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.
This blog was very interesting, primarily because it was not at all how I would have written it: the style was refreshingly different, particularly the tone and diction of paragraph one. There are really only two things that I would change: one, I got a little confused in the middle of the second paragraph; the point was valid but the language was a little loose. Second, I would stay in touch with your thesis about blues music a little more in the body paragraphs of the piece. Certainly, you don't want to fall into a middle school-type pattern and say "the first reason this is like blues music is..." Even a few implicit references would be great.
ReplyDeleteCollectively, however, this was quite well done given the complexity and density of the assignment and book.