✍️✍️✍️ Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved

Colored Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved To the author's credit, she's very Importance Of Books In Fahrenheit 451 at getting her audience's attention even from the very first chapter, and she knows how to turn anything she creates into poetry. Then, he was raised by Health Quality Improvement Programs brother. Sh Abdul Rehman can also advice you in all your problems which prove to be difficult, Business Difficulties, Love, Marriage or Relations Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved, or your Loved One has left you or Separated from you without giving any reason. And so on. American Counseling Association (AMHCA) there must have been a speck, a brown speck easily mistaken for food but which did benefits of drinking milk leave, which sat on the enamel for months, and grew, until it Personal Narrative: Moving To Idaho Bear Cages into the surface and then to the brown putty underneath, Parenting Education In Utopia eating away to the root, but avoiding the nerves, so its presence was not noticeable or uncomfortable.

Scarification and Collective Sympathy: An Analysis of Rememory in Toni Morrison's Beloved

It is a story of oppression, of hatred, of justified rage and passionate fury fighting against discrimination both big and small, both intentional and otherwise. If you come away from this review with one thing, know that large scale oppression, this horrible racism in the "land of the free" depicted in this book has existed, does exist, and will most certainly exist for a long, long while. Martin Luther King, Jr. Trayvon Martin. Facts and faces that may be forgotten or even denied, but the ideology that connects them all will always be rooted out by the plain evidence of its existence. Every character has some measure of this rage, and every character is given their say in some fashion, fashions that often clash and bite and break the others around them.

If the road to hell is paved with Good Intentions, the road to hell on earth is a yellow bricked road bounded on both sides by long sparkling walls of Indifference. Indifference is neither black nor white, neither good nor evil, and each of the characters illustrate this innate resistance to quick and easy pigeon-holing. At first you will love them, or you will hate them, and then the tables will switch, and you will be left with the unsatisfying satisfaction of reading about human beings.

Unsatisfied satisfaction. Feeling that one is straddling two worlds due to the color of one's skin, when in reality just stuck in one really fucked up one that makes progress a constant battle. Us versus them. The only guarantee is that a single step out of line will explode into violence. What can you do with this? What is a human being expected to do with this horrible paradox that is real life? This story poses the question to a boy-child who reaches and then passes the age of thirty in a safe, contained bubble, his head filled with safe, contained problems. He has no awareness of the context of his life, the family that surrounds him, the history that follows him, the society that defines him.

He has long forgotten his dreams of flying. We've all forgotten our dreams of flying, you say. Perhaps, I say. Would you like to be reminded? May 15, Reggie rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , favorites. In a criminal amount of oversimplification I will simply say that Song of Solomon is a perfect novel that has reached a higher level of perfection in my mind during this reread. I'm not sure how many more years of reading I have left, but I'm sure it will take a long time for me to read any work of literature that is better than this.

I'll post some specfic thoughts soon, but in the mean time, my thoughts from my initial read in February of is below. View 2 comments. Apr 28, Meike rated it liked it Shelves: read , usa. Milkman, the great-grandson of Solomon, leaves Michigan in search of the gold his father and aunt Pilate once left behind in a cage in Pennsylvania. At the beginning, he displays an attitude similar to his father, a heightened individualism that strives for personal gain and uses others. Milkman has no deep emotional connection to his family and friends, and no spiritual connection to nature and the land like his great-grandfather and grandfather. And the dead you kill is yours. They stay with you anyway, in your mind.

That way it frees up your mind. Just like in the case of the men, Morrison incorporates different worldviews and behavioral patterns when facing adversity, thus showing the broadness of the black experience. Still: There are many authors who have gotten the Nobel and it makes you wonder why they were chosen — not in the case of Morrison. She is simply an amazing, highly gifted writer. Song of Solomon is a gorgeous work of fiction and a masterpiece of storytelling. Not as dark as her first two books, The Bluest Eye , Sula , it is more upbeat, but every bit as complex and rewarding. The leitmotif here is the stripping of layers from childhood mythology to reality as Milkman, the protagonist goes on a psychological journey to discover himself and understand where his family came from.

The story takes place in an unnamed town probably Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Song of Solomon is a gorgeous work of fiction and a masterpiece of storytelling. The story takes place in an unnamed town probably Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as we learn from the first sentence: The North Caroline Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o'clock. Ruth and Macon are a rather unhappy couple: she is eccentric and nagging, he is overbearing and severe. Their children Magdelena called Lena and Corinthians chosen at random by opening a Bible and later Milkman a nickname he earns because his mother nurses him way past his weaning and is caught in the act by the village gossip, Freddie.

She walks down to the shore of the lake and gets some driftwood which she uses to decorate the table which is ignored by her husband. Ruth let the seawood disintegrate, and later, when its veins and stems dropped and curled into brown scabs on the table, she removed the bowl and brushed away the scabs. But the water mark, hidden by the bowl all these years, was exposed. On the less privileged side of town because Macon is rather well-off, living off of the rent of several buildings in various parts of the city , lives Pilate, her daughter Reba, and her daughter Hagar.

Milkman ignores a restriction from visiting the house and meets his aunt, eventually having a long-term relationship with his cousin, Hagar. The house, for a time is a haven for him: Near the window, hidden by the dark, he felt the irritability of the day drain from him and relished the effortless beauty of the women singing in the candlelight. Unfortunately, he is a bit maladroit and ends up peeing on his sister Magdalene's dress: He didn't mean it. It happened before he was through It was becoming a habit-this concentration on things behind him.

Almost as though there were no future to be had. And indeed, this lack of future drives Milkman throughout the book. Milkman's family name, Dead is also highly symbolic and the result of a mistake at the Freedman's Bureau following the Civil War. And he took it. Like a fuckin sheep. Somebody should have shot him. He was already Dead. That is one of the typical dialogs betweem Milkman and his best friend Guitar. The book does educate on various aspects of life for ex-slaces, how they got their names, the dangers of moving north and the racism they encountered there.

The action in the novel picks up when Milkman breaks up with Hagar sending her into a murderous, self-destructive rage. We also learn of Guitar's involvement with an underground circle of men that take revenge for murders of black people by white vigilantes who get away with it in otherwords, all of them. The book at this point after page 99 is a real page-turner as Milkman learns more and more about his past, Hagar slips further and further into insanity, and Guitar turns on his friend also in a homicidal rage over a misunderstanding. The book has some great opening lines for chapters, my favorite was this one for Chapter 7: Truly landlocked people know they are. Know the occasional Bitter Creek or Powder River that runs through Wyoming; the large tidy Salt Lake of Utah is all they have of the sea and that they must content themselves with bank , shore , and beach because they cannot claim a coast.

And, having none, seldom dream of flight. As fleet and bright as a lodestar he wheeled toward Guitar and it did not matter which one of them would give up his ghost in the killing arms of his brother. For now he knew what Shalimar knew: if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. Mar 11, B. Rinehart rated it it was amazing Shelves: modernism-and-post-modernism-stuff , un-decade-african-descent , favorites. Though she's dead what's important is that we still have her books, her words, and the site of her memory. I read this book back in and she immediately became an old friend. Not one for modesty, her work is an authentic and commanding portrait of human life. This book in particular was my world and my grandfather's world recreated on the page in a way that few if any writers I've read has ever done.

Well--on y va! We learn about three to four generations of one family and, in-fact, one culture. I won't be beating around the bush in this review. The Dead family as a whole seems like an interesting archetype or counterpoint of The Sutpen family of Absalom, Absalom! This book shows a good example of Faulknerianism played straight and subverted in the hands of a Black writer. To be short: this is a great Black Southern Gothic novel. But that leads to talking about the greatest character of this novel Morrison took me places that I had not realized I needed to go. Even my animosity to the main character did not hurt this book to me because it did everything so well.

The chapters divided the story so well, I can only think of The Brothers Karamazov doing it better. The reason this book has struck me so well is how personal it is to African-American experience. This book alludes to White people and White supremacy, but you will be hard pressed to find a White person in it, much less with even a speaking line I think a white nurse from the beginning is all we are told in pages. This is the first book I have read in a long time written by Black hands only concerning Black people on their own terms this is not accidental and it is refreshing! I can hear the true cadence of how my family talks to one another and the number of cultural references and inside jokes were amazing and I would be amazed if most non-African-Americans can pick it up.

This book was written to a specific audience much of the small things in it go unexplained and I was surprised to see it all there. This more than anything will make me have to read Morrison again. I believe the only other Black writer to come close is James Baldwin in Go Tell It on the Mountain , but even he had to start "explaining" things that he would not have to do for a strictly African-American audience.

Names play a pivotal role in this story. Every significant character is given a symbolic name or nickname which is symbolic of how names play a role in African-American life. As is the truth in reality, if you are given a nickname it is rarely for a positive reason. This is taken further in that even the "real" names in this book are acquired in very unusual or strange ways. The locations of this story, particularly in the second half of the novel, are also very special to me as it shows the history of Black people's journey in-country. Though the story's main setting is Michigan, Milkman's " Roots " journey leads him not simply through a different land the mid-Atlantic and eventually the origin of African- Americans: Virginia , but literally in the magical realist sense back in time.

He goes back to his father and grandfather's time in Pennsylvania, but more importantly to me is that he went to central Virginia. When he talks about his journey into Virginia it hits me personally because my mother's family is from this land. I can see the landscape and almost the roads and shops of this area and I knew exactly what the climate was. This was another crucial factor in my reading this book—it is about the land of my ancestors as much as it is about the land of Milkman's ancestors.

The Southern Gothic nature of the novel is also worth talking about. Morrison is as much a fan of Faulkner as she is critic. This book takes the haunted nature of gothic fiction and manages to put it in an urban, mid-western environment. The city of Mercy, Michigan is as much haunted by slavery and its legacy as Jefferson, Mississippi. The difference is that the stakes are a lot higher and the fallout more severe for the Black inhabitants in Morrison's universe versus the White inhabitants of Faulkner's. To conclude, if you want to read a story about one man's search for his place in the world in the middle of the 20th century, this is your book.

Seems I would be fined if I did not mention that somewhere. It was a very well used trope. Jan 11, brian rated it really liked it Recommended to brian by: michelle, mindy, sandi, jessica treat, dfj, yvette, ruth, alisa,. View all 90 comments. Toni Morrison is perhaps the most important writer living today and Song of Solomon is perhaps the best novel of the last 50 years of American life. Despite the high standing of both novel and author, there are many that chide both for delving too far into the world of African American mythology.

The book, according to a reviewer on this very website, bitterly states that Song of Solomon is more fable than novel. Attempting to paint the novel as fable undercuts its central mission: to highlight Toni Morrison is perhaps the most important writer living today and Song of Solomon is perhaps the best novel of the last 50 years of American life. Attempting to paint the novel as fable undercuts its central mission: to highlight the important role of mythology in linking African Americans to their past by creating narratives for those that were lost during slavery, Jim Crow, and black peril.

The novel is not fable, but the recreation and reconnection of Milkman, symbolic of his own community, reconnecting with a lost past. The gaffe by the reviewers is understandable, however, as mythology has lost credibility due to the ferocious rise of science. Morrison, quite rightly, attempts to delve into mythology to try to answer pertient questions about Black history. Much of the mythology in Song of Solomon revolves around flight. For hundreds of years, there has been a belief among the Black community that people of color could fly; that is was one their gifts.

While for residents of the scientific age people flying seems trite, for Morrison and other people of color the ability to fly seems only natural. The difference in the thought processes is derived from educational differences. European education has tended to focus on empirical science while African education has tended to focus on familial values and cultural learning. African education seeks to reunite the learner with the etymology of self while European education seeks some broad sort of social literacy engulfed in intimately knowing "other.

It is only when he begins to seek out, understand, and embrace the mythology of his race and the roots planted by previous generations that he is able to connect, for the first time, with his community and experience that sort of bond that mythology can bring. This connection with the past and the necessity of finding one's own story is as important a theme as one could imagine, especially in an era where sameness, conformity, and the idea of the ethnic "mutt" have won some sort of cultural acceptance. It is that theme--one of a resurrected connection with the past--that makes Morrison's novel of the utmost importance.

We must all connect back to our mythology and begin to understand the language of previous generations in order to benefit ourselves. Apr 10, Read By RodKelly rated it it was amazing. Song of Solomon is the most brilliant novel ever written. Written chronologically, from the perspective of one character, Macon "Milkman" Dead, SoS is, on the surface, a perfect bildungsroman; our hero grows up and encounters difficulties that ultimately leave him at a crux where he must go on Song of Solomon is the most brilliant novel ever written. Written chronologically, from the perspective of one character, Macon "Milkman" Dead, SoS is, on the surface, a perfect bildungsroman; our hero grows up and encounters difficulties that ultimately leave him at a crux where he must go on a quest to empower, embolden, and strengthen his resolve, maturing him into manhood and true understanding of who he is in the world.

In Milkman's world, however, things aren't so simple and predicable. Part 1 is a brilliant but straightforward telling of our main character's life up to a certain point. But by Part 2, it becomes clear that the novel is more deeply concerned with history, about roots, about inheritance, reclamation of names, and the transcendence of earthly wealth for the wealth of truly knowing one's self. There is much concern with the idea of flight: Milkman is a man stuck and yearning for escape from the emptiness and stagnancy of his current reality but is continually mired in both ignorance and indifference to everything and everyone around him. When he finally wakes up and decides to be a man, he goes on a literal quest to find gold, but winds up tracking his forefathers, gaining clarity about who he is and ultimately finding the key to true flight.

It is the last third of the novel that gives me chills every time I read it. Morrison offers no explanations for her nebulous symbolism throughout the novel, but it is in this last section that the symbols and themes begin to offer a clear way into the story Special mention to the Solomon of the title, who's song and history, in the context of the novel, is impactful and emotionally affecting in a way that is indescribable. He represents, for me, the lost great x10 grandfather of all of us black people, cut off from history because of slavery and this country's love of historical and cultural erasure. He is that lost ancestor who's song was the only possession he had to hand down, who song is the only way we have to tell our own stories View all 3 comments.

Song of Solomon is a timeless classic and coming-of-age tale as told as only Toni Morrison can do in this moving and lyrical novel. I was so moved by the author's Forward to the book where she talks about the death of her father stressing that even in the grip of the unmanageable sadness and grief, that each of his four children was convinced that he loved him or her best by the gifts he shared with each throughout their lives, and how he spoke to each in the language only they understood. Toni Song of Solomon is a timeless classic and coming-of-age tale as told as only Toni Morrison can do in this moving and lyrical novel.

Toni Morrison says it best: "But it was the death of that girl--the one who lived in his head--that I mourned when he died. Even more than I mourned him, I suffered the loss of the person he thought I was, I think it was because I felt closer to him than to myself that, after his death, I deliberately sought his advice for writing the novel that continued to elude me. Whatever it is called--muse, insight, inspiration, 'the dark finger that guides,' 'bright angel'--it exists and, in many forms, I have trusted it ever since. Morrison tells us how she was guided to write this stunning novel from a male perspective. What I found magnificent was the use of flight throughout the novel, sometimes in a mythical and magical way, other times metaphorical. Following Macon "Milkman" Dead as he explores the roots of his family and how that history has impacted him was a lovely novel with beautiful and lyrical writing by one of our best contemporary authors.

Oct 08, Zanna rated it it was amazing Shelves: feminism , mab , bechdel-pass. Milkman's father, the man with the weird name and mysterious past, teaches his son to 'own things'. His sister is 'wild', she inhabits the opposite pole. Ownership does not occur to her. When a kind woman brings her cherry jam on white bread, she weeps because the fruit she loves for the taste of sun and earth exploding, the feel of stalk and stone and bark-scraped knees, has lost these elements that forge the relationships between self and world and being that have nothing to do with property, Milkman's father, the man with the weird name and mysterious past, teaches his son to 'own things'. When a kind woman brings her cherry jam on white bread, she weeps because the fruit she loves for the taste of sun and earth exploding, the feel of stalk and stone and bark-scraped knees, has lost these elements that forge the relationships between self and world and being that have nothing to do with property, lines of nourishment and communication.

Lost those routes to ecstasy, and been, in a way, poisoned by sugar, the white addiction for which women and men were kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic to cut cane in stolen fields. Own things! But Milkman has always had pleasant things for his use, unlike his friend Guitar, who longs for them. Instead of such things, he yearns for freedom of movement; for cars and trains and boats to carry him away, and for power over people. Both of them know they can seek these ends through money. Their desire burns so brightly they forget to be just, to be kind. In Toni Morrison's books pain is powerful and histories bend hearts.

What grows must grow from poisoned soil, reaching for healing in the sun if it can. She peels back skin to show us the potentialities lurking in the root. What will flower out of this? What will fruit? Like slow saplings or sudden briars the shoots of her stories unwind, organic, uncontrollable, smelling of the earth, rank and sweet. I love this as a story of love both destructive and creative and for its mood and structure, cyclic and fluid rather than linear and climactic. I noticed that action initiated by men is often diffused by women, and when this does not happen there is a dangerous escalation of physical or emotional violence, though this is a severe simplification. The atmosphere reminded me very much of Katharine Mansfield's stories.

This tale is sometimes like a mystery, signed with foreshadowings, flavoured with interludes of anguished self-reflection, male psyches working their half-conscious preoccupations, changing in the unexpected light of their encounters. That Milkman's materialist quest leads him to its spiritual pretext is a fabular gift; how often is someone lucky enough to find what they need when they pursue what they want? Can I allow myself to believe that this doesn't only happen in tales? Mystery, fable, and also ghost story, for here the dead speak. Morrison tells us in the foreword that it was inspired by her own dead father's unexpectedly active presence in her life.

She invites us to hear our dead, and work to fathom their words, however strange. View all 18 comments. Jul 22, Rich rated it liked it. I would like to have given a lower rating because I simply did not enjoy the read, but there is a value to this book that I cannot deny. Powerfully written, and has great cultural insight and thought. But really, I couldn't relate very well -- perhaps that is the point in many cases.

I can't explain it much better without spending more time looking at it again than I'd like to, so I'll leave it at this: I felt enlightened. I felt like shit. All without feeling very invested. She is quickly banished by his kingly father, who believes his sister has hidden stolen wealth in her home on the shameful side of the tracks. It makes for a gripping tale, one that Morrison has made relevant to the time period and to all time: Women and children, left behind, grappling with the reality of flown fathers and lovers; women of wisdom whose life-choices are slim to nothing; coldblooded revenges that turn inward, sickening the perpetrators; true names that lie unrecorded— suppressed under wrested, false power.

I'm really surprised and relieved that my first Toni Morrison was a huge success. I had assumed that her books would be too dark for me and I think some of them might be , but SOS turned out to be just the right book for me. This novel has a parcel of amazingly odd characters who you want to hear more and more about. I would classify this as magical realism because the idea of magic hovers all throughout this text. The main p This is the first 5 star read of the year that wasn't a reread! The main plot of this novel is a search to understand one's heritage, but the joy I found whilst reading this came from the succinct, yet poetical writing style and those unique characters.

This makes me consider reading all of her novels in and so eager to read the two other Morrisons I have on my shelves this year. Now in his thirties, he discovers a truth about his family history and embarks on a road trip that will change everything he knows about himself. Song of Solomon is Toni Morrison's first attempt to write from a male protagonist's point of view. Though Milkman is our main character, which becomes more apparent in the second half of the novel, the joy of SOS is learning about the lives of Milkman's family. There are many strong, flawed female characters to connect with and fascinate the reader. This delving into the lives of all the characters is why I love SOS. Pilate, First Corinthians, Ruth, Hagar Throughout this novel is the image of flight, beginning with a scene in which a man wearing blue silk wings jumps from the roof of a building to his death.

Hearkening back to the legend of Africans who literally fly away to escape slavery, this is just one element of magical realism that permeates to story of the Dead family. SOS remains my favorite Morrison, and I look forward to rereading it again and again. View all 5 comments. This was my first experience with Toni Morrison's writing and it was probably not the usual entry point, most people seeming to start with Beloved or The Bluest Eye.

However, for me it ended up being an enjoyable if slightly perplexing introduction. I found Song of Solomon more accessible than I had anticipated and I had a cracking good time reading it for the most part. The characters and dialogue really sing ; and there are some startlingly good set pieces that are emblazoned in my memo This was my first experience with Toni Morrison's writing and it was probably not the usual entry point, most people seeming to start with Beloved or The Bluest Eye.

The characters and dialogue really sing ; and there are some startlingly good set pieces that are emblazoned in my memory. The section in which Milkman approaches the abandoned Butler house and subsequently meets with Circe is a standout. Four graceful columns supported the portico, and the huge double door featured a heavy, brass knocker. He lifted it and let it fall; the sound was soaked up like a single raindrop in cotton. Nothing stirred. He looked back down the path and saw the green maw out of which he had come, a greenish-black tunnel, the end of which was nowhere in sight She was old.

So old she was colorless. So old only her mouth and eyes were distinguishable features in her face. Nose, chin, cheekbones, forehead, neck all had surrendered their identity to the pleats and crochetwork of skin committed to constant change Marvellous. I am on more tenuous ground however when it comes to plot, the first section seemed to be laying out a complex set of characters and story arcs but this very suddenly narrows to what feels like a different book in the last third. Unfortunately, for me this part read more as fable or allegory and I am never a good reader of those. However, I am convinced that I would gain a much deeper appreciation of this novel upon a second closer reading and with the added benefit of some critical analysis.

As it stands I don't regret a moment of the time I spent reading and trying to puzzle out this novel. I now need to explore the rest of this this Nobel laureate's work. View all 9 comments. This book takes me back to my college English classes, when I read so many books that were rich in beautiful language but poor in plot and action. There's no doubt that Morrison is a gifted writer, especially when it comes to down-to-earth, authentic dialogue.

Her writing is poetic and lyrical without being abstract or fussy -- she describes real things, disgusting things, sadness and passion with an intense energy and verbal power. But the plot of this book didn't grab me. I remember enjoying T This book takes me back to my college English classes, when I read so many books that were rich in beautiful language but poor in plot and action. I remember enjoying The Bluest Eye more and feel like that book had more direction and focus. Song of Solomon , on the other hand, didn't move very much, or very fast.

I didn't connect with any of the characters in the book, so all of their actions seemed hollow and arbitrary; I didn't feel that familiar emotional tug when good or bad things happened to them. It read to me more like a vignette of black life in s America rather than a full-fledged novel, with all the moving parts and psychological complexity that a novel entails. I always feel a bit guilty and apprehensive when I don't like a major classic as much as other readers do, or as much as I've been led to believe I should, because it makes me wonder if I missed something or wasn't being fair to the book. But I can only honestly report what I felt while reading, which in this case is: lovely language; boring story. I tried this once and couldn't get past the first chapter.

I stopped for 2 weeks and decided that I had to read it so I can get rid of it faster. Not a good reason to read anything right? But it slowly started to get better after that second chapter. It was a coming to age story but not really. It was about family and how you get a nickname in the North hood and how it sticks in the community hence the main character, Milkman. Someone saw him suckling his mother's teat at an age where he was s I tried this once and couldn't get past the first chapter. Someone saw him suckling his mother's teat at an age where he was seemingly too big for it but too small to understand the embarrassment of it. The novel goes through Milkman's family dynamics and his feelings towards it all. And it's so weird! The beginning is so weird - the ending too.

It takes the big swings that a first novel should, and all too often, doesn't. View 2 comments. Each sentence bled into the next, urging the reader to press on amidst a heartbreaking, convicting story of rejection, self-loathing, and ultimately, complete violation. It's not easy, or particularly enjoyable, to read. But Morrison cracks open this sort of taboo topic, choosing to highlight a character whose story often goes untold: that of an ugly, black girl.

But Pecola, our main character, doesn't even get 3. But Pecola, our main character, doesn't even get to tell her own story. The novel breaks down into seasons, starting with Autumn, and is narrated by a neighbor girl and her sister. As the story progresses, we get backstories on major characters: Pecola's mother, father, and various people in their hometown of Lorain, Ohio. While I loved the prose--there's no denying Morrison's skill with words, especially as this is her first novel--I found myself having trouble fully engaging in the story.

As Pecola's story unfolds, we realize that she is helpless to deal with the pain she is going through, and she internalizes it. She isn't even helped by the people in her life who should be able to help her, because they have their own pain to deal with. This isolation Pecola feels kept me at a distance from her, combined with the fact that we don't get to hear from Pecola herself at all. And by the end I was a bit let down. During the afterword of the novel, written by Morrison herself, she says regarding the structure, "My solution--break the narrative into parts that had to be reassembled by the reader--semed to me a good idea, the execution of which does not satisfy me now. Besides, it didn't work: many readers remained touched but not moved. That isn't to say that this book isn't worth reading, or that it doesn't achieve anything that it sets out to achieve.

Instead, I felt so detached and confused by the structuring of the story, that I missed out on the emotion that was being expressed. It's an excellent novel, nonetheless, but it's also a first one; I anticipate in reading more of Morrison, I will grow to understand her writing, as I often do in reading more from the works of an author. And I would argue, as many people recommended to me, it's a good place to start with Morrison. Aug 23, Fabian rated it it was amazing. I wonder who the Mexican Toni Morrison is.

Her work is very hard to peg down. It remains a wondrous feat to analyze or attempt to define whatever masterpiece of hers you are reading at the time. Alas, Rest In Power A definitive stylist, a poet, Morrison is brilliant. There is one scene deeply ingrained somewhere in the schism that is this beautiful book which will stay with me forever. This is not just a tale of whites versus blacks. Jun 13, Susanne Strong rated it it was amazing Shelves: five-star-books , audiobooks , must-read , favorite-authors.

During this time of turmoil and strife, I went into this read with a heavy heart and it got oh so much heavier. It was however necessary. There is so much to learn and I thank Ms. Morrison for opening my tear-filled eyes. This novel explores racism, poverty, assault, and so much more. It is a heart-wrenching story about Pecola Breedlove, an African American girl living in Lorain, Ohio in , who desperately wants to be beautiful.

For these African American girls, who are given white dolls, with blond hair and blue eyes, beauty is skewed. To be loved. For Pecola Breedlove, kind, sweet, lonely, innocent Pecola, recognizes far more than she should at her young age. For Frieda and Claudia, their innocence is slowly taken away bit by bit. Family, friends, relatives, acquaintances. During this time and place. No one had any idea how their actions were taken. No one stopped to think before they took action. Hate is spewed upon those who did not deserve it.

Young girls. Simply because of the color of their skin. So many passages in this novel hit home. They gave me pause.. She does not know what keeps his glance suspended. The distaste must be for her, her blackness. 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. 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 dreams we used—to silence our own nightmares. I recommend this for a book club and it includes difficult subject matters. I am so very sorry. I vow to keep reading and educating myself so that I can do better. Thank you to Toni Morrison for this incredible novel. Published on Goodreads and Instagram on 6. View all 37 comments. I feel so bad for not liking this book, because I know I'm in the minority, and because I know it deals with some very very important topics! I think it's important that books like these exist, because we need to remember that problems like these exist.

That being said, I strongly disliked the execution of this story. I almost couldn't breathe when reading this because it kept telling about disaster after disaster. I needed a little glimpse of hope somewhere, but I didn't get it. This book is said to be very poetic, and I agree with that. However, once again I felt like it was done in an exaggerated manner. Almost every second sentence had a deeper meaning, and while it was beautiful to read in the beginning, it became too much in the end.

Furthermore, Toni Morrison chose to mix together genres and perspectives, and I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters despite what they were going through. I love beautiful prose and stories with serious topics, but I didn't like this one one bit. I had a very hard time getting through the mere pages of "The Bluest Eye". The two stars are given because of the glimpses of beautiful prose and the ever-important topics that this book deals with, but all in all I can't say that this was a great reading experience.

Sure, why not start with that. But they are only three of the gorgeous characters that populate this gorgeous book. This was my first Toni Morrison--it was Toni Morrison's first Toni Morrison--and since she continued writing I will continue reading what she wrote. I initially struggled with this book because I had Pecola in my mind as the protagonist I officially I hate back cover China, Poland and Miss Marie also known as The Maginot Line are surely three of the finest whores in literature.

I initially struggled with this book because I had Pecola in my mind as the protagonist I officially I hate back cover book summaries and the narrative seemed to stray quite a bit, encompassing an entire family, an entire community in Lorain, Ohio, and beyond. May 21, Paul Bryant rated it really liked it Shelves: novels. Is this a case of mybookshelvestoowhite? So I thought that might be a little bit lazy, a little bit complacent, and decided to start fixing that with Toni Morrison. It was a good start. This is a tough minded short novel. It contains several scenes of nasty sex including rape.

She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat. It goes meow-meow. See Father. He is big and strong. Father, will you play with Jane? And so on. So, you know, The Bluest Eye is not a happy story. Some will say -another tale of African American woe. And it is, it is. But there was one line which cracked me up. A spiritualist healer type named Soaphead Church gets a visit from a little black girl who asks him to change her eyes from brown to blue. Because blue is beautiful and brown is ugly. He gets mad and sits down to write a formal letter to God. This is how he starts : Dear God The purpose of this letter is to familiarize you with facts which either have escaped your notice, or which you have chosen to ignore.

How often I have mentally composed such a letter myself! But never found an appropriate postbox. They say : If you are overcome with trouble and conditions that are not natural, I can remove them; overcome Spells, Bad Luck, and Evil Influences. Satisfaction in one visit. I can tell you why. I will tell you who your enemies and friends are, and if the one you love is true or false. If you are sick, I can show you the way to health. I locate lost and stolen articles. Satisfaction guaranteed. So that is what they were doing in in a small town in Ohio. I can bring happiness in your life. I can remove black magic, Bad Luck from your life. Sh Abdul Rehman can also advice you in all your problems which prove to be difficult, Business Difficulties, Love, Marriage or Relations Problems, or your Loved One has left you or Separated from you without giving any reason.

I can help you to bring back happiness in your life. May 29, Sabra rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in I just read this today, and the rating system really doesn't apply to my feelings, which are still fresh, on this book : "I like it" "I really liked it", etc. I have NO idea how to rate this book. I didn't like the book. As the author herself states in the afterward, " Though som I just read this today, and the rating system really doesn't apply to my feelings, which are still fresh, on this book : "I like it" "I really liked it", etc.

Though some of the varying voices that tell their stories don't flow as well in telling their story, the character development is really amazing. The point of view through innocence in the girls makes the horrors and injustices all the more This book evoked strong emotions in me, which, according to the author, was the point. She did that job well. I feel a strong sense of loss, disgust, revoltion, sadness, and frustration at not knowing how to "fix" things.

So how do you rate that? View all 7 comments. Sep 04, KB rated it did not like it Shelves: in-your-local-trash-bin. This is going to be a very; very long critical review of a so-called 'African American classic' So there you have been warned I had just finished reading the memoir "Black Boy" by Richard Wright which has turned into my favorite most relatable black memoirs of all time. This was given to me by a close relative who loves reading too. Every other black person I've seen especially the consci This is going to be a very; very long critical review of a so-called 'African American classic' Every other black person I've seen especially the conscious brand tells me this is a "African American classic".

I just don't see it, at all I do not want to write a mean review because if I were to be the author of this book, I would much prefer constructive criticism and not just 'hating'. To the author's credit, she's very good at getting her audience's attention even from the very first chapter, and she knows how to turn anything she creates into poetry. She has a very good way with words and making her writing sounds sophisticated and artistic. So those are her pointers. Now to to the critical bits Problem 1: It feels Toni's method to gaining reader's attention, is being unnecessarily and forcibly lewd, pornographic, and perverted.

There wasn't any need to describe Mr. The readers didn't need to know that he had nibbled the nipples or "tits" as Toni vulgarly described of prepubescent girls, and 'played with their vulvas while they were eating ice-cream'. We get it, he likes little girls. If you want to create a child molester, you can talk about his lusts for children, and only notify the readers that he has indeed had encounters, but you do not have to turn your novel into erotica for pedophiles. It makes the readers question where your mind is. It was like a party. But the tenderness would not hold. The tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear. His soul seemed to slip down his guts and fly out into her, and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made.

Removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina. She appeared to have fainted" Really? What is this? Is Toni trying to make us cringe? Does she honestly believe this a appropriate description of a child being raped by her father? The long-winded sex description between Mr. Cholly and Pauline was also unnecessary, but it would have been forgivable it hadn't been for this line: "I knew he wanted for me to come first.. To make it worse, no one referred to orgasming as "coming" in the early 19th century.

Seriously, Toni Re-explaining the situation with Cholly being caught having sex with his cousin's friend, while whites stood watching and telling him "give it to her harder", was pointless. Toni had already summarized how this had happened earlier in the book. Additionally, what was the significance spending an entire page and a half explaining how a unimportant side character had never experienced a organism, when this character only role in the protagonist's life is warding her away and calling her a "bitch" for 'killing' her pet?

It seemed throughout all of the book Toni went into the most detail explaining the sex between the characters, and priests "nibbling on the nipples of little girls", more than the actual development of these characters. No offense to her, but they aren't relatable , interesting, or believable. They're blank slates in strange sexual situations, none more. None of them had their own personalities, or their own faces. Problem 2: The way Toni rationalizes her characters' behavior doesn't make sense on any logical basis, whatsoever. This makes her story seem very fake, forced and unbelievable A great example of how unbelievable and irrational the motives of her characters are is Cholly's backstory on why he ended up molesting his daughter.

Cholly has issues with his broken family and was disowned by his father like millions of people around the world and somehow is so socially inept that he can't love his daughter without raping her? How on earth does that make any sense? Toni wrote that he had a relationship with a man named Blue, and he was mothered by his great-aunt until she passed away when he was thirteen. Then, he was raised by her brother.

These aren't biological parents, but they are parental figures and role models that he grew up with, who treated him kindly and who loved him and protected him. How does the lack of interaction with his biological parents, justify raping his kids, because he 'doesn't know better'? Especially since he has watched and experienced interactions with adult parental figures and none of them have molested him, or other little children. Where is he getting the idea that forcing himself on his screaming daughter as genuinely being ok?

What examples has he learned this behavior from and why isn't that explained in the novel? Toni said that he was a drunkard, so wouldn't it make more sense to write that he was drunk and perhaps confused his daughter for his wife? For a greater example of how the motivations of the characters do not make sense, is the book premise itself; the main theme doesn't even make sense. Pecola is having issues with society but blames it on her eye color.

Ok, I understand her mother treats the little white children she nannies better than her, and I also understand her issues at school and society is because she is dark-skinned therefore perceived ugly. So then would her problem be her dark complexion, and not her eye color? It would make sense if the children her mother nannies had blue eyes, but that was never explained or established in the book, so what the heck? Repeatedly the attention is thrown on the fact that she's black-skinned. So where do the eye part comes from? Am I missing something here? There is the argument that her eye color is suppose symbolize European standards of beauty, but honestly, I cannot agree.

The 'symbolism' seems artificially generated by the author herself, and forced into the culture of her novel's fictional world. Most indigenous societies and the black community itself corrupted by colonialism and European culture, simply desire lighter complexion and silky hair, not specifically 'blue eyes'. Green eyes, and brown eyes are also considered beautiful. I could imagine how this book would fit well into the logic of the protagonist's issues, if the book had focused as the rest of the book did on her skin color.

This leads me into the next issue Problem 3: Unused and wasted opportunity in character use, and plot development. Makes for a pointless underachieving story - Regarding the protagonist's circumstance and her particular time in American history, I could imagine Toni taking this opportunity to muddle in actual culture examples of forced European beauty standards in American society, by incorporating actual white-centric advertisements of the time, actual white actresses who were considered beautiful at the time, and light-skinned black actresses who were also considered beautiful at the time. She could've somehow relate this and point this out with classic American literature forced on Children, like blonde Cinderella or "white as snow" Sleeping Beauty, and make the protagonist fall into self-loathe by these permanent aspects of princess culture.

Pecola could've been desirable and beautiful but rejected for her skin color perhaps? The housewife could be a woman who bleached her skin and somehow resented the protagonist because she reminded her of her former self? Claudia could hate the protagonist because she was beautiful regardless of her dark complexion? The priest could've offered Pecola skin bleaching skin, and Picola could've fallen mentally ill due to some accident due to her excitement of being white. Toni have discussed and incorporated the racist cartoons of the time, that described black children especially dark skinned children as ugly buck-toothed big-lipped 'pickaninnies'.

Toni could have also incorporated the 'paper bag' test, could have gone on about how the 'hair' culture, among black mothers. And how coarser hair is considered 'ugly'. The theme was loosely about colorism. I read maybe 2 chapters that solidly built on the racial themes, but the rest was merely short stories about unrelated characters. Even Pauline the mother herself, only favored the white children she cared for, more than her actual children because of issues with their father, not because they were black.

There was so SO many things Toni could have done with this storyline that was ultimately wasted. Instead she dove much deeper talking about how "Cholly's anus lips had softened at the sight of his daughter". I just I don't understand how this book became a beloved classic and won a Nobel Prize. Was it out of political correctness? And wanting to seem 'progressive' by praising any piece of black work that talks about controversial issues?

I'm black and I can honestly say this was a disturbing, poorly put together, grotesque book and did absolutely nothing for me but question if the author was secretly a pedophile. It baffles me how many black people praise this, simply because the author is black herself. Its substandard in comparison to other lesser-known black novels that I've read. And I am beyond shock there are people out there who think this is appropriate for middle school and high school kids. For a lot of this book, this book is unnecessary porn, and images that young impressionable teens shouldn't have in their minds!

Jul 31, Thomas rated it really liked it Shelves: lit-outside-of-school , historical-fiction , read-for-dmv-bookclub. Toni Morrison captures this dynamic of internalized racial self-loathing so well. With vivid prose, she interrogates how glorifying white skin and blue eyes harms black girls and turns them 4. With vivid prose, she interrogates how glorifying white skin and blue eyes harms black girls and turns them against one another. Through developing the main characters of this book, the Breedlove family, in a rich and detailed way, Morrison also investigates the repercussions of intergenerational trauma, rape and incest, and more.

My heart hurt so much for these characters even as my mind admired Morrison's skill as a writer. She holds nothing back in her books, and neither should we as we fight to diversify our media and show how all bodies deserve love and respect, not just white ones, thin ones, etc. Highly recommended to Morrison fans and to those who care about societal beauty ideals, race and the family, and the social transmission of trauma and abuse. That's her name. Her name bothered me the first time I read it. How do you even pronounce it. Slowly, but surely, I understood that was the point. Pecola herself would never be pretty, would never be understood.

No one would ever be able to shorten or lengthen her name into a cute nick. Her hair, her eyes, her countenance, her life, would never be considered more than an in Pecola. Her hair, her eyes, her countenance, her life, would never be considered more than an insult, not only to herself, but to her people, too. Pecola, trapped in poverty, was mercilessly teased by her peers, raped and impregnated by her father and judged by her elders. Eventually, Pecola went crazy and was last seen digging through the garbage by her old childhood "friend", one of the narrators of the novel. The narrators acknowledge the superior tone of The Observer, a concept I had never considered.

Or, maybe just less caring. That's it. Pecola herself, never experiences self-superiority, which I believe is the first time I have ever noticed such a phenomena. Most characters, especially underdog protagonists, experience some sort of self-superiority however deluded at some point in their "character arc. Instead, she is motivated by achieving superiority by getting blue eyes. That is interesting to me. All of The Bluest Eye is interesting to me. The cruelty and evil that lurk inside the realm of survival and desire is explored beautifully and almost unbearably. Pecola's desire for having the bluest eyes in the world reminded me of some of my absurd goals and I am once again reminded to reassess my values.

That's not a bad thing to do once in awhile or, in my case, on a regular basis. Shelves: pure-power-of-gr , person-of-reality , reality-check , reviewed , antidote-think-twice-all , nobel-prize-people , 1-read-on-hand , person-of-everything , 4-star , r-goodreads. After all, we are talking a physicality that differs in very few respects from the type idealized by the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party, and in the land of the whites and the home of the bleach, that phenotype means power.

Just last week, one of my professors commented on 4. Just last week, one of my professors commented on her constant well-dressed appearance with "I can't wash this off," scrubbing at her hand as synecdoche for how her African heritage had chosen to display itself. Sixty years ago that choice in clothing was just as politically charged, for to dress well and not be white was an open invitation to getting the living shit beaten out of you. As you can see, the white supremacy is a canny thing, always knowing how to change its skin. Four to five hundred years or so ago, the science of race was invented to excuse the existence of slavery in the face of religious humanity and social equality. Since then, the country of the United States was invented, taught to children as a "cultural melting pot" that flenses them from schoolyard to mass media and back again.

It is an easy process: bully any who diverge into a morass of self-hatred, let others who are of the flock accessorize with the dehumanized divergence, then commercialize until all that is left of a human heritage is white people consumption. Jazz, Hinduism, bindis, yoga, rap, sushi, greeted with raging disgust and vitriolic hatred unless, of course, you're white. Then by all means, consume away. There's no danger in your representation. Only oppression. It would be allegory if the entire machinery of the US Government didn't single out the chosen sacrifices based on the color of skin and the inheritance of creed, but it does. It would have aged badly if cultural appropriation wasn't an imperialistic practice that takes the existence of others as the latest "fad" for a blonde-haired and blue-eyed persona, but it is.

I'm talking dark-skinned girls bleaching their skin, I'm talking the violation of civilizations for the pursuit of a hobby, I'm talking a disconnect between an entire host of souls from their bodies that makes the incest in this book ugly and a white man raping his three-year-old daughter legally acceptable in the US as of Toni Morrison wrote this book while people were killing themselves to keep themselves aligned with "respectability politics" of white fashion; today, every white person wants dreadlocks.

Shit on something long enough and it's yours for the commercial taking, so long, of course, you look a certain way. If you dehumanize someone because they don't look like blonde-haired blue-eyed white-skinned skinny-assed me, you are utter, fucking, goddamn trash. It's as simple as that. View all 10 comments. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. A painful, uncomfortable, provocative, depressing story that is nevertheless more honest and real than most of the books I've read this year.

In a foreword written two decades after first publication, the author expresses some misgivings about the structure of the novel and about how Pecola, the main character, may be lacking in relevance for larger issues of racial identity, her story too particular to lend itself well to generalities. For me, like in the case of Carson McCullers, these flaws in execution may be the very things that convinced me of the sincerity of the feelings described, and the idiom flavored prose more expressive and authentic than later, more polished books I'm thinking of Home , the only Morrison book I've read before this one.

The main theme, that of self-esteem, identity and prejudice, is as relevant today as it was in when the action is placed or in when the book was first published. Only last week I've read in the news about a shameful Fox News debacle on the colour of Father Christmas and of Jesus skin. Why can't we have a black Santa? Why would it be considered ugly? The standards of beauty imposed by fashion magazines and MTV shows may be more inclusive today in terms of skin colour, but they remain as radical and as dangerous for children and teenagers who are not tall, skinny, 'blue eyed'. Don't even start me on Miley Cyrus as a role model Back to Pecola Breedlove: a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes.

The whole world is telling her she is ugly, worthless, pityful, and Pecola is not strong enough to contradict it and to fight for herself. It is the artist role to be her advocate, to feel her pain, her despair, and to shout it out for all to hear They are invisible. The death of self-esteem can occur quickly, easily in children, before their ego has 'legs', so to speak. Couple the vulnerability of youth with indifferent parents, dismissive adults, and a world, which, in its language, laws, and images, re-enforces despair, and the journey to destruction is sealed.

The story of Pecola reads more like a parable than a reportage, with the outcome made clear right from the start, extensive use of metaphoric language and a fatalistic inevitability that harks back to the Greek tragedies. Most of the novel is told through the eyes of Frieda and Claudia, two black girls growing up in Larain, Ohio in , witnessing the drama unfolding in the Breedlove family, fighting spirits both but yet too young to be able to do anything about their friend. They plant some flower seeds in the barren earth of their neighborhood marigolds as a symbol for love and understanding?

What is clear now is that of all that hope, fear, lust, love, and grief, nothing remains but Pecola and the unyielding earth. Cholly Breedlove is dead; our innocence too. The seeds shriveled and died; her baby too. There is really nothing more to say - except why. But since 'why' is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in 'how'. The following account is non-linear, broken in pieces, jumping back and forth in the timeline and moving around to other locations, passed through from one character to another in an almost haphazard manner, yet coming round by the finish line to Pecole and the marigolds refusing to bloom.

Many factors contribute to the little girl's downfall, yet the lion's share of blame should probably be placed firmly at her parents door: Pauline and Cholly Breedlove have a disfunctional relationship that hurts their children more than their own calloused and already defeated souls. Polly takes refuge in the fantasy world of cinema and believes her children should conform to the burgeois standards of the white class: Into her son she beat a loud desire to run away, and into her daughter she beat a fear of growing up, fear of other people, fear of life.

Cholly is a drunkard who keeps everything inside, unable to express himself other than though violence, regularly beating his wife and terorizing the children. He pities his daughter, but the way he chooses to manifest his emotion is more than horrible. Another abuser is a certain Whitcomb, an Anglophile mullato con man and a pervert who poses as a priest and a dream interpreter. Pecola finds more understanding and kindness in the rooms of destitute whores living in the apartment above than in her own family. What is interesting about all the adults in the story is that behind all their despicable actions, they are not actually corrupted in their own eyes.

Pauline was at one time happy in her house chores and even in her passion for Cholly. Cholly was once a free spirit, a fighter and a tender husband. Whitcomb believes he is doing a service to the community, even to the underage girls he fondles. They all find some way to rationalize their failures. The autor goes to great lengths to show their human frailty instead of condemning them outright, leaving the task of moral judgement on the shoulders of the reader: Have I looked down instinctively on someone on account of their race Romanian Gypsies are quite horribly treated today both in Romania and in Europe?

Have I judged people hastily, without trying to walk some miles in their shoes? Will I do it again, after reading this book? Probably: the feelings of euphoria and goodwill tend to evaporate in time under the pressure of mundane preoccupations. But I hope some kernel of truth will remain, and who knows, maybe some marigolds will bloom in my own garden. My final quote is I believe an illustration of the fact that we do not need to be perfect, we need only to make an effort and to keep learning about the world and the people around us, no matter how old we are in years: Love is never better than the lover. The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover's inward eye.

Let us love wisely, for once! Thank you, Mrs. Morrison for the remainder. View all 8 comments. Jun 08, Celeste Ng added it. This might be the closest thing to a perfect novel that I've ever seen. Imagine a Nobel Laureate reading her work, and then explaining her art. I listened to this via Audible and I was spellbound. Inflections with each character switch and mood, exquisite dialogue performance—I might as well have been in the same room with her. The bluest eye. Oh what great use of personification.

This story, laden with historical and literary context, is narrated by young Claudia and follows three black girls: Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola. She must call her mom, Mrs. Breedlove, while the blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl her mother takes care of, calls her Polly. When Pecola sees the same mother who beats and yells at her oohing and aahing at the little girl, the blue eyes become her way of wanting to be acknowledged.

Maybe if she had blue eyes… Later, the bluest eye will play a role after Pecola goes through a horrific ordeal and we get to hear from her directly. In her world, no one notices or acknowledges her: the black woman. Shopping for her family is a pain. Toni Morrison started this story in —working on it while getting her MA. In , it started to take the shape of a book. In elementary school, she had a friend who told her that she wished she had blue eyes.

Very blue eyes in a very dark skin? While reading two of her works simultaneously this week, I also read Paradise I noticed her signature style. The lyrical syntax is prolific, the narrator voice oblique, and the story structure will take leaps and bounds. The second half of this book was my favorite. In the beginning, there is a certain voice that pierces the narrative throughout and I wondered what it was the white house and Jane playing. Towards the end, I understood the art as I heard from Pecola in a weird, artistic kind of way and it was a deeply emotional moment.

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Ownership does not occur to her. That Milkman's materialist quest leads The Grinch Summary to its spiritual pretext is a Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved gift; how often Slavery Exposed In Toni Morrisons Beloved someone lucky enough to find what they need when Consequences Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird pursue what they want? He is big and strong. The main theme, that of self-esteem, identity and prejudice, is as relevant today as it was in when the action is placed or in when the book was first published. Someone described it as kaleidoscopic and I think that's a very apt description.