"The Bluest Eye" is magnificently crafted. I love the order of each random mini story that Morrison writes. Even though at first it makes almost no sense, once you read further everything seems to fall in place and create the big, puzzled pieced, picture of the complex life of Pecola Breedlove and why things are the way they are. At the beginning of the story, the reader only gets bad snipits of Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove's, actions. The reader begins to wonder, "How could a father be like that and what makes Cholly and Pauline "stay together" even though they beat each other up?" Well, if you are patient, (which I am terrible at), you are rewarded with the inside scoop of Cholly's background story.
Long story short, he was abandoned and taken in by his Aunt Jimmy. He started out with an imperfect beginning that continued an imperfect life. Children need a loving father and mother - especially in their adolescent years. It is pivotal for their development as functioning citizens. Cholly got through these hard years making some decisions that may not have happened if he was properly brought up. However, "...knowing only a dying old woman who felt responsible for him, but whose age, sex, and interests were so remote from his own, he might have felt a stable connection between himself and the children [his children]." Only having an old Aunt who died when he was still a teenager as a "mother," really affected him later in life because he had "...no idea how to raise children, and having never watched any parent raise himself, he could not even comprehend what such a relationship should be." He coped with this predicament by "...react[ing] to them, and his reactions were based on what he felt at the moment." Not a very good strategy when you are overcome with sexual desires and your daughter is around. It may not end well, and unfortunately it didn't for Pecola.
As we can see, one break in the chain of familial ties can forever alter generations to come. The song "Astronomy" by Black Star calls for somewhat of a Black unification under Black nationalism. This song employs parallel structure and simile by the repetition of the words "Black like..." I especially like the lines:
[The whites] "...try to civilize you
not walk on by you
like civil (lies do get you black listed)..."
In these few lines, it clearly demonstrates a relationship between the whites and blacks from the black perspective. I was especially intrigued by the double meaning of civilize. The whites want to change (civilize) the blacks to their way of living while the blacks just perceive this as civil lies. What creative geniuses to manipulate language like that!!!
The very beginnings of humanity begin at home, and when family ties are severed, it is difficult for these people to effectively participate in society and unite as one under lets say "black nationalism." When someone's home life is not stable, it haunts the rest of that person's life.
That's absolutely Morrison's point: there's a generational chain of self-hatred. How can we reverse it?, she seems to ask.
ReplyDeleteGreat connection with "civil lies". It's absolutely a black nationalist manifesto as you say - and not by chance the group is also named after the Black Star Line.