The Bluest Eye - A Bibliographic Essay

3064 Words13 Pages
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison sought to give a voice to the most vulnerable member of our society, a poor black adolescent female. This novel covers issues dealing with society’s views on race and class as well as gender and age. Scholars has reviewed this novel and discovered different approaches to uncover the message behind The Bluest Eye. From looking at the meanings behind something as basic as a character’s name, to analyzing meaning down to a theory as scientific as genealogy, these four scholars share terrific insight into the world of Morrison’s novel. The scholars look at questions such as how and why and develop a plethora of deciphering that can be greatly utilized by future readers of the novel. In Dick-and-Jane and the Shirley Temple Sensibility in the Bluest Eye, Klotman draws on theme, imagery, and character relationships to evaluate The Bluest Eye. First Klotman examines the overall theme of the novel. This critic essentially thinks that the self-hatred which Pecola feels is reinforced, if not taught, in the both society and school. Not only does the novel take place in both the community and school, but Klotman points out that the variations in the quote of “Dick and Jane” reveals the underlying theme of “the ironic duality of the school/home experience” (123). There are three writing styles of the “Dick and Jane” story. Klotman associates each writing style to different standards of living the novel navigates through: The First is clearly that of the alien white world (represented by the Fisher family) which impinges upon the lives of the black children and their families while at the same time excluding them. The second is the lifestyle of the two black McTeer children…shaped by poor but loving parents trying desperately to survive the poverty, the Northern cold and Northern style of racism they encounter…the Breedloves’ lives, however,
Open Document