The Bluest Eye Commentary
Maurice Del Rio
Y3BA
Extract from Page 14
• Claudia expresses her anger through the
plastic white doll, having the “desire to
dismember it”.
Linguistic Devices: List of 3
• “all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed,
yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what
every girl child treasured” – list of three,
allowing the readers to visually picture the
perfect doll as if it was an actual white human
being. Using different colours of blue, yellow
and pink shows the stereotypes of a “perfect”
white girl during those times. By using the
word “treasured” shows that this is thought to
be the most beautiful features of a perfect girl
which every child wants to look like
Vocabulary
• “I had only one desire: to dismember it” – the word
“desire” shows Claudia is desperate in finding out why
white girls are labeled as ‘perfect’. The word “dismember”
is negative connotations showing her violent nature. This
displays a cathartic experience, dismembering the doll
because she knows that she cannot do it to al the real
white girls. “Dismembering” the dolls shows Claudia’s
physical manifestation
• Oxymoron “the sweet and plaintive cry” – an oxymoron
is used with the words sweet and plaintive. Sweet is a
soothing word and portrays positive imagery although
plaintive describes a mournful person. This is done to
show the sweetness of the doll is more plaintive in
Claudia’s eyes.
Alliteration
• “I fingered the face, wondering at the single-stroke
eyebrows” – alliteration is being used with the letter
“f” making it sound more aggressive and violent
towards the doll. The word “fingered” shows Claudia
is examining the doll, allowing us the image her
determination in ripping the doll apart
• “to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the
desirability that had escaped me” – alliteration is
used by Toni Morrison to make it seem Claudia is
very desperate and willing in knowing why the white
girls acquire “treasured” beauty.
Simile
• “teeth stuck like two piano keys between red
bowline lips” – a simile is being used to make
the scene seem more horrid. Normally, teeth
on a “perfect” doll is pretty and perfect
although in this scene, it is shown that it looks
more like piano keys. This displays a parallel
structure and metaphoric imagery allowing
the readers to understand that Claudia
doesn’t find white girls pretty
Onomatopoeia
• “Ahhhh, take off the head” – shows the
writers use of onomatopoeia. We can see
Claudia shouts with agony, expressing her
anger externally as well as internally. This
expressive emotion allows the readers to
fully understand she is very immature and
has the perspective of a young child. By
saying “take off the head”, also shows
she’s bewildering towards the doll acting
as if it was a real human.
Structure
• “poked the glassy blue eyeballs, twisted the
yellow hair” – as mentioned before, colours of
stereotypes on white people having blonde hair
and blue eyes are being mentioned although
negative actions are done like “poked” and
“twisted” allowing us to see Claudia’s animalistic
nature.
• This displays a parallel structure, since
vocabulary words of beauty and colour are being
used in the same sentence with negative words.
The structure shows the writers use of
metaphoric language and irony.
Language
• The language used by Toni Morrison is
very child-like and violent. This displays
Claudia as a immature girl who has yet to
find out the harsh reality of the world.
Words such as “fingered” or “poked” add
to the fact she is only a young girl.
Knowing the dolls aren’t real, Claudia still
acts as if they are actually white human
beings.