The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, Published 1970
The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison focusing on how black children grew up in the early 1940s after the Great Depression. It contains a number of autobiographical elements. It is set in the town where Morrison grew up, and it is told from the point of view of a nine-year-old, the age Morrison would have been the year the novel takes place (1941). Like the MacTeer family, Morrison’s family struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression. Morrison grew up listening to her mother singing and her grandfather playing the violin, just as Claudia does. In the novel’s afterword, Morrison explains that the story developed out of a conversation she had had in elementary school with …show more content…
But Morrison does not mean for the reader to think that the Dick-and-Jane world is better. It is largely because the black characters have internalized white Dick-and-Jane values that they are unhappy. In this way, the Dick and Jane narrative and the novel provide ironic explanation on each other.
Claudia and her sister Frieda MacTeer live in Lorain,Ohio,with their parents. It is the end of the Great Depression, and the girls’ parents are more concerned with making ends meet than with lavishing attention upon their daughters, but there is an undercurrent of love and stability in their home.
The MacTeers take in a boarder, Henry Washington, and also a young girl named Pecola. Pecola’s father has tried to burn down his family’s house, and Claudia and Frieda feel sorry for her. Pecola loves Shirley Temple, believing that whiteness is beautiful and that she is …show more content…
Cholly, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.
At the novel's end, Claudia acknowledges that she and all of the townspeople of Lorain are partially to blame for what happened to Pecola. They do not ignore her out of fear or disgust, but because they feel responsible for what she has become. They have failed her.
The author’s purpose in this story is to inform and entertain. There is a historical background that is hinted in the novel. The novel gives you an accurate historical description about how African Americans were treated and how they lived during this time. It also allows you to compare the difference of discipline levels that whites and blacks used on their children and how the respect level for parents differed during this time.
I loved the book because it was a very good and accurate historical representation You always hear about the “roaring 20s” but you never really hear about what happened down in the south until you reach the 50s. This tell you what happened before everything else went into action. I also loved the sadness of the
The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison focusing on how black children grew up in the early 1940s after the Great Depression. It contains a number of autobiographical elements. It is set in the town where Morrison grew up, and it is told from the point of view of a nine-year-old, the age Morrison would have been the year the novel takes place (1941). Like the MacTeer family, Morrison’s family struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression. Morrison grew up listening to her mother singing and her grandfather playing the violin, just as Claudia does. In the novel’s afterword, Morrison explains that the story developed out of a conversation she had had in elementary school with …show more content…
But Morrison does not mean for the reader to think that the Dick-and-Jane world is better. It is largely because the black characters have internalized white Dick-and-Jane values that they are unhappy. In this way, the Dick and Jane narrative and the novel provide ironic explanation on each other.
Claudia and her sister Frieda MacTeer live in Lorain,Ohio,with their parents. It is the end of the Great Depression, and the girls’ parents are more concerned with making ends meet than with lavishing attention upon their daughters, but there is an undercurrent of love and stability in their home.
The MacTeers take in a boarder, Henry Washington, and also a young girl named Pecola. Pecola’s father has tried to burn down his family’s house, and Claudia and Frieda feel sorry for her. Pecola loves Shirley Temple, believing that whiteness is beautiful and that she is …show more content…
Cholly, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.
At the novel's end, Claudia acknowledges that she and all of the townspeople of Lorain are partially to blame for what happened to Pecola. They do not ignore her out of fear or disgust, but because they feel responsible for what she has become. They have failed her.
The author’s purpose in this story is to inform and entertain. There is a historical background that is hinted in the novel. The novel gives you an accurate historical description about how African Americans were treated and how they lived during this time. It also allows you to compare the difference of discipline levels that whites and blacks used on their children and how the respect level for parents differed during this time.
I loved the book because it was a very good and accurate historical representation You always hear about the “roaring 20s” but you never really hear about what happened down in the south until you reach the 50s. This tell you what happened before everything else went into action. I also loved the sadness of the