Define “style”…
Objectives
 BTEOTL, SWBAT
 Discuss and analyze stylistic elements that reveal Toni
Morrison’s style of writing.
 Interpret a text in order to discuss characterization and themes
in The Bluest Eye.
 Comment on African American identity and standards of
beauty through the work of Toni Morrison and the video clip
experiment of “The Doll Test” in order to grasp the effect of
racial inequality and segregation of African Americans in the
1940s and 50s.
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/the-clark-dollexperiment/
Style…
 Style is what makes something unique and personal to an
individual.
 What elements do we need to analyze when discussing author’s
style?
 DIDLS
 Diction
 Imagery
 Detail
 Language
 Syntax
DICK AND JANE
An American Story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Jane
http://www.amazon.com/Dick-Jane-Fun/dp/0448434113
http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/curriculum/revi
ews.aspx?id=222

Context
 Used to teach kids to read
 Taught readers what is right and wrong
 Gave readers a context about society
 Socialized young readers (influenced their ideas about
society and their place in society)
Symbolism
 The Dick and Jane series was used years ago to teach
children to read. In the series, the siblings were members of
a happy, loving family. They lived with both parents and an
adorable dog in a beautiful house. Morrison opens the book
and each chapter with a paragraph from the series.
Continued…
 By beginning the novel this way, Morrison is setting up the
house as a symbol. A symbol is something in a story that
stands for or suggest another thing. In The Bluest Eye, the
type and condition of a family’s home is a symbol of its
social or financial status.
The Breedlove Home
 Dick and Jane live in a beautiful house. The Breedloves,
however, live in a decaying apartment. It is a symbol of
their poverty. It may also hint at the declining nature of the
family’s interpersonal relations.
 Morrison contrasts the life of the Breedloves with the idyllic
life of the white middle-class society with its economic
stability and ideals of beauty and happiness by referencing
the grade school primer. This was the earliest introduction
of the African American child to the status quo.
Negative Change
 The Dick-and-Jane series also symbolizes the negative
change in the characters’ lives. Morrison distorts the
paragraphs as the novel progresses. It becomes impossible
to decipher where sentences begin and end. Like the words,
Pecola’s life becomes squeezed. She is forced into maturity.
She is boxed into impossible situations. Her life hardly
resembles that of the young girl introduced in chapter 1.
Pecola’s Conflict
 Bitter. Hostile. Cold. Dysfunctional. This is Pecola’s
introduction to life. This is what prompts her to pray for
blue eyes that would make not only her family, but the
world as she knows it, accept and love her.
Group Work
 In your groups, reread and ANNOTATE for STYLE the
first section of the novel (handout).
 As a group, complete the DIDLS sheet for the excerpt.
The Doll Test
 Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted psychological experiments
on African American children. In one test, The Doll Test, young
children were given brown dolls and white dolls (these dolls were
the same make and style – just different in color). In the
experiment, the Clarks found that most of the black children
viewed the black dolls negatively and the white dolls positively.
This study was cited in Brown vs. Board of Education as support for
the idea that damage was being done to African American children
because of school segregation. Recently (2005), Kiri Davis re-conducted
the Clark’s Doll Test and the results are quite similar.
Independent Practice
 Answer questions in complete sentences.
 Complete the Quick Write.