Enlightened by Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye :: Bluest Eye Essays

Enlightened by Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye   Over the course of our schooling of the American novel, we have experienced a kaleidoscope of components that help define it. We travelled back in time to learn what kinds of novels were beingness written and how they were being written. We were introduced to the likes of Harold Frederics Theron Ware, Henry Jamess Dr. Sloper and Catherine, and Nathaniel Hawthornes Blithedale Romance. We saw, done these novels and characters, how literature of the past affects literature of today.   We also order novels from various regions of North America. We had a glimpse of northern writers and their culture such as Alice Munro, and her stories of Canada. We sampled Willa Cather who gave us a taste of the early southwest through Fathers Latour and Vaillant.   We read about different religious ideals, from Therons Methodism to Father Latours Catholicism, to Hazel Motes The church building of Christ without Christ, to Jonah s (futuristic) Bokononism each religion, in its own way, reflecting a different font of American religious zeal. And we have heard from a number of southerly writers like OConnor, Faulkner, and Porter. We begin, through characters like Miranda and Anse, to glimpse a southern speech and way of living.   It seems only fitting now, that we be introduced to another element of the American novel ethnic culture. The addition of Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye is the perfect choice. Through the voices of her dispirited characters, she reveals a broad spectrum of black culture during the 1930s and 1940s.   We get a glimpse of the middle class through Claudia and her family, who maintain a sense of haughtiness and pride. In the first chapter, she tells us, Being a minority in both(prenominal) caste and class, we moved about anyway on the hem of life, seek to consolidate our weaknesses and hang on, or to creep singly up into the major folds of the garment (17). &nbs p We encounter the desperately poor through the Breedlove family, Cholly, Pauline, and Pecola, each choosing a different means to escape the harsh reality of their lives. For example, Pecola dreams of having blue eyes, whence she would be accepted, loved, respected, and beautiful.