loves me is my father, how pitiful is that and she may hate him now because he made her realize that. Also Pecola and Pauline have dreams about their future. Cholly also had a different childhood because he ran away from home to look for his father, found him but he turned out to be real evil. I guess that really put in his mind set that he needs to be there for his kids when he has them. But it was like he was a shadow in the house because he was physically there but he didn’t show compassion for the kids or his wife. That takes place in some home’s today fathers and mothers just tolerate each other for the kids sake but they don’t really care for each other.
ReplyDelete-Alisha Mobley
The main focus of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” is that of self image; how you see yourself and how you see others. Self image has and always will be a problem in our society. I guess it’s just human nature to care about what you look like because chances are slim to none in you finding someone who doesn’t care about their looks and how people see them. People want to feel beautiful because when they do, they have this confidence in them that’s even more beautiful than their looks, and that’s what Morrison wants readers to see.
ReplyDeleteWhite skin, blond hair and blue eyes are beautiful; this is what most everyone wanted to have to be “beautiful”, but not Claudia MacTeer. She doesn’t see the beauty in that like others do and she doesn’t want to change to make herself look like them. When Claudia gets a white doll she breaks it apart; her hate for the dolls turns into hate for the white girls, which she hides by “love”. “When I learned how repulsive this disinterested violence was, that it was repulsive because it was disinterested, my shame floundered about for refuge. The best hiding place was love” (Page 23). Claudia is unique in that she doesn’t follow along with everyone else by believing that white skin, blond hair and blue eyes are beautiful. She’s her own person; it doesn’t matter if she has brown eyes or blue eyes, she still has respect for herself which is what others lack. I think Morrison purposely made Claudia that way to show the difference in what true beauty is as opposed to the beauty everyone else sees. Pecola Breedlove on the other hand is the complete opposite, she’s a follower. Everyone finds Pecola ugly, even Pecola; she believes it’s because she doesn’t have blue eyes. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Chapter 3). Unfortunately, Pecola sees herself just as others want her to see herself; ugly, because she doesn’t have white skin, blond hair or blues. She’s so desperate to be like these people that she’s actually willing t do anything to get blue eyes. Her lack of respect and desperate determination is what people see in her, and they take advantage of it. Elihue Micah Whitcomb makes Pecola do his dirty work for him in order for her to get blue eyes. She can’t get blue eyes, but she actually thinks she can, so she does it. At this point she basically loses her mind because she thinks that she has blue eyes and all of a sudden she gains this confidence that she never had, she then finds herself beautiful. This confidence is what is beautiful because before, the others would stomp all over her because she was “ugly” which gave them a huge ego boost, but they can’t do that anymore. “We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor” (Page 205). It wasn’t blue eyes she gained, it was self respect.
Morrison makes it a point that beauty is not what you look like, its how you see yourself and the respect you have for yourself that’s really beautiful. She addresses this idea of self-image because the problem lies within yourself; no one can find it for you. It’s that feeling of belief that you know is true to you, and it doesn’t matter if anyone else believes it. It didn’t matter that no one else believed Pecola was beautiful, only that she believed it. Morrison goes beyond the concept of Blue Eyes; beauty is the confidence you have in yourself, not what color your eyes are.
Morrison calls out the American public, commenting on their actions and beliefs and does so in a way that it makes the reader criticize their own society. The author suggests that in America many people are judged by appearance rather than their deeds and actions, leading to a corrupt society of judgmental, cruel people. Morrison seems to realize that many people react by impulse and often do not think about their actions until they are done. This happens many times in the book and I believe it is also a result of lower class living, where routines aren’t as common and growing up is difficult. Pecola is constantly criticized by other children because of her not-so-good looks and this validates the thesis statement that people are judgmental and cruel to others for invalid reasons. The public picks on a little girl because of her misfortune, and I find it shameful that no one came to her rescue or ever heard her side of the story. Morrison writes about a girl who is always ridiculed by many people, but she always holds her head up and doesn’t let the negativity get to her. In the book, Pecola has a cat thrown in her face, but instead of running away she starts to pet the cat and begins to enjoy herself. I believe the author wrote about this type of human struggle to show how emotionally strong humans are and how optimistic some people can truly be. Also, I think Morrison wrote about this conflict to show how pessimistic people can be and to demonstrate how drastically a person can change during their lifetime. In example, Cholly was at first a very loving man towards Polly when they got married but he turned into a broken man who beat his wife and also sexually abused her. This shows how twisted people can become when certain circumstances come to. Also, I think another underlying theme is that sometimes children are more responsible and mature than adults. Whenever Pecola is impregnated by her own father it disgusted me that older people of the town said it was her fault as well as his that she was raped. I found this to be absolutely ridiculous, but I was relieved and enjoyed the sympathy the young girls had when they decided to give up their savings to help Pecola. I found it disturbing that the wealthy blacks referred to the lower class of blacks as “niggers”. I found this particularly disturbing because it seems as though the same race should be helping one another out instead of using racial slurs to categorize them. I think the main goal of this book was to show how life can be great, how it can be cruel and how it can be a living hell. Also, I think another theme is that you should always be prepared for change, because it is inevitable and in most cases it is not pretty, just like the girl with the bluest eyes.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Katie, I agree with you about the main focus of the book. It seems as though there is thought to be set standards on beauty, and that originality is forbidden. I also agree that Claudia is her own person and she seems to be the black sheep of the group. She listens to authority although she does what she wants and has her own opinion about many things. I like her respect for adults and I especially enjoyed the scene where she was fumed because the little white girl called Pecola's mother by her first name very informally. It showed me that although she is a little girl, she understands that adults should be respected and i admired her dignity. I dont like the way Cholly treats his wife either but i think it was because of his first encounter witha woman and how terrible it became. I also feel like that is the reason his hatred for the white man is so strong.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Alisha, I agree that Pauline does not understand what kind of things Pecola is going through. Growing up in different places and different cirumstances can bring about different experiences, as it did in the text. Pauline grew up in a place where work was more important than school, whereas Pecola grew up where education is the key to success and happiness. I think Cholly got his bad characteristics from his father, afterall there is the saying " like father, like son ". It seems this way because Cholly was a loving man when he was young, but it appears that his aging is getting the best of him seeing as he is abusive and a drunk and shows no compassion towards his family, like his father. I feel like the author is likely to be a woman because it seems like overall the men are the most wicked in the book. Cholly was scarred for life by men, as well as Pecola and Pauline. The expression "history repeats itself" can truly be applied to this novel because Cholly and his father led similar lives and Pauline and Pecola face the same demons.
ReplyDeleteDear All -- Most of you commented on the conflict between society's Ideal and individual self-esteem. Do you tink we have become more inclusive in our ideals of beauty? Do magazines, television, and mass media show more color, shape, and size in people as "beautiful"? Also, is this book only about beauty? Or is it also about the internal conflicts created in minorities when the majority is held up as the only acceptable option for a society?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Trevor, I agree with all the points you made on the book. I like how you suggest that the people react by impulse and that they don’t think about their actions because of the lower class living. I never thought of that before and now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. When you have a rough childhood or are living with a difficult situation, it’s hard to go out of your way to be considerate of others. I also like that you say that Morrison writes about human struggle to show how some people can be so pessimistic and so optimistic. When I see how strong Pecola is in this story, it makes me feel emotional because I know that if I were going through what she was going through I’d be a mess. I think that Morrison wants readers to feel that way to show how harsh life could really be.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Alisha, I agree with what you say about Pauline and Pecola being hurt by important men in their life. Cholly made life miserable for Pauline after a few years of marriage; he was inconsiderate and mean to her which made her feel worthless. He then raped his daughter and let everyone think it was her fault. Cholly is someone who doesn’t really care about anyone but himself and he shows it. I think Morrison purposely made Cholly this way to show how you can find difficulties in life where you least expect to find them, like in a husband or father. I also agree with what you say about the parents having a much different childhood than their children, but their children facing similar situations in their lives as well. Cholly had a bad experience with sex when he was young, and although he’s the cause of it, so does Pecola; kids growing up will always face the same similar situations, regardless of the generation.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Mrs. Kushner’s response, I think that our ideas of beauty have changed since the time period of this story. Now that African Americans have become a more equal part in our society, the idea that white skin, blond hair and blues eyes is no longer what is necessarily beautiful. Different beauty is seen in different people’s eyes. Someone may think one image is beautiful whereas the other person finds something else completely different more beautiful. There’s a saying “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” which basically says that anything can be beautiful, it’s what you see in it that can make it beautiful. The media in our society shows a variety of physically beautiful people, but they don’t usually show people who are beautiful on the inside because that’s not something we can see unless we actually get to know someone. In the book, people only see the physical beauty, but if you look deeper, you’ll see that Morrison wants us to see the internal beauty rather than what’s on the outside. This may be why she makes certain characters struggle so much, so that we see them overcome those struggles and find the beauty in their strength.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Trevor I agree with all of his themes. I like how he pionted out the situstion with the cat because i didnt realize she petted it after it attached her. but she realized it wasnt the cat fault he was thrown on her. i think she has been through so much that something as simple as a cat being thrown on her doesnt compare. Also to comment on the way Cholly change he just went through alot just as everyone else. People do change over time as you stated and I think he just having a hard time being the man of the family just like Pa Joad in the Grapes of Wrath. To go off of what you said about children are more responsible and mature than adults is chidren go through rough things in their life. I think Pecola had a tougher life than her mother and i think she realizes that because her mother doesnt really show the affection Pecola needs.
ReplyDeletealisha mobley
IN response to Mrs.Kushner I think the world is improving on showing different shapes and sizes. i watch Americas Next Top Model pretty frequently and it used to always be about you have to be a certain sizr. But the show is welcoming plus size women and women of mixed races. So I think the world is improving on excepting people from different backgrounds.I think in the book people took words to heart if people says something about them they didnt have that mind set that sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. They belive everything someone says about them. in the book all the girls had in their mind if they didnt have blue eyes they were ugly.You could see the difference in self-esteem when Pecola got her blue eyes at the end of the book. She was more cheerful and glad than before where she was just very quiet and to herself.
ReplyDelete-alisha mobley
In response to Katie I agree that everyone want to have that perfect beauty because they want to be excepted. i also liked that Claudia was different from the rest. She stood up for herself most of the time she didnt let people run over her and i think thats something the other girls didnt do. But Claudia did alot of judging of people like when she judged the nerw girl in school because she had blue eyes she didnt like her. BUt come to find out the new girl was very nice and she connected more with Pecola because Pecola is friendly to basically anyone. Thats what I liked about her she took in alot of hurt and pain from people but she was still nice. She didnt have a bad additude even though she went through alot.
ReplyDelete-alisha mobley
Thank you to all the participants!
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