The Bluest Eye: Winter

"He laughed the grown-up getting ready-to-lie laugh. A heh-heh we knew well." (78)

I think that these sentences point at one of the major themes of the novel: the adults/children relationships. It shows the gap between the adult (Mr Henry) and the children (Claudia and Frieda). I asked myself why he lies to them. I can see two possible answers: either because he is ashamed of his behavior, ashamed of having anything to do with prostitutes, therefore he wants to keep that secret; or, because he wants to protect the little girls' innocence, to protect them from the reality of life: a man's physical/sexual instinct can be stronger than his morality. I don't think that one of the answers is the good one, it is probably rather a combination of the two. However, in this passage, the author shows that the girls are not gullible, they understand the situation.

Anyway, I think that what Toni Morrison wants to show here is that there is a gap between children and adults. It is indeed common behavior for an adult to lie to a child. Adults lie to children either because they want to protect them, or because they think that children are not capable of understanding the truth. Both raise questions concerning a child's innocence: How can an adult best protect a child? By hiding the truth so that the child can enjoy a carefree childhood? Or by telling the truth so that the child can become aware of the world they live in? Who can tell when a child becomes an adult? What is it that shows that a child is ready to be told the truth? I think that this passage is important as it deals with the major theme of adults/children relationships (as I wrote at the beginning), but more precisely, with the themes of childhood, innocence and protection, and the influence of adults over children.


About the whole Winter section, I wondered, like Patrick, what the role of the Geraldine section is (is it here to show that racism is not only betwen Black and White people? Or is it linked more directly to the rest of the story/plot?)