Toni Morrison and The Blues

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is like a soft, sad, slow song. So beautifully written to the point that it’s a poetic ballad; it’s that song that brings you to tears, but you can’t stop listening to it. It strikes a chord inside you. She does this with her unique writing style, and her developed and transparent characters. So what started out as a book ended up being like a beautiful blues song.

            This book speaks of the hardships Claudia, Frieda, and specifically Pecola had to face, much like how a blues song addresses the hardships of the average African-American prior to the civil rights movement. Claudia is a young girl. She has her own personal battles that she faces, and they’re specifically about her anger towards anyone that she perceives as “above” her. Usually these are white people and the “mulattos” because white was the dominant race during that time period. She breaks out into random rages where she wants to hit someone. She does try to hit Maureen, but doesn’t succeed, she explains, “I swung at her and missed, hitting Pecola in the face (Morrison 73).” Claudia has such a raging attitude. She expresses her pain and confusion in such a physical and verbal way. Maureen starts to make fun of Pecola’s “black daddy” and Claudia feels the need to defend her, not only because she knew Pecola wouldn’t defend herself, but because she also has a “black daddy”. She has her emotional pain and adversities she has to deal with, just like all of the other African-Americans that is not only singing the blues, but living it too.

            However, Pecola and her life is the epitome of a sad blues song. She’s a young tender girl who lives in a house full of complete chaos. Her parents beat each other; her mother beats her and her brother, while everyone else just turns the other cheek. Her father also takes complete advantage of her and her body, unfortunately leading her to bear her first child. Pecola is such an innocent young girl; not knowing much at all about the average things, but she has experienced it all. This is why I think her life is the epitome of a blues song. She’s an innocent girl, but then has all of that taken away from her due to tragic events and not being able to turn to anyone; especially not the justice system because of the color of her skin and the fact that she was “ugly.”

            When a person sings the blues it’s usually because they’re expressing their hardships. Most of the characters in The Bluest Eye live in pain and misery, especially Pecola. She lives a life full of repression and hatred from everyone, besides Frieda and Claudia. And the main reason it’s like a blues song is because Toni Morrison made it s raw. There was no sugar coating; she showed Pecola’s life for what it was, complete and utter pain and heartache.

Advertisement Analysis

       

            Visual ads are one of the most effective ways of promoting a product. There’s so many different ways to get your message across and so many different techniques a person can use. A person’s creativity is endless when it comes to an advertisement. And this Tom Ford ad used certain design techniques to showcase the items and the brand, but also some other subliminal cultural values as well.

            Obviously this is a Tom Ford ad. The big, bold, black letters are the first things that my eyes go to. Then my eyes traveled from her gold robot-like shoes to her silver sequin dress, to her dramatic eye makeup, and finally her vibrant red-brown hair. Tom Ford wants you to buy his clothing; which is the main reason for this ad. But he did it in a very unique way. He takes a female with these unique textures and shades and puts her in front of a white background. With no other words or uses of media expect for the brand name. This use of media not only allows for the clothing and the beautiful female to pop, but also the words Tom Ford.

            The use of media is very sleek, modern, and sexy; evoking many different cultural values. However, the main ones are sex appeal, freedom, and economic power. Sex appeal is the obvious main cultural value being portrayed in this advertisement; the model is very beautiful with the new cutting edge style, especially with the gold shoes that many celebrities have been spotted wearing. This advertisement is obviously stating that if you buy these pieces, whether individually or all together, you are bound to be deemed a sexy individual like this girl in the ad.

            But there are some more discreet cultural values that many people don’t notice that’s in this advertisement. One of them is freedom; freedom to be different, unique, and to be the epitome of individuality. When you access the people around you when you’re going to a special event, I’m pretty sure you don’t see many females wearing gold metallic thigh high shoes. But the female in the advertisement is; this is because she has the freedom and the power to be unique; to stand out in a big crowd with her shiny and light reflecting outfit. As a viewer of this ad, it’s showing me that I have the freedom to be different, that I can shine bright in a crowd full of people if I were to purchase these pieces.

            The brand name is showcased to tell you who designed the outfit, which is Tom Ford. Tom Ford is a well known brand and often purchased from many different celebrities, meaning that the brand is associated with economic power and having a lot of money. To be able to buy anything from this brand, you need to have a lot of money because they’re pieces are far from inexpensive. And in this ad everything is gorgeous, making the viewer want to have the things model is wearing. If you had these things you will not only be viewed as sexy and unique, but you’ll also be portraying the idea that you’re rich, despite the fact that a person could be gathering a lot of debt in order to purchase these products.   

            An ad can have a lot of power over their viewer, slowly sucking them into different cultural values and ideologies that the viewer may not notice. Many people may not realize this because some advertisement can be as simple as this one; a female plopped in front of a white background with the name brand next to it. As a viewer and a victim to these ads it’s important to be aware what the ads are portraying to you, and whether the obvious or subliminal messages are positive or negative. This is because you want to make sure you don’t fall victim to the subliminal and sometimes, unintentional, ideologies the creator and distributor may be portraying.