The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

“We had just started elementary school. She said she wanted blue eyes “We had just started elementary school. She said she wanted blue eyes. I looked around to picture her with them and was violently repelled by what I imagined she would look like if she had her wish. The sorrow in her voice seemed to call for sympathy, and I faked it for her, but, astonished by the desecration she proposed, I ‘got mad’ at her instead” (Morrison 209). Beautiful vs. Ugly: “Beauty [ . . . ] was something one could do” (Morrison 209). Racial self-loathing: “Implicit in her desire was racial self- loathing. And twenty years later I was still wondering about how one learns that” (Morrison 210). Subjects

Pecola: a timid 11-year-old girl raped by her daddy (Cholly Breedlove) and disillusioned into believing she had blue eyes “I focused, therefore, on how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of a society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female. In trying to dramatize the devastation that even casual racial contempt can cause, I chose a unique situation, not a representative one. The extremity of Pecola’s case stemmed largely from a crippled and crippling family – unlike the average black family and unlike the narrator’s. But singular as Pecola’s life was , I believed some aspects of her woundability were lodged in all young girls” (Morrison 210) Narrator: shifts between Claudia and third person omniscient Point of View

Quiet: “the public exposure of a private confidence [ Quiet: “the public exposure of a private confidence [ . . . ] ‘Quiet is as it’s kept’ [ . . . ] The opening phrase is an effort to be grown-up about this shocking information” (Morrison 212-13). Marigolds/flowers/seeds Ugly Baby doll Breedlove home/store Quilt Dick and Jane: “the incompatible and barren white-family primer” (215) Shirley Temple cup Candy (Mary Jane) Eyes: “She is not seen by herself until she hallucinates a self. And the fact of her hallucination becomes a kind of outside-the-book conversation” (215) Colors (Blue) Names (Breedlove) Sickness The Maginot Line Rape Motifs and Symbols

1941: “’fall’ during which one expects marigolds to be at their peak, in the months before the beginning of U.S. participation in World War II, something grim is about to be divulged” (Morrison 213). Loraine, Ohio Context: Morrison’s first novel. Written in the 1960’s during the black is beautiful movement and published in 1970. “The reclamation of racial beauty in the sixties stirred these thoughts [ . . . ] Why, although reviled by others, could this beauty not be taken for granted within the community? Why did it need wide public articulation to exist?” (Morrison 210) Setting

More Context: 1967: Barbie’s first attempt at a black doll: Colored Francie The doll was widely criticized as they just changed the skin color of a previous white Francie doll and thus it had white features. 1968: Barbie introduces Christie, seen by many as the first black Barbie.

More Context 1964: Dick and Jane gets its first black character Despite supposedly being read by 80% of 1st graders in school, Dick and Jane comes under criticism in the 50’s and 60’s for its approach to teaching reading and its unrealistic portrayal of normalcy (Mancini). More Context 1964: Dick and Jane gets its first black character Many women become dissatisfied with Dick and Jane for things like role portrayal.

More Context: 1962: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is published – the first children’s book with a black protagonist

Works Cited “The Evolution of Black Barbies, From Gabby to Francie.” BET.com BET Style. 11 June 2016. http://www.bet.com/style/style-and-beauty/photos/2015/04/black-barbies-from-francie-to-ava.html#!042715-b-real-black-francie-barbie Accessed 3 Oct. 2017. Mancini, Mark. “15 Fun Facts about Dick and Jane.” mentalfloss.com Mental Floss. 16 Sep. 2015. http://mentalfloss.com/article/68475/15-fun-facts-about-dick-and-jane Accessed 3 Oct. 2017. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Plume, 1994. Murray, Amy D. “Fun With Dick and Jane and Others.” pinterest.com Pinterest. N.D. https://www.pinterest.com/amydmurray/fun-with-dick-jane-and-others/ Accessed 3 Oct. 2017. “The Snowy Day.” Wikipedia.com Wikimedia Foundation. 17 June 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowy_Day Accessed 3 Oct. 2017. “Vintage Books for the Very Young.” blogspot.com Blogspot. 27 June 2012. http://vintagebooksfortheveryyoung.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-oh-look-internet-look-its-dick-and.html?_sm_au_=iVVW3svR4kSVHJF4 Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.