The End.

I believe that the main reason Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye was to portray all the problems that Afro-Americans had to face. Not only did they had a hard time fitting into society but there self esteem was being affected in a negative way. Toni Morrison demonstrates this through Pecola: the girl who dreamt for blue eyes.

From the beginning of the novel I knew that Toni Morrison was not planning on giving us a happy ending. Still I was shocked when I finally closed the book. Cholly rapes Pecola twice. Isn’t one time more than enough? I take that back. No one should every have the misfortune to go through what Pecola experienced. Sammy runs away. I completely understand him and support him in a way. Who would want to make part of such family? On the other hand his running away was kind of predictable since from the beginning of the book we knew Sammy as the boy who ran away. Ms.Breedlove and Pecola are left alone. Oh, wait. They are not completely alone. It turns out Pecola is pregnant! Could things get any more confusing?

That was clearly a rhetorical question since things for Pecola just get worse. Ms.Breedlove decides to go in denial and does not believe Pecola. I was not surprised at her reaction because Ms.Breedlove never demonstrated to be a caring mother. On the contrary she is constantly blaming Pecola´s appearances for all the bad things that happen to her. Pecola asks a dream reader for blue eyes, he then writes to God and it turns out that God could not give her blue eyes and “loved her” (182).  Yet after this event, Pecola is convinced that she has blue eyes. Probably making her think that things in life were going to improve for her. But since she clearly did not have blue eyes bad things continue to happen.
When Claudia and Frieda learn that Pecola is pregnant they decide to go plant their money and seeds in order to protect the baby for any harm. But guess what. Neither the seeds bloomed nor the baby lived.

In my opinion all of these events lead her to become a little insane. She starts talking to an imaginary friend who I really do not understand who she is referring too. Her worries now shifted to the part that she does not has the bluest eye. But still believes that nobody wants to talk to her or look her at her eyes because everyone envies her.

We might think that the biggest issue of the book was the rape, but Pecola´s big problem was her inability to have blue eyes. For her being pregnant was just an obstacle she had to overpass.

I found this video and I believe that what girls like Pecola suffered during that time is what girls now a day are passing through: anorexia.  

My First Blog Entry

Oh the Irony

The song "Black is Beautiful" by The Trinikas demonstrates a complete different view towards African-Americans to the one Toni Morrison shows in his book The Bluest Eye. They approach the topic of their differences among the rest of the society with two different tones: positive versus negative. While The Trinikas admire their culture and skin color, Pecola is willing to do anything to become white and have pretty blue eyes. The only thing they have in common is that they both accept the fact that they are “black” and that they are different from the rest.

The song starts by stating, “I am not a typical teenager. My skin is black but I just want to let you know that black is beautiful” (0:23). This is a complete different attitude toward her skin color than the one Pecola has. Toni Morrison states, “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” (46). This clearly demonstrates that she has a negative point of view towards her culture and that she would do anything to change her skin color. With these two extreme points of views we can see how the tone one uses really determines the message one wants to send to the audience.

I tried doing some research on The Trinikas, but the truth is I was not able to find any biographical information. I am really curious about their background, since this group of singers might have experienced a complete different childhood from Pecola. In the book, Pecola is constantly blamed for being ugly and no one in her family approve of their skin color. Not only did her family judge her appearance but also Junior´s mom. She was not able to pass Junior´s mom inspection since she stated, “Get out… You nasty little black bitch” (91). How can you have a high self-esteem when treated so badly? I think it would have been a good idea for Pecola to listen to The Trinikas song about blacks being beautiful. 

THEHAPPYFAMILY

Clearly, Pecola´s biological family cannot be considered as a happy one. Toni Morrison states, “She struggled between an overwhelming desire that one could kill the other, and a profound wish that she herself could die” (43). Mrs. Breedlove was constantly fighting with Cholly, since he was always drunk. Yet these fights will get out of hand causing for little Sammy “to run away from home” (43) while he was only fourteen years old. This clearly demonstrates what a harsh childhood Pecola and Sammy had. They even called their mom by her last time. Is this usual?

I found this chapter really ironic: the title states the Breedlove´s were a happy family that lived on a green and white house yet they lived on a constant fight between each other. As one starts reading this chapter, one is able to realize that the title was a lie. They are everything but happy. Still Toni Morrison wants us to believe that their way of life was common back then. For us a more casual day will be going to school, going home to do our homework, and then chat with our family while having dinner. We are used to a different routine. But did all the families during that time were as unhappy and full of problems?

VOCABULARY:

Vengeance: punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong.

Linoleum: a material consisting of a canvas backing thickly coated with a preparation of linseed oil and powdered cork, used esp. as a floor covering.

Ample: enough or more than enough; plentiful.

Taut: tretched or pulled tight; not slack.

Dirge: a lament for the dead.

Abhorrent: inspiring disgust and loathing; repugnant.

THEWHITEANDGREENHOUSE

As I continued reading The Bluest Eye I noticed something unusual about the titles of the chapters. The titles are composed of a complete sentence, all the letters are capitalized, and there is no space between the words. Why would Toni Morrison do this? On my previous blog I talked about the introduction of the book and I concluded that it was written like that to demonstrate that a little girl was going to tell her story. Not only are the titles written the same way as the introduction, but they make part of it. Morrison grabs a portion of that paragraph and puts it as a title.

The second chapter is titled as, “HERISTHEHOUSEITISGREENANDWHITEITHASAREDDOORITISVERYPRETTYITISVERYPRETTYPRETTYPRETTYP” (33). Honestly, it took me quite a while to read it correctly. Why would someone put such a long and confusing titles? Titles are supposed to be clear and straight to the point. At the same time they should contain a message. In this case it does. It might not be clear as other titles but it does relate of what it is being said on that chapter. On this chapter Toni Morrison is describing Pecola´s house. He states, “No one had given birth in one of the beds…. No thrifty child had tucked wad of gum under the table. No happy drunk…” (35). After reading this chapter I realized that Pecola had no memories of her childhood. The house is being described as any other house. I believe that no good memories were lived there because the family was never together. He states, “Each member of the family in his own cell of consciousness, each making his own patchwork quilt of reality--- collecting fragments of experiences here, pieces of information there” (34). If you ask me, those are not the characteristics of a family. They all lived independently without worrying about each other. The only thing Pecola´s family had in common was that they all lived under the same roof.

At first it seemed that this chapter was useless and I did not understand why Toni Morrison would waste a complete chapter describing a house that clearly has no importance to anyone. Then after trying to understand his reasoning behind this I concluded that he wanted to show what a miserable life Pecola had. Since the beginning of the book Pecola has demonstrated to be the shy and the follower of Freida and Claudia. I also thought that she had bad luck on having to be sent to such house where the mother mistreats her kids. But after seeing the conditions in which she used to life, her new house seems like a paradise. A little background of a character helps us understand certain of their behaviors.

The Blue-eyed Girl

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has an unusual beginning.  It starts with a brief description of the characters house and family. The author writes this information in three different ways: one with choppy sentences, the other with no punctuations or capitalizations, and the third with no spaces between the words. Why did the author did this? I believe it was to demonstrate that the person that’s going to tell the story is a young kid, since it is written in a childish way. It might be a weird introduction, but it surely got my attention.

As I started reading the book I was immediately able to see that Claudia, the girl telling the story, does not have a good relationship with her mother. We can see this when she states, “I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness. I believe she despises my weakness for letting the sickness `take holt´” (11). This is not a normal daughter-mother relationship. At least in my case, when I am sick, my mother becomes very sweet and does anything in order to make me feel better. Yet we can see that Claudia is not only feeling bad because of her sickness but also humiliated by her own mother. Why? Based on my conclusion I drew out from the introductory paragraph, Claudia seems like a young girl. Is this the correct way to treat your kids?

At the same time I believe that Claudia seems older than what she really is. She states, “Mama had told us two days earlier that a `case´ was coming…” (16). The way she wrote it seems as if her mother is sugar quoting something important that she would not be able to understand. But she then starts talking about the real dangers of the outdoors. The next paragraph seems like a really deep analysis. If Claudia can make such analysis there is no need for her mother to sugar quote the big event that is going to occur. This is probably because of the disintegration of the family. When she states, “Mrs. Breedlove was staying with the woman she worked for; Sammy, was with some other family; and Pecola was to stay with us. Cholly was in jail” (18). When can see how there is a lack of unity. This clearly leads to many social issues including Claudia´s relationship with her mother.

I kept reading and I got to the part where Claudia receives a blue-eyed baby doll. As soon as I read this I knew where the title of the book had come from: she wanted to be a blonde, blue-eyed girl. She states, “The other dolls, which were supposed to bring me great pleasure, succeeded in going quite the opposite” (20). She clearly did not like the idea of being the mother of these dolls. I believe that her admiration for “the blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll” (20) played and important aspect for why she did not like being a mother. On the other hand, I also believe that her mother was portraying a bad image of what a mother was supposed to be like. She did not want to become like her.