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.