The Bluest Eye Analysis - 1148 Words

Discussion In the novel The Bluest Eye Pecola is involved in a quest – for love and identity and Morrison depicts the world in the novel from a child’s point of view. The story of the eleven-year-old Pecola, the tragic female protagonist of The Bluest Eye, stemmed out of Morrison’s memory of a girlhood friend who as well craved for ‘blue eyes’. Morrison had written of the little Black girl whom she knew : â€Å"Beauty was not simply something to behold, it was something one could do. The Bluest Eye was my effort to say something about that; to say something about why she had not, or possibly ever would have, the experience of what she possessed and also why she prayed for so radical an†¦show more content†¦Perhaps the feeling is merely indifference, mild annoyance, but it may also be hurt. It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated — hated for things we have no control over and cannot change† (Morrison, ix). It is evident in the novel that Pecola is treated by others as an ‘inconvenience’. She possesses no voice or physical integrity. Other than accepting her ethnic identity as a black girl, she assumes a false identity. She is not happy with her appearance and yearns for blue eyes only – a symbolic of American White beauty. Morrison, here, uses a contrast between Sharley Temple and Pecola. Pecola goes literally crazy by the disparity between her existence and the epitome of beauty set by the dominant White culture. Pecola’s psyche has been deformed by the oppressing White culture. Hence, she rejects her original identity and craves for a false notion of beauty. This novel was also a product of its own time. In the later 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement in America had produced historical advances in protecting the freedom and dignity of the African Americans. But the African Americans still found themselves discriminated in all spheres of life – economic, religious, educational, political and legal. They were segregated – which implied ‘separate but equal’. Though ‘equality’ was provided to them, they were always treated as the ‘Other’ by the White American society. The African Americans also started to experience that the culture industryShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Bluest Eye1555 Words   |  7 Pages The Bluest Eeye Bbackground A woman’s race and the time period she lives in influences not only whether she will be a victim of sexual assault but also, the punishment of the offender. Toni Morrison, The author of The Bluest Eye, a victim of segregation, deals with sexual assault and segregation in her book. Chole Anthony Wofford, who goes by the name of Toni Morrison when writing her books, was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. Her father had several jobs to supportRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Analysis921 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Bluest Eye† â€Å"The Bluest Eye† by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl immersed in poverty and made â€Å"ugly† by the Society of the early 1940’s that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley Temple. The novel opens in the fall of 1941, just after the Great Depression, in Lorain, Ohio. Nine-year-old ClaudiaRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Analysis778 Words   |  4 PagesThe opinions of others, wether one notices or not, greatly affect his or her life. In Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl with dark brown eyes, is deemed ugly. Although she does not possess ugliness; she â€Å"put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to [her]† (Morrison 38). Pecola believes she is ugly because she does not meet the societal beauty standard. Pecola convinces herself that all her struggles are rooted in the fact that she not beautiful. IfRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Analysis812 Words   |  4 Pages Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye follows Pecola Breedlove’s â€Å"journey† to obtain beauty in the form of the titular blue eyes. Not only is it told in Claudia’s perspective, but the readers witnesses several backstories, na mely Geraldine, Pauline, Cholly, and Soaphead Church’s, which is in a third-person perspective. This might be seen as odd at first, but after taking a deeper look into their pasts, there is something that stands out: something â€Å"beautiful† in the eyes of these people. These â€Å"beautiful†Read MoreAnalysis Of The Bluest Eye 818 Words   |  4 PagesIn The Bluest Eye, Pecola the protagonist is taken under the Macteer family’s wing much like â€Å"The African family is community-based and the nurturing quality is not contained within the nuclear family, but is rather the responsibility of the entire community† (Ranstrà ¶m). In traditional Africa each child has a place and is welcome in the community. The act of parenting another child was not odd because every adult that lived in each community believed that any child is welcome in anyone’s home. ThisRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Analysis985 Words   |  4 Pages Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old black girl in Tony Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, combats with self love and self image throughout the entire novel. Her only wish is to be loved and adored, and she believes the only route to that destination is to simply be more â€Å"white†. Throughout her journey in Morrison’s masterpiece, she attempts to transform herself into an idealistic version of herself, but she ultimately discovers that she is physically unable to attain what she had hoped for and is drivenRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye 1917 Words   |  8 Pages1. Through the Big Screen and Flashing Lights In the book The Bluest Eye Mrs. Breedlove talks about who was her motivation, who gave her drive to start dressing up nice and refashioning herself. She started using celebrities as role models or a mirror to help her find ways for her to get the same physical attractiveness they have. In the book Mrs. Breedlove mentions that,†I went to see Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. I fixed my hair up like I’d seen hers on a magazine. A part on the side, with oneRead MoreAnalysis of the Bluest Eye Prologue727 Words   |  3 PagesEach section of this prologue gives, in a different way, an overview of the novel as a whole. At a glance, the Dick-and-Jane motif alerts us to the fact that for the most part the story will be told from a child’s perspective. Just as the Dick-and-Jane primer teaches children how to read, this novel will be about the larger story of how children learn to interpret their world. But there is something wrong with the Dick-and-Jane narrative as it is pres ented here. Because the sentences are not spreadRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye 1115 Words   |  5 Pagesbeliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, their economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all. In The Bluest Eye, characters experience aRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Analysis Essay1420 Words   |  6 PagesIn The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison strongly ties the contents of her novel to its structure and style through the presentation of chapter titles, dialogue, and the use of changing narrators. These structural assets highlight details and themes of the novel while eliciting strong responses and interpretations from readers. The structure of the novel also allows for creative and powerful presentations of information. Morrison is clever in her style, forcing readers to think deeply about the novel’s heavy

Response to George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant Free Essays

Although many people believe that racism has disappeared from our minds after all those solutions of trying to set equal rights in the world’s history, it still exists today, and will probably never vanish from our thinking. Some may clearly express it, whereas others may express racism unnoticeably, even to themselves. George Orwell, in â€Å"Shooting an Elephant†, tells a story of his past when he killed an elephant in order to please the Burmese crowd. We will write a custom essay sample on Response to George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant or any similar topic only for you Order Now At the time, Orwell was a white Indian Imperial Police officer who was disliked by the country’s natives due to the fact that he was European. One day, he heard of an elephant’s doing of ravaging the town, so he ran to the scene with a rifle. When he finally arrived, he found himself observing a peacefully feeding elephant while a huge crowd of Burmans gathered excitedly to observe his future action. Even though he does not feel it right to shoot the elephant, he has this huge, unavoidable pressure from the Burmese crowd. Eventually, his final decision was to shoot the elephant and satisfy the natives’ hunger for excitement. Although the situation must have been difficult from Orwell’s perspective, his action of killing the elephant cannot be justified. George Orwell’s situation was definitely burdensome, looking from his perspective. He had his beliefs and feelings; yet, he vividly felt the pressure dawning on him as the natives assembled at the scene, eagerly and impatiently waiting for him to simply shoot the elephant. Especially for a person who â€Å"was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British,† he must have experienced an unbearable moment of making a decision. We all experience such burdensome pressure numerous times, starting from school as a kid. Students have such thing called peer pressure, where you are usually forced to do make a decision of whether or not to follow others’ ways. Whether in academic studies, sports, or social life, they always tend to end up following others’ beliefs and ways. For instance, peer pressure is the reason why the number of students who smoke since young age is rapidly increasing. However, conforming to others’ beliefs and ways means that person is lacking self-confidence and self-respect. In order to survive this world at least a little more joyfully, people must follow their own beliefs and practices as many times as possible. Even though he had his belief about killing the elephant, Orwell purely abandoned the idea of following his way, and concentrated on how to please the natives. Only after he carried out the action did he admit that he â€Å"had done it solely to avoid looking a fool,† meaning he had no self-confidence or self-respect. In fact, by doing so what he decided to do, Orwell became a fool who was too afraid to speak out his belief: that the elephant does not deserve to be killed. As Orwell states, â€Å"he wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. † Basically, people first hide their belief and conform to others’, then without knowing, they become to be one of them completely, losing their true selves. Following our own moral beliefs does not mean we must be ignorant of all outside beliefs. In other words, ignoring rules while living in a country with differing beliefs and laws is definitely a foolish act. For example, when I lived in Saudi Arabia, the national law forced us to wear black veils – called abbaya – like the local women outside home, and both the law and their belief forbid us to drink any kind of alcohol. Needless to say, we should not be fools as to go against any national laws to end up in prison, but our personal beliefs must still be kept safe. Furthermore, although Orwell faces a difficult situation, where he can either unnecessarily kill the elephant or decide not to, based on his own moral beliefs, he should have realized that he was the powerful one. Orwell explains his situation, â€Å"To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing – no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at. But I did not want to shoot the elephant. † It was a situation in which he could not help but act according to the natives’ expectations. Nevertheless, readers must not forget that he was the one in control and power, with the rifle in his hands, and the natives could neither physically harm him nor report that he did the wrong thing. This meant that he really could have protected his moral values, and be ignorant of what others desperately wanted him to do since he believed the action to be wrong. The result of standing up to our own beliefs and practices can mean conflict with others who have different ones. But another consequence is faith in ourselves, self-confidence in our identity and ability to carry out those beliefs. Maintaining these will help us survive our lives more successfully, although probably not easily; on the other hand, if we continue to conform to others’ beliefs, we will come to depend only on others and have no self-respect. Overall, the action of killing the elephant by George Orwell is not justified because, despite his moral belief about not killing the elephant, he went straight against it and shot the elephant, winning the natives’ expectations, and overcoming the boundary between them, but losing his true self and his beliefs. How to cite Response to George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant, Essay examples

A Class Divided for Broken Friendships - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theClass Divided for Broken Friendships and Behaviour. Answer: The video A class divided is a classroom situation that created primary school children subjected to discrimination and how they felt. The documentary explored ugly virus of prejudice or discrimination that led to mean behaviour, broken friendships and frustrations among the schoolchildren. They were mean to each other as brown eyed people were projected as inferior ones and blue eyed children used this term as derogatory and were mean to others. Blue-eyed children were mean saying brown eyed to be stupid (Public Broadcasting Service, 2017). The cause of racism for the children was the division of class into blue and brown-eyed children where blue eyed considered being superior to blue eyed children. Blue-eyed children considered they being smarter and better than brown eyed as teacher said. Some children considered themselves being privileged, smarter and superior and for others it was an affirmation of lifetime discrimination or prejudice. The cause of racism for adults was that struggle for justice and civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr.was murdered, as he was prominent in Civil Rights Movement. The reason for racism among adults was struggle for equal rights in the society for Blacks against Whites. They considered themselves superior than Blacks. On a contrary, the cause of racism between children was blue and brown coloured eyes demarcation where blue eyed were considered superior to brown eyed children. Fear of imprisonment and oppression acted as hindrance for people to stand for oppressed group. A society where racism exists gives rise to negative feelings among oppressed group as they considered themselves inferior. People who raise voices against the superior groups face harassment, bans and imprisonment. They are banned from using public places or transport, they feel oppressed and as a result hinder from raising voices against racism. If I encounter racism, I would inform the concerned authority to take in charge of the situation however, people are stopped from doing this due to many barriers. The fear of threatening, harassment, boycott, imprisonment and oppression in the society hinder people from projecting voices even when they see it happening. They are threatened as they try to raise their voices against oppression. The main reason for racial discrimination in NZ is nationality, skin colour, ethnicity or race. Apart from these, religious beliefs, appearance and spoken languages may also be the factors behind racial discrimination (Bcares, Cormack Harris, 2013). Racial discrimination at workplace is also common at employment situations and also on street or in a public place. The reason for racism in film was somewhat similar to the real life situations in the society. The children were divided based on eye colour or appearance considering blue-eyed children to be superior and smarter as compared to brown-eyed children. The video is linked to cultural safety and implications for future nursing practice. Cultural safety is important in nursing practice, as it is a way to work with a person from a different culture as defined by National Council of New Zealand (Banks Kelly, 2015). Nurses need to be competent enough to provide a culturally safe environment to the patient from different culture and demonstrate ability to work efficiently with them (McMurray Clendon, 2015). kawa whakaruruhau(cultural safety) that need to be maintained by nurses so that trusting therapeutic relationship is established in providing the best quality of care. References Banks, L., Kelly, M. (2015). Cultural safety and the Nursing Council of New Zealand.Cultural Safety in Aotearoa New Zealand, pp. 26. Bcares, L., Cormack, D., Harris, R. (2013). Ethnic density and area deprivation: Neighbourhood effects on M?ori health and racial discrimination in Aotearoa/New Zealand.Social Science Medicine,88, 76-82. McMurray, A., Clendon, J. (2015).Community Health and Wellness-E-book: Primary Health Care in Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences, pp. 360-368. www.pbs.org, (2017).A Class Divided. Retrieved 27 October 2017, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

The Rise Reign And Fall Of Medieval Towns Essays - Feudalism

The Rise Reign and Fall of Medieval Towns Before the rise of Medieval towns and somewhat during the reign the was a political and social system called feudalism. In this system which had three classes. The lowest class which was also the largest of them all was made of serfs. These serfs worked the land for their vassal. The vassal in return provided shelter for the serfs but also food and shelter for the lord as well as military service. The lord paid dues to the king. During much of the time the king had little power or control over the land largely because lords had a more powerful army. The majority of the land was on a manorial system. This was a socio-econaomic system which regulated land holding and production of food. The land was divided among the lord, vassals, serfs,and the church. The serfs worked all the land and got little of the food and often were treated poorly. There was also a class called villeins that worked the land but were free to leave if they could find someone to replace them. These people later developed into the merchant or middle class. The main fall of this system was the rise of absolute monarchs. They took power from the lords and thus nearlly ended the system of feudalism. With the fall of feudalism and the rise of the middle class trade between towns increased and between them. Due to this fact there was an increase in the demand for goods and services. Guilds were set up in order to establish control over a profession. They did this by setting standards of workmanship and price. They proteced the buissness from competion and gained status in society for guild members. In order to become a guild member a young man first had to become an apprentice to a master guildsman or legally bound to work for a certain amount of time in exchange for instruction in a specific trade. After the apprentice completed his master work and showed it to his instructor, if the work was satisfactory the young man could either set up his own shop in another town or become a member of the guild in his town. There was only one guild of a certain profession allowed in one town which elliminated competion. When the black death struck many people were killed. The black death was a plauge caused by fleas on rats that caused the victim to turn darkish color when the victim died. In an attempt to to ward off the black death people hung oranges with cloves stuck in the from their ceiling and door way. Many diseases were spread during this period because most people rarely bathed and there was no refridgeration. There was little to no medical help and evan a small cut could become infected and kill you. Medieval literature was mainly about chivalry( A system of ethical ideas which had virtues such as piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chastity, and knighthood). There was an increase in universities but they were mainly reserved for the rich so the majority of people remained illeterate. The Protastant Reformation shatterd the medieval unity of christianity. It began as a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, The reformation ultimately led to freedom of dissent. The movement of reformation and protastanism still comtinues today. The emphaisis on personal responsiblity and individual freedom as well as the influence in breaking the hold of the church upon every day life is proof of this.