The Bluest Eye - 1276 Words

Michael Williams Professor Henderson English 1B Sept. 28, 2011 The Males of The Bluest Eye Finding good qualities in any of the men of The Bluest Eye are hard to come by. There are many factors that come into play that have shaped the personalities of all of these males. The female characters in the novel endured a lot in coping with the males. Toni Morrison does an exceptional job of painting a vivid picture of the social climate of America in the 1960’s and society’s affects on the people of The Bluest Eye. In a variety of ways, the males of The Bluest Eye have many issues in their past that cause them to act very callous, immoral and bring a lot of anguish to those around them. Even though some of the males played†¦show more content†¦Cholly’s great aunt, Aunt Jimmy, saw her niece carrying a bumdle out of the back door and rescued him. Aunt Jimmy whipped his mother with a razor strap and would not let her near Cholly. Cholly’s mother ran off soon after she was beaten by Aunt Jimmy, never to be seen again. Aunt Jimmy raised Chol ly herself, but she took every opportunity to remind Cholly that she saved his life. Cholly attempted to find his father after Aunt Jimmy passed away. However, just like his father, Cholly was running away from a situation that he helped create. Cholly thought that he might have impregnated Darlene, the girl he shared his first sexual experience. â€Å"It had occurred to him that Darlene might be pregnant. It was a wildly irrational, completely uninformed idea, but the fear it produced was complete enough.† (Pg. 151) Cholly remembered Aunt Jimmy told him that his father ran off to Macon, Georgia before he was born. Off Cholly went to Macon to find his father. He was successful. But the encounter was not what Cholly had envisioned. Upon confronting his father, Cholly was faced with rejection. â€Å"Tell that bitch she get her money. Now, get the fuck outta my face.!† (pg. 156) These experiences and more are what ultimately led up to his most disturbing act against his own daughter. On a Saturday afternoon in the spring, Cholly comes home drunk and sees Pecola in the kitchen washing dishes. Upon seeingShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye Analysis921 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Bluest Eye† â€Å"The Bluest Eye† by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl immersed in poverty and made â€Å"ugly† by the Society of the early 1940’s that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley Temple. The novel opens in the fall of 1941, just after the Great Depression, in Lorain, Ohio. Nine-year-old ClaudiaRead MoreEssay on Bluest eye1102 Words   |  5 Pages Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, presents the lives of several impoverished black families in the 1940’s in a rather unconventional and painful manner. Ms. Morrison leads the reader through the lives of select children and adults, describing a few powerful incidents, thoughts and experiences that lend insight into the motivation and. behavior of these characters. In a somewhat unconventional manner, the young lives of Pauline Williams Breedlove and Charles (Cholly) Breedlove are presentedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Bluest Eye 818 Words   |  4 PagesIn The Bluest Eye, Pecola the protagonist is taken under the Macteer family’s wing much like â€Å"The African family is community-based and the nurturing quality is not contained within the nuclear family, but is rather the responsibility of the entire community† (Ranstrà ¶m). In traditional Africa each child has a place and is welcome in the community. The act of parenting another child was not odd because every adult that lived in each community believed that any child is welcome in anyone’s home. ThisRead MoreEssay On The Bluest Eye1562 Words   |  7 PagesHowever, in the book, â€Å"The Bluest Eye† by Toni Morrison, they live up to their reputations for how they view themselves. Specifically, being focused on women like Pecola, and Claudia. They are often questioning their worth from society’s judgement of beauty. Though one character, Frieda embraces it despite being black. With having everything temporary, the desire of grasping and having something permanent increases. The women desires to be of a lighter skin tone with blue eyes, but will being privilegedRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1587 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"We were born to die and we die to live.† Toni Morrison correlates to Nelson’s quote in her Nobel Lecture of 1993, â€Å"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.† In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she uses language to examine the concepts of racism, lack of self-identity, gender roles, and socioeconomic hardships as they factor into a misinterpretation of the American Dream. Morrison illustrates problems that these issues provoke throughRead MoreThe Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye1317 Words   |  6 Pages The Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye nbsp; Morrison has divided her portrayal of a fictional town of blacks, which suffers from alienation and subjugation, into four seasons.nbsp; I believe that her underlying message is to illustrate the reality of lifes travails: the certain rhythms of blessings and tragedies.nbsp; Some blacks understand and acccept this philosophy and Morrisons use of the seasons portrays and echoes the bible verse, To every thing there is a season, andRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1598 Words   |  7 Pages in The Bluest Eye, racism has been approached in a very exceptional way. The characters in Morrison’s novel are subjected to adopt a set of values that are separated by the complexion of their skin. The black community in the novel has accepted white standards of beauty, judging Maureen’s light frail skin to be beautiful and that of Pecola’s dark skin to be ugly. These standards arise to Pecola’s desire to have â€Å"the bluest eyes.†. During the 1940’s, Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye examinesRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison992 Words   |  4 PagesSet in the 1940s, during the Great Depression, the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, illustrates in the inner struggles of African-American criticism. The Breedloves, the family the story revolves around a poor, black and ugly family. They live in a two-room store front, which is open, showing that they have nothing. In the family there is a girl named Pecola Breedlove, she is a black and thinks that she is ugly because she is not white. Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, goes through humiliatedRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1198 Words   |  5 PagesThe Bluest Eye In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison brings to light the often unrecognized struggle that many people in the black community face. She exposes the â€Å"whitewashing† that has been prevalent in society for decades and the societal imposition of impossible beauty standards. Morrison uses the book to show us the psychological tolls on children and adults that stem from these unattainable goals. Children, like Pecola Breedlove, are so indoctrinated by society and the quest for superficial â€Å"perfection†Read MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesblack/whiteness. Specifically, white people were positioned at the upper part of the hierarchy, whereas, African Americans were inferior. Consequently, white people were able to control and dictate to the standards of beauty. In her novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and ideals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the differen t characters. With the juxtaposition of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove, who naively conforms to