Thursday, February 22, 2007
A Child's View
In reading Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye, we are introduced to the world of perpetuating racism, which invokes many complicated thematic issues. Despite the complexity of the issues, Toni Morrison decides that the best way to make these issues comprehensive for the reader is to expose them through the daily lives and surroundings of children; namely Claudia and Pecola. My question to the group is then simple. Why would Toni Morrison choose children’s experiences, surroundings, and thoughts to expose the themes of race, segregation, and assimilation? Is this a coincidence or is it a way of presenting a more convincing argument by Morrison?
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2 comments:
In response to your question I think that Morrison's choice of using children to narrarate the story is completely on purpose and also brilliant. Children, for the most part, say it how it is. They are honest and pure about their surroundings. At a young age they remain somewhat objective and can a give mostly unbiased account of what is going on. The world is their's to discover and explore. By Morrison choosing to use children she provides the readers with an honest account of the time period without any opinions from one side or another.
I also believe that Morrison purposly uses children to narrate the story. However, I also find it interesting that she uses flashbacks from the adults in the story to narrate parts of it. I think this gives the reader a sense of what happens to the children as they grow up and are forced into roles set by society. What happend to their parents may be similar to what will happen to them. These narrations allow us to partly understand why the adults in the story treat the children as they do. I Overall, I believe that they help us attain a deeper understanding of the children in the text.
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