“the Power of Three: a Look at the Trinities in Toni Morrison’s the Blues Eye”

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Breauna L. Roach LIT 4083 Research Paper “The Power of Three: A Look at the Trinities in Toni Morrison’s The Blues Eye” As said by legendary Hollywood film producer Robert Evans, "There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently." The reality of this quote is explicitly obvious in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. The novel's shifting focus and point of view, its willingness to let different people speak and not to reconcile contradictory explanations and claims where they arise is indicative of Morrison's preference for telling all sides of Pecola's story rather than hammering home one of them. In this, she is like other black women writers who “through their intimacy with the discourses of other(s) ... weave into their work competing and complementary discourses--that seek to adjudicate competing claims and witness concerns” (Kuenz 6). The multifaceted approach Toni Morrison uses to tell the tragedy of Pecola Breedlove provides the reader with a look at her situation from three sides. In The Bluest Eye, there are three main character trilogies that are crucial to the development of the novel’s main character, Pecola Breedlove. In observing these trilogies, it is important to consider the historic and symbolic meanings of the number three and the triangle figure. Through this observation it becomes clear that the presentation of these characters in groups of three emblematically reflects the power of number. “It is through the tension of opposites that the new is created”. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison presents three distorted trilogies parallel to each other. From the tension created by opposing representations of specific adults, Pecola exists as the compressed and disillusioned product of dysfunctional trilogies. There is an extensive amount of symbolism surrounding the
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