The Bluest Eye: "Summer"

"And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We couted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We substituted good grammer for intellext; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.
     She, however, stepped over into madness, a madness which protected her from us simply because it bored us in the end." (205-206)

This passage stood out to me becauseit plays with the difference between fantasy and madness. In their fantasies, people can create who they want to be. The contradictions Morrison expresses how strong people are actually only aggressive. She tells us how these people live false lives. Typically, fantasies are dream like creations;however, Morrison's diction creates an idea that these fantasies have consumed their lives. The adult's lives have become facades every day. This fantasy word is shown in full detail with Mrs. Breedlove and her life as Polly. However, in Pecola's madness, she finally finds true protection. Throughout the whole novel, Pecola is victimized. Claudia and Frieda still stick with her and even protect her but when she is finally crumbled into madness, they simply lose interest. It was interesting to me how fantasies became second lives and madness was a boring protection in the end.

Q:What did they assassinate that Pecola looked for in the Dumpster?

SUMMER

"All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. All of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. All of us--all who knew her--felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. 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. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dream we used--to silence our own contempt. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength." -pg. 205

In this passage, Claudia is summarizing how the community felt about Pecola and ultimately how they used her. She was merely an object to the people of Lorain, an object they could wash themselves on. In hindsight, Claudia describes how in comparison to Pecola and her unfortunate circumstances, Claudia and Frieda, and presumably the rest of the community felt "sanctified", "wholesome",  "strong", "eloquent" and "decorated". She was a tool for them to elevate themselves with and a scapegoat on which they could dump their own self-hatred and guilt. However, Pecola did not put up much of a fight, instead she "abosorbed" it. Because of this, one could argue that Pecola may be the most important and central character in the entire novel. Without Pecola to blame, where would the people of Lorain be? From Claudia's perspective, hating Pecola was the only thing that kept everyone's minds off of hating themselves, and calling Pecola ugly was the only thing that kept everyone's from feeling ugly themselves. Claudia even says that all of their beauty was "hers first which she gave to us". She acknowledges the beauty in Pecola's appearance and character but how it was quickly sacrificed for the sake of the town. I would argue that Pecola could be deemed the heroin of the novel in the way that she, whether intentionally or not,  consistently laid herself down to be a stepping stool for the people around her. Ironically, though everyone seemed to have hated her so much, it's almost as if the community would've fallen apart without her.

-Annie Baker


Q: To what degree is Pecola aware of her position as scapegoat? Does she think her situation could be different?

Summer

The Bluest Eye: Summer

“Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved.”

Throughout the novel, we see each of the characters look to define love. Could it be the passion of lust, the feeling of care in sickness, or the approval of onlookers? In this final statement on love, it is explained that a definition for true love can never be found because love is so ambiguous. While typically love is portrayed as a positive, healing emotion, it is explained here that love will be only as compassionate as the person. It can be as equally degrading as it is inspiring in the same way that people can be equally supportive or destructive. In the case of Cholly Breedlove, he loved Pecola but because he was a violent and immoral man, his love towards her was violent and immoral.

This quote also presents the idea that mere love could not have saved any of the relationships in the Breedlove family. Broken souls cannot be mended simply because of a love that exists between family members. The quote explains that love does not automatically come with “gifts,” since everything lies in the virtue of the lovers; without supportive investment in each other, or any belief that such investment would be worthwhile, love will never be redemptive. It also says that “the love of a free man is never safe,” referring to Cholly. His freedom is again stained with danger as his love towards both Pauline and Pecola oscillates violently between tender passion and unrestrained anger. This leaves the reader with the impression that perhaps there were not crimes of hatred and discrimination committed between the characters but crimes of hopelessly torn love.

Q: Why does Pecola’s imaginary friend say that Pecola did not need her before she got her blue eyes?

Olivia Lin 

The Bluest Eye: Summer

“Our sorrow drove out all thoughts of the new bicycle. And I believe our sorrow was the more intense because nobody else seemed to share it. They were disgusted, amused, shocked, outraged, or even excited by the story. But we listened for the one who would say, “Poor little girl,” or, “Poor baby,” but there was only head-wagging where those words should have been. We looked for eyes creased with concern, but saw only veils.” (190)

This quote appears in the novel in the “Summer” chapter when Claudia and Freida had returned from the homes in their community that they visited in an attempt to sell seeds for five cents each in hopes of earning enough money for a new bicycle. The women of the town could not resist talking about the latest gossip, even in the presence of the two young girls, and Freida and Claudia piece together what happened to Pecola.

I was struck by the depiction of the “disgusted, amused, shocked, outraged” women in this quote because although they share many characteristics with Pecola, they refuse to give her the benefit of the doubt when arguing whether or not she attempted to fight off Cholly. Also, they do not take her side even after she was raped by her father and beaten by her mother. Freida and Claudia recognize that they are the only people who truly feel sorry for Pecola and hope that the baby lives.

Morrison uses the imagery of a veil to illustrate the way that the women of Lorain hid their true feelings about Pecola and refused to become too concerned for the ugly little girl. The veil also points to the major theme of vision in the novel. When someone wears a veil, they can neither see nor be seen. This is entirely appropriate for the women, who refuse to acknowledge the horrible truth of what happened with the Breedloves and instead hide in the safety of their own homes, behind the words that they throw around carelessly, and of which the Breedloves will never know. This quote gives us both an example of the compassionate character that the MacTeer girls and the lack of integrity that the women of Lorain possess.

Q: Why does Morrison use dialogue to introduce the reader to Pecola’s unborn child and what makes it such an effective tool?

Cami Morrow

Bluest Eye : Summer

"she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal , grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird , intent on the blue void it could not reach - could not even see.."
p. 204

This quote further reiterates the adversity of rejection that Pecola faces all throughout the novel. She encounters and faces denial of acceptance through every person she comes across. Her lack of beauty is continually mentioned by every other character and is always described negatively . She is lonely out of her wits ; however, the only people that deem her worthy of attention are the "ruined" women of the town. Ultimately, this may be considered as a sort of irony. For the most part, this supports the notion that no matter how hard she "flaps her wings", and attempts to overcome this hill ; everyone around her brings her down in every way possible and places her in an inevitable lonesome hole.


Why would Frieda and Claudia avoid Pecola after they failed her ? If they were clever enough to realize that nobody else cared for her why would they abandon her if they wholeheartedly wanted to help ?

The Bluest Eye: Summer

“But suppose. Suppose a long way off. In Cincinnati, say, there is somebody whose eyes are bluer than mine? Suppose there are two people with bluer eyes? So what? You asked for blue eyes. You got blue eyes. He should have made them bluer” (202-203).

Toward the end of the last section of the book, it is revealed to the reader that Pecola has been granted her wish of blue eyes. This excerpt is from the conversation Pecola has with what seems to be an imaginary friend. For pages, Pecola goes on and on about her new eyes. However, her obsession and external joy seems to be veiling her true uncertainty and perhaps discontent with the results of her dream come true. At first, she seems to be bragging about her blue eyes and even accuses her friend of being jealous. This, I believe is the denial stage of the conversation. She is denying to herself that perhaps these blue eyes she wanted so badly, are not going to bring her true happiness. She is finally like Shirley Temple, like Maureen Peel, like the little white girl her mother cares for so dearly, yet she still seeks reassurance. She needs to know, to be told by someone else, that her eyes are beautiful and better than all of the other blue eyes. Throughout her conversation, she becomes less and less sure of her blue eyes. She starts to question whether she is the only one who has them. If not, are blue eyes enough? Now, instead of blue eyes, Pecola wants the bluest eyes, saying, “He should have made them bluer.” She is now taking this incredible gift for granted and deems her blue eyes not enough. Will anything ever be enough?

This is a perfect illustration of the old saying, “the grass is always greener.” As humans, we always want what we don’t have and we always think that when we get it we will find true happiness. Morrison makes an important point that human nature is naïve. Pecola is naïve in thinking that eye color will make her beautiful and accepted. Her innocence is shown in her belief that a dream can become reality and remain dreamlike. It is as if blue eyes will ensure that she will never be left again, that her mother will love her, that she will have friends, etc. Pecola believed that with blue eyes, all the bad things would go away. This is a childlike concept, but I believe that Pecola learned it from her mother. Morrison is making an important point that parents influence their child whether they realize it or not. Pauline searches for acceptance and love in the family she works for, which she has made into her fantasy life. Pecola witnesses her mother’s happiness in the home she works in and with the daughter of the family. In turn, Pecola believes that making her dream come true will put her in the same world of happiness as her mother, the world of the pretty, blue-eyed white girl.

Q: Does Pauline realize that she does have an impact on Pecola? If so, is she capable of being a good role model for her?

-Amber Riley

The Bluest Eye: Summer

"The birdlike gestures are worn away to a mere picking and plucking her way between the tire rims and the sunflowers, between Coke bottles and milkweed, among all the waste and beauty of the world—which is what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us."

This passage provides a vital summary of the way the community has viewed Pecola. Throughout the entire novel, Pecola is seen as the scapegoat of the community. The community exploited Pecola her entire life. By pushing their "waste" on her, the community became more beautiful and rid themselves of waste. Even just observing Pecola's miserable life was enough to make a person feel better about their own life. Claudia explains the community's relationship to Pecola as if they traded their waste for her beauty. By hating Pecola, the community was able to rid themselves of their own self-hatred. People see her blackness as ugliness. It's ironic that Claudia chooses to acknowledge Pecola's madness as beauty when she's always thought Pecola was ugly. Claudia describes Pecola as a beautiful symbol for the suffering of society. Claudia realizes that Pecola's physical ugliness is what makes other people feel physically beautiful and that Pecola is in fact beautiful because she is human. She sees now that Pecola is a beautiful human for taking on the burdens of the community and absorbing them. She bore the burdens of so many other people and they felt "wholesome" after they cleaned themselves on her.

Q: Is it really "much, much, much too late" to save Pecola or is there a way that her sanity could be restored?

-Molly Cook

The Bluest Eye: Summer

"Which is what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. All of us--all who knew her--felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness." (205)

Pecola's impact on the other characters in the novel could arguably be defined by these few sentences. Morrison could not have conveyed Pecola's impact on the rest of the characters in the short story she intended. Somehow, nonsensically she was the dumping ground for the problems of the other characters. If they ever felt bad about their own lives, they could just look at hers and see that someone had it worse. Morrison elaborated their stories to show that they were all human, but they couldn't deal with their own problems in a humane way like Pecola could. They needed something (or in this case, someone) to unload themselves on---as if they were cleared of all burdens.

This passage might also prove the idea that Pecola's low self-esteem is in fact a huge reaction to the way society treats her. However, the fact that she is passive to all the hate that comes her way shows that she has given up on her own life. Her sole purpose seems to be to serve the community around her by making them seem beautiful in comparison. In the end, she slips into madness where she thinks she has blue eyes, but that might be because the whole community has rejected her. She has nobody to live with but herself, and if she can't tolerate even that, what has she got to live for? I think she might have deluded herself into thinking she had blue eyes because she couldn't live in desperation anymore. (And because Soaphead church had led her to believe she would get them.) That was her reaction to her situation because she didn't know what else to do with herself.

Q: Could Pecola have turned her life around? Was she in any stable state to do so? What were here options after her miscarriage?

-Madhu Singh

The Bluest Eye: Spring

“Their voices blended into a threnody of nostalgia about pain. Rising and falling, complex in harmony, uncertain in pitch, but constant in the recitative of pain. They hugged the memories of illnesses to their bosoms. They licked their lips and clucked their tongues in fond remembrance of pains they had endured…” (137)

This quotation, given as insight from Cholly’s past, reveals to the reader a scene in which Aunt Jimmy’s friends reminisce on their past, more specifically directed toward the aspects of pain and all the memories associated with these feelings. The words embedded throughout this text are noticeably not the typical words associated with thoughts of pain. I think this is because even though these occurrences may have been painful in the moment, when looking back these women realize that this was not the case in context. The vocabulary used is almost lyrical as if they are singing a beautiful, complex song that composes the melody of their past.

I chose this quote because in the opening lines of this section, Claudia describes how when she thinks of spring, she remembers the whippings that have left marks in her mind forever. Soon after this, she discovers Frieda crying in painful thought and later on in the section, we see how pain the Breedloves endured in their youth has tormented their entire lives. It is almost as if these characters are defined by the physical trials they have faced. A definite recurrence in this section is centered around the external and internal pain that each character faces. Much of the characters’ actions are their indirect approaches to dealing with the internal pain that rests deep inside their souls. How each character choses to address the pain they have endured reveals their true being. The author carefully uses this quote to illustrate and give us an understanding behind the actions of the characters as a result of the pain that has had such an impact on their stories.

The Bluest Eye: Spring

"Pauline felt uncomfortable with the few black women she met. They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair. When she tried to make up her face as they did, it came off rather badly. Their goading glances and private snickers at her way of talking and dressing developed in her a desire for new clothes. When Cholly began to quarrel about the money she wanted, she decided to go to work. Taking jobs as a day worker helped with the clothes....the sad thing was that Pauline did not really care for clothes and makeup. She merely wanted other women to cast favorable glances her way. After several months of doing day work, she took a steady job in the home of a family of slender means and, nervous, pretentious ways. " (pg 118)

This section provides an in-depth view into Mrs. Breedlove's character, and turn, Pecola's, offering explantions as to why they both behave the way that they do. We learn that all Pauline wanted from the beginning was nothing more than to be accepted by those around her, which turns out to play a vital role in her outlook on life and her upbringing of Pecola. When we are first introduced to the Breedlove's we learn that they are "ugly," not only because society labels them ugly but also because of the ugliness bought upon by themselves. Pauline embraces this ugliness, knowing parts of her appearance such as her missing front tooth and her leg keep her from being truly "beautiful" like she sees in the girls in the movies.

Pauline therefore labels her second baby, Pecola, as ugly, which turns out to play a large role on the values she is bought up with. Pecola is never told by anyone, especially her mother, that she is beautiful, and is taught her whole life that she undesirable and will never attain the beauty she sees in the white girls around her. Not receiving any kind of love and or encouragement from her parents causes her to believe she is not worth sticking up for, one of the essential ways her character differs from that of Claudia and Frieda. Although strict, we know that their parents do at the least stand up for them, as we can see through their reaction to when Henry touches Frieda or when Claudia is sick at the beginning of the novel and all she remembers is "somebody with hands who does not want me to die." Pecola's mother, on the other hand, does the opposite, as she even pushes her daughter into the hot juice whenever Pecola burns herself rather than see if see is alright.

We see through the girls' different backgrounds why Pecola is so easily victimized while Claudia and Frieda have at least some self confidence--Pecola is never taught otherwise. Seeing her parents' constant abuse at home teaches her only fear, and it seems the only form of reassurance she does have in her life is that she receives from Claudia and Frieda.

The Bluest Eye: Spring

“The little girl in pink started to cry. Mrs. Breedlove turned to her. ‘Hush, baby, hush. Come here. Oh, Lord, look at your dress. Don’t cry no more. Polly will change it.’ She went to the sink and turned tap water on a fresh towel. Over her shoulder she spit out words to us like rotten pieces of apple. ‘Pick up that wash and get on out of here, so I can get this mess cleaned up.’

Pecola picked up the laundry bag, heavy with wet clothes, and we stepped hurriedly out the door. As Pecola put the laundry bag in the wagon, we could hear Mrs. Breedlove hushing and soothing the tears of the little pink-and-yellow girl.

‘Who were they, Polly?’

‘Don’t worry none, baby.’” (109)

This section (and parts before and after it) further reinforces the “white is beautiful, black is ugly” stereotype. Mrs. Breedlove has a world she’s created in her employer’s home, a world that is all white and clean and perfect. She ignores her other life, her home and her family, which she lets fall into disrepair. She wants to lose who she is, and at her job she can do that, only accepting the best food and products for her white employers, who she receives much praise from, and even a new name, or nickname at least.

When the three girls enter the house she works in, enter her clean white world, it’s an annoyance to her, and when Pecola knocks a pie onto the floor, “splattering blackish blueberries everywhere” (which I think highlights a connection between blackness and mess) she doesn’t care that her own daughter may have been badly burned, even pushes her into the spilled juice. She also speaks about it being “her floor” that is now messed up, she wants that house and life to be her real life.

Every time Mrs. Breedlove talks to the black girls, her voice is described as rotten and dark, whereas when she talks to the blonde white girl, her voice is soothing and full of honey. She seems to have replaced Pecola with the little white girl, who she thinks of as the beautiful daughter she wanted. When the white girl asks about Pecola and the others, Polly avoids the question, again showing that she wants to forget about her real family.

--John Schaefer

The Bluest Eye: Spring

“Then she stopped staring at the green chairs, at the delivery truck; she went to the movies instead. There in the dark her memory was refreshed, and she succumbed to her earlier dreams. Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another – physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion. In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by the heap.” (122)

This excerpt provides vital insight into Mrs. Breedlove’s character, revealing the source of her distorted outlook on life. The movies expose Pauline to a world of beauty, luxury, and romance that she is now doomed to compare everyone and everything to. Unsatisfied with her own life in the shadow of the cinema’s manufactured image of perfection, Pauline’s relationship with her family disintegrates. As she realizes that Cholly can never live up to the romantic ideal set by film actors, her love for him gives way to exploitation of his faults for her own selfish gain. Having determined that her missing front tooth will never allow her to be “beautiful” like Jean Harlow, Pauline is forced to seek acceptance in her community through other means. In an effort to appear more righteous than her peers, she portrays herself as a martyr who has been commanded by God to punish Cholly for his sins. Cholly, in turn, uses Pauline as a receptacle for his hatred. This mutual manipulation creates a dysfunctional home environment that eventually destroys the family entirely.

When Pecola is born, Pauline immediately labels her as “ugly” and, since she associates physical beauty with value, is never able to truly love her. This supposed ugliness haunts Pecola throughout her childhood and undermines her self-esteem. Instead of taking care of her own home and family, Pauline begins to live vicariously through the white family she works for; she perfects their lavish household and dotes on their beautiful blonde daughter while neglecting her own. Pauline’s welcome acceptance of the nickname “Polly” bestowed upon her by her white employers also mirrors the rejection of her own “ugly” black identity. The unattainable standards set by the movies prove devastating to both Pauline’s own self-esteem and that of her family, reiterating the novel’s theme of the danger of equating whiteness with beauty.

Q: Do the unfortunate circumstances that shaped Pauline’s and Cholly’s lives excuse them for their cruel actions, or should they be held accountable for the damage they inflicted upon Pecola?

The Bluest Eye: "Spring"

"Pauline kept this order, this beauty, for herself, a private world, and never intruduced itinto her storefront, or to her children. Them she bent toward respectability, and in so doing taught them fear: fear of being clumsy, fear of being like their father fear of not being loved by God, fear of madness like Cholly's mother's. Into her son she beat a loud desire to run away, and her daughter she beat a fear of growing up, fear of other people, fear of life." (128)

This single paragraph reveals why it is Pecola is so easily victimized and why she never stands up for herself in anyway. She is afraid. At home there is no source of reassurance of any kind that validates her existence. Normally, if one is bullied and they have any kind of self-confidence or strength they'll lash out externally and fight, like Claudia and Frieda do, instead of withering away internally. The reason they can have the strength to fight is because at home they seem to receive so kind of love and support from their parents, but Mrs. Breedlove only gives fear to Pecola. So, without any help at home Pecola has no means to gather strength to fight back and instead becomes the helpless creature she acts like.

"Spring" is a fitting title for this section. In this section, the author reveals the plantings of the troubles which surrounds Pecola. Planting is associated with the season Spring. And the seeds of fear planted by Mrs. Breedlove in Pecola explain all that happens to her. She fears her father so she can't fight back against him. She fears other people so she goes to Soaphead Church to get blue eyes so she will be pretty like the others and have no reason for fear. Given the section's title and the contents, the central idea of this section seems to be that adults will force their hardships and pains on children who aren't aware of how to fight back, as though merely planting an innocent little seed. The above paragraph reveals how Mrs. Breedlove is forcing her pain on her children by pushing fear into them.

My question is how delusional, broken must Pecola seem if Soaphead Church believes she will believe she has blue eyes now?

The Bluest Eye: Spring

“His sexuality was anything but lewd; his patronage of little girls smacked of innocence and was associated in his mind with cleanliness. He was what one might call a very clean old man.”(166)

     This particular passage is taken from the last section of spring in which we as the readers are introduced to a character named Elihue Micah Whitcomb, also known as Soaphead Church. It begins by describing his family history as well as his upbringing which is extremely important in understanding why he has become the horrible person that he is. Having been fortunate enough to come from a “noble” background Soaphead received an excellent education along with a love for the Caucasian race. This follows along with the constant theme throughout the novel that being white is better or more beautiful. It also gives this section a very condescending tone in which a copious amount of difficult language is thrown at the readers. We continue on to learn that most everything that is associated with bodily functions repulses him and ultimately leads him to become a pedophile.

     I feel that this quote is important for many different reasons. First of all it shows us exactly what type of person Soaphead is and how he justifies his horrible assaults against these children. The wording indicates that he thinks it's ok to have sex with little girls because it would be unclean to perform these acts with consenting adults. Judging by the tone of the first sentence and the word "smacked" I am led to assume that these encounters were most likely very violent. I also think the word "innocence" is well used because the only thing that is innocent about these situations are the children. Also by committing these acts he is in fact stealing their innocence away from them. It is ironic that he believes himself to be a "very clean old man" because in fact he is what society would consider an extremely dirty old man.

-Jonathan Virdell

The Bluest Eye: Winter

"Wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away; where it crusts they dissolve it; wherever it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it and fight it until it dies. They fight this battle all the way to the grave." (pg. 83)

When discussing the lifestyles of young women from the surrounding cities of Mobile, Aiken, Meridian, and so on, this statement is made which highlights the ever looming presence of racism in the American south. This metaphor of "funk" more specifically refers to the personality, uniqueness, individuality, and general happiness that American white society prevented blacks from taking part in. In order to peacefully co-exist with the racist whites, African Americans were forced to accept their position as silent wall-flowers. They were to speak only when spoken to, keep their heads down, and always remember to say please and thank you. For those who did not cooperate and let their "funk" show a bit too frequently, the threat of a serious beating, jail-time, or lynching was constantly awaiting their mistake.

What Toni Morrison really wants the reader to take home from this analogy is the life-long internal battle African Americans faced to keep any strong emotions hidden behind neutral eyes. They could never (especially publicly) express their true hatred for their oppressor or severe punishment would surely ensue. This was also true for their moments of greatest success or satisfaction. Racist white society very much disliked the sight of an African American enjoying themselves, and thus a line of insults or swift beating would put them back in their place. These acts of violence and racism I'm referring to don't even scratch the surface of the emotional despair Morrison is attempting to convey, however. It is when a person has internalized this racism and accepted it into their every day lives that it becomes even more damaging. Racism in America forbid blacks from living their lives the way they desired, and with psychological warfare destroyed the minds and emotions of countless African Americans.

Winter, The Bluest Eye

"It wass not long before the child discovered the difference in his mother's behavior to himself and towards the cat. As he grew older, he learned how to direct his hatred of his mother to the cat, and spent some happy moments watching it suffer." (My page numbers are different than everyone else's, so I won't put the page number.)









Morrison has this long, descriptive narrative about a very unhappy woman with no real cause for her unhappiness. Everything in the world has gone right for her, but she just looks at it with a blank expression and moves on to the next thing. She has managed to do this with even the most precious things in life, including her son, but excluding one very fortunate cat. Somewhere in this woman's thoughts, the instructions for raising children and raising animals were mistakenly switched. This child somehow learns to adjust anyways, even without most of the emotional guidance most children need.









Junior, this child, brings to mind the hassle that childhood is in this novel. He can't do anything, and no one is really interested in helping him out. His own mother, who is responsible for this, is useless, but he can't do anything to antagonize his mother, because she'll just punish him. He learns that the only way he's going to get through his early onset angst is to transfer it to something that won't hurt him as badly as his mother. Morrison just seems to have a real thing against childhood, at least in this novel. Being young means being helpless and foolish. It really makes me wonder if it is truly better to be young and innocent and not have a care in the world, or know it all and fear it all and hate it all. It's not really the easiest thing to answer.

And not only that, it makes a point about people. They don't want to acknowledge that they are at fault; they always want someone else to blame. Geraldine blames her people, Junior, the cat.

The Bluest Eye: "Winter"

"They seemed to have taken all of their smoothly cultivated ignorance, their exquisitely learned self-hatred, their elaorately designed hopelessness and sucked it all up into a fiery cone of scorn that had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds-cooled-and spilled over lips of outrage,consuming whatever was in its path." (65)

The context of the quote is taken from the scene where Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson and Junie Bug surround Pecola, taunting her with their song. The thing that struck me with the most shock is Morrison's choice in diction. In her fore thought, Morrison described her intent of the novel was to not only criticize the "smashings" that led to the collapse of a human, but instill a self interrogation in the reader of such habits. Here, Morrison positively describes these habits of ignorance and self-hatred as "smooth" and "exquisitely learned." Since this cone of scorn "had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds," I am led to believe this self hatred began at birth and childhood. Children soak up what is around them as they grow old and these boys were around ignorance and hopelessness. The "cooling" of their minds represents the entrance to adulthood where these characteristics of their childhood are now fully submerged in their being.

Since Morrison used a pleasant description of such hateful characteristics, the reader is forced to look at their own embedded characteristics from childhood rather than feelng pity for the boys.

 I believe the section about Geraldine is very similar to my selected passage. Out of self hatrid, she decided to completely withdraw herself from what she hated most and created the two sub-races of "colored people" and "niggers." She chooses to keep herself as prim and propper as possible and indulge in a life that seems to make her miserable when she has potential to truely have happiness in life. Even though she is married to a man because of security instead of love, she clings to her "nest" in every way possible. By giving Geraldine these qualities, Morrison forces the reader to wonder about our own priorities instead of pitying Geraldines' choices.

The Bluest Eye: Winter

"We looked into the living-room window, expecting to see Mama. Instead we saw Mr. Henry and two women. In a playful manner, the way grandmothers do with babies, he was sucking the fingers of one of the women, whose laughter filled a tiny place over his head. he other woman was buttoning her coat. We knew immediately who they were, and our flesh crawled.One was China, and the other was called the Maginot Line. The back of my neck itched. These were the fancy women of the maroon nail polish that Mama and Big Mama hated. And in our house." (pg. 77)

Claudia, Pecola, and Freida arrive home after being sent out for ice cream by Mr. Henry, their boarder. Mr. Henry seemed to be nice by paying for treats for the girls, but in actuality, he just wanted them to leave. Mr. Henry knew that the children's mother wouldn't be home any time soon. Mr. Henry just wanted to be alone at the house; or so we think. Apparently Mr. Henry hired one of the prostitutes from above Pecola's home. Mr. Henry had also hired the Maginot Line. It's obvious to the audience what was going on while the girls were out. But as narrated, the girls had no clue. All they knew was two women their mother did not like were over at the house with Mr. Henry. The girls decide not to tell Mama because they are afraid of her becoming mad and punishing them.

I believe that this is a insight into the personality and actions of Mr. Henry. This is the first time Mr. Henry has truly been brought up as a relative character in the novel. Obviously boarding with the MacTeers holds a considerable impact on each of the girl's childhood. The children did absolutely nothing about having two prostitutes with a man in their house. On that note, I think that the three girls' non-response shows their innocence towards grown-ups' actions in general.

Q: Are the girls so afraid of their mother that they wouldn't tell on Mr. Henry, or is it because Mr. Henry gave them money for ice-cream they hadn't gotten from Maureen?