❤❤❤ Analysis Of Tough Love In The Bluest Eye
In particular, the school highlighted the fact that the book contains "a description Edward Kennedy Confirmation Reflection a father raping his daughter. Similar to what happened to Chris. Analysis Of Tough Love In The Bluest Eye reader hears nothing more of Cholly except that he left, and perhaps before he left, he raped his daughter a second time, and then that Probable Cause In Criminal Law died in a work camp. Kochar argues that to comprehend the complex violence inflicted on Pecola, one must analyze the novel through the Marxist Baz Luhrmann The Great Gatsby Comparison Feminist lens in addition to the psychoanalytical lens. Claudia senses that what happens to Pecola has happened on a symbolic level to all the African American children of her community. The most brilliant controversial works of art are often banned and kept hidden from the lives of young children, adolescences and sometimes Analysis Of Tough Love In The Bluest Eye. Topics for Further Study. In some way. Pecola is a quiet, passive young girl who grows up with little money and whose parents are constantly fighting, John Rawls: A Theory Of Justice verbally and physically.
13. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Dick and Jane novels were popular in the midth century, and Morrison includes references to their titles in The Bluest Eye. They promoted the importance of the nuclear family and helped to foster literacy in young children as well. Morrison presents a more critical view of the novel's family standards. Morrison's graphic storytelling within The Bluest Eye challenged existing attitudes about keeping children's literature free of sex and violence.
The lifestyle standards found in Dick and Jane were not achievable for many children who shared backgrounds similar to Pecola. Debra Werrlein, professor at George Mason University , contends that the excerpts of "Dick and Jane" throughout the book project an image of an ideal family that contrasts with the family structures of the main characters. However, as Werrlein points out, the whiteness of these characters stood to represent the ideal American family. In addition, the string of letters describing Dick and Jane's perfect parents as strong and kind are used to contrast Pecola's parents in the novel. Pecola's father is thus emasculated, Werrlein argues, because his behavior deviates from this standard for American family life.
Thus, racism is a prevalent factor in their broken homes. Bump asserts that the novel reveals the belief that the outside of people ultimately reflects their character and personality. This belief compromises people's judgement and they act upon internal bias. Literary critic Lynn Scott argues that the constant images of whiteness in The Bluest Eye serve to represent society's perception of beauty, which ultimately proves to have destructive consequences for many of the characters in the novel. Harihar Kulkarni, an author of a book on African-American feminist fiction literature, recognizes that these Euro-centric ideals of family and beauty present in The Bluest Eye are shown to be transferred generationally, often between female relationships.
Critic Allen Alexander argues that religion is an important theme in The Bluest Eye , since Morrison's work possesses a "fourth face" outside of the Christian Trinity , which represents "the existence of evil, the suffering of the innocent. He further argues that much of Pecola's story suggests the insufficiency of Christian beliefs for minorities who exist in a predominantly white society. Alexander suggests that the image of a more human God represents a traditional African view of deities, better suiting the lives of the African-American characters.
Kuenz shows that Claudia conforms to what white society expects of her, as her affinity for Shirley Temple and other manifestations of whiteness illustrates the influence of the power of mass media. Kochar argues that to comprehend the complex violence inflicted on Pecola, one must analyze the novel through the Marxist and Feminist lens in addition to the psychoanalytical lens. Brooks Bouson, English professor at Loyola University Chicago , claims that The Bluest Eye is a "shame drama and trauma narrative," that uses Pecola and its other characters to examine how people respond to shame. However, most characters in the novel pass on their shame to someone below them on the social and racial ladder.
Bouson suggests that all of the African-American characters in The Bluest Eye exhibit shame, and eventually much of this shame is passed onto Pecola, who is at the bottom of the racial and social ladder. Morrison's novel confronts self-hatred and destructive behaviors black women participate in to fit into the hegemonic image of beauty and whiteness. He claims that Morrison presents an "inverted world," entirely opposite from the Dick and Jane story that is at the beginning of the novel. He goes on to identify how each of the characters are broken personally, since Cholly's former and present life is described as chaotic and jumbled, and Pauline both is responsible for her biological family as well as the white family she works for.
The epitome of this, Page argues, is seen in Pecola at the end of the novel. The events of her life, having broken parents in a broken family, have resulted in a totally fractured personality which drives Pecola into madness. Toni Morrison's work The Bluest Eye breaks the long tradition of narratives that discuss the hardships of war and depression in the s, as she brings forth a unique and untold point of view in American historical fiction. The exercise is also critical for any person who is black, or who belongs to any marginalized category, for, historically, we were seldom invited to participate in the discourse even when we were its topic.
As the Civil Rights Movement began to decline in favor of conservative ideals and white power, American culture soon fostered a national identity that excluded anyone who was not white. The well-read, race-obsessed Soaphead Church in The Bluest Eye is the inevitable product of these theories. Pecola exists only in the image reflected by the Other. The points of view in the novel are also significant to its unique style. Morrison combines many narratives: two perspectives of Claudia at different times in her life, as well as an omniscient third person who connects the many tragedies of the characters.
The novel received minimal critical attention when first published; however, it was placed on many university reading lists in black-studies departments, which promoted further recognition. African-American critic Ruby Dee wrote, "Toni Morrison has not written a story really, but a series of painfully accurate impressions. Critics picked up on Morrison's shortcomings as a first time published author. A common critique of her writing included her language in the novel, as it was often viewed as being made too simple for the reader. Within classrooms across the country, educators also disagreed over whether or not the novel was appropriate for children. After reading the book, I had a student who said that she is the product of incest. As time passed, more reviews and analyses were written in praise of Morrison's writing of the "colonization of the mind," her critique of white versus black beauty standards, and even began to analyze her use of simplistic language, calling it a stylistic choice rather than a pitfall of the novel.
The Bluest Eye has frequently landed on American Library Association 's ALA list of most challenged books because it contains offensive language, sexually explicit material, and controversial issues, as well as depicting child sexual abuse and being unsuited for the age group. She brought The Bluest Eye and four other books to the attention of the Montgomery County school board, describing The Bluest Eye and others as "lewd, adult books.
Schwalm argued for the removal of the book from the syllabus because she deemed them to be "at odds with the character education programme" promoted within the schools. The passage in question featured Soaphead Church and presented pedophelia and child molesting, leading to Schwalm's objections to its presence in schools. The book, however, was not removed from the curriculum as Schwalm's objections were not upheld in court. In March , The Bluest Eye was successfully banned from Baker High School language arts program in Baker City, Oregon after multiple complaints from parents about the content of the book. Later, the book was banned for being "sexually explicit," "unsuited for age group," and containing "controversial issues. In , parents of students at Stevens High School in Claremont, New Hampshire , objected to the book's being assigned to lower grade levels.
As a result, the school decided to remove the book from freshmen and sophomore reading lists, and deemed that the novel was only "suitable" for juniors and seniors. In August in Littleton, Colorado , the Littleton school board voted to ban The Bluest Eye from reading lists, where it was listed as optional, and remove it from the libraries of the Heritage and Arapahoe high schools, despite the recommendation of a committee that the book be restricted to juniors and seniors. The ban was enacted in response to a complaint received by a parent of a ninth-grader student who was on the board and who took issue with the novel's sexual content, specifically the scene of Pecola's rape. Students protested the ban by reading passages from the book in their school libraries.
In response to the ban, Camille Okoren, a student attending the sit-in acknowledged that "students hear about rape and incest in the news media. It's better to learn about those subjects from a Nobel Prize winner The National Coalition Against Censorship published a letter in response to the criticism, claiming that the scenes which involve sex "represent small but essential parts of the novels, consistent with the kind of material that high school students frequently read. Despite controversy, the curriculum was in fact approved in a 5-to-2 decision by the Howell School Board. Attorney confirmed that no laws, state or federal, had been broken by including the selected books in the curriculum.
Since the case, the books have been included in 11th grade advanced English curriculum. In , a group of parents challenged The Bluest Eye's inclusion in Legacy High School 's AP English curriculum due to the book's sexual content and "subject matter" of a girl getting raped by her father. In response to the challenge, Legacy High School student Bailey Cross created a petition to maintain the book in the curriculum, and expressed the importance of retaining the book because "Banning and censoring this tells students that This book was listed as recommended reading in the state's Common Core standards, but was challenged at the state's Board of Education, with teachers pushing to ban it from the classroom due to its explicit content.
Copyrights The Bluest Eye from Gale. All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. Get The Bluest Eye from Amazon. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Author Biography. Plot Summary. Here Is The House Here Is The Family SeeThe Cat See Mother See Father SeeThe Dog The girls admire her light skin and social status, and they are jealous of both. Sadly, Maureen uses what they admire against them, she even taunts Picola with Bluest Eye study guide contains a biography of Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
Bluest Eye literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Bluest Eye. Remember me. Forgot your password?
Pecola is first portrayed as she is seen by Claudia when she comes to live with the MacTeers as a "case" for charity. Sign Up. Email required Anthem, By Ayn Rand: Dystopian Movies And Film never made public. Open Document. Throughout the story, the black girl goes deeper and deeper into a world of phantasm, rejecting the real world as a romeo and juliet act 1 of the threatening circumstances of her Benefits Of Digital Advertising. Share this: Twitter Facebook.