THE BLUEST EYE
Melek BINERER
Ezgi DEMIRTUNC
Janbek OZDEMIR
Beri PARDO
OUTLINE
 Thesis Statement
 Political Commentary


Racism in USA
Jim Crow Laws

Racism in The Bluest Eye
 Cultural Commentary
 (Black) Feminism
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 The Theft of Innocence
Thesis Statement
• In “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison,
the writer subtly talks about black
feminism and the theft of innocence by
using political and cultural commentary.
RACISM IN USA
 Colonization Process
 Civil War (1876-1865)
 Jim Crow Laws (1876-1964)
JIM CROW LAWS
 - A black male could not offer
his hand (to shake hands) with a
white male because it implied
being socially equal. Obviously, a
black male could not offer his
hand or any other part of his
body to a white woman, because
he risked being accused of rape.
 - Blacks and Whites were not
supposed to eat together. If they
did eat together, Whites were to
be served first, and some sort of
partition was to be placed
between them.
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 - Whites did not use courtesy titles of
respect when referring to Blacks, for
example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or
Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called
by their first names. Blacks had to
use courtesy titles when referring to
Whites, and were not allowed to call
them by their first names.
 - If a black person rode in a car
driven by a White person, the black
person sat in the back seat, or the
back of a truck.
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_img/topics/p/jim_crow_laws
 - Under no circumstance was a
Black male to offer to light the
cigarette of a White female -- that
gesture implied intimacy.
 - Blacks were not allowed to
show public affection toward one
another in public, especially
kissing, because it offended
Whites.
 - Jim Crow etiquette prescribed
that Blacks were introduced to
Whites, never Whites to Blacks.
http://americanrefugee.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/jimcrowprotest.jpg
 - All passenger stations in this
state operated by any motor
transportation company shall
have separate waiting rooms or
space and separate ticket
windows for the white and
colored races (Alabama).
 - The schools for white children
and the schools for negro
children shall be conducted
separately (Florida).
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iveblue_img/topics/p/jim_crow_laws
RACISM IN THE BLUEST EYE
 Morrison tries to show the hard life
conditions of black people in social life and
how they are treated by white people.
 She also highlights the great differences
between white and black people and how
blacks are considered as second class
citizens.
LORAIN, OHIO, 1940-41
http://www.longwharf.org/off_blueLorain.html
• What is feminism?
Feminism
• “Social movement that seeks equal rights for
women.” (EB)
• “The belief that women should be allowed the
same rights, power and opportunities as men
and be treated in the same way” (Cambridge)
• “a movement to end sexism, sexist
exploitation, and oppression” (bh)
• Women = Men
• Pro-Feminism
Thus far..
• Late 19th- early 20th century
• The struggle and the “suffrage” to gain
rights
• Led by...
• Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women
(1979)
Black Feminism
• Emerged in 1970s
• the Black Liberation
Movement & the
Women's Movement
• Challenges...
• What challenges, do
you think?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zJsqa6ndL._SL500_.jpg
In The Bluest Eye
• "She said she would let me stay if I left
him. I thought about that. But later on it
didn't seem none too bright for a black
woman to leave a black man for a white
woman" (p. 120).
• "...she told me I shouldn't let a man take
advantage over me. That I should have
more respect, and it was my husband's
duty to pay the bills, and if he couldn't, I
should leave and get alimony" (p. 120).
In The Bluest Eye
• Pauline beats her husband
Retrieved May 22 from http://singleindependentsistah.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/couple_arguing.jpg
TONI MORRISON
MORRISON INFLUENCED BY
Mother side
Father Side
grandfather, a Kentucky
carpenter and farmer
father, sharecropper
because of the state's racism
and poverty, he moved his
family to Ohio
had similar reasons to escape
racial oppression in Georgia
and relocate in the North
stories and tales about the
horrors of black life during
the Reconstruction era
he distrusted "every word and
every gesture of every white
man on earth."
"whatever I did was easy in
comparison with what they
had to go through."
LORAIN, OHIO
 born in Lorain, Ohio, 1931
 a multicultural steel town
 consists of Czech, German,
Irish, Greek, Italian, Serb,
Mexican, and black suburbanites
http://pics2.city-data.com/city/maps/fr423.png
 religious environment
"We were taught that as individuals we had value, irrespective of what the
future might hold for us."
 The women of the black community served as a tightly woven
safety net
 had to contend with the racial prejudice
 educational system ignored the contributions of nonwhites
http://faculty.upj.pitt.edu/jalexander/Research%20archive/Johnson%20Company/Lorai
n%20Steel,%20Johnstown%20Works,%201911.jpg
THEMES OF THE NOVEL
 racism
against blacks
 discrimination based on skin colors
 black society’s intolerence to the taboos of incest
Can you give an example of the
view about blacks’ social life?
“Black e mo Black e mo Ya daddy sleeps
nekked.
Stch ta ta scth ta ta
Stach ta ta ta ta ta”
HIERARCHICAL SOCIETY
whites
blacks
poor blacks
Can you give some examples
from our novel which represent
such classes?
What were the differences between
the blacks’ and whites’ world in the
novel?
DIFFERENCES OF TWO WORLDS
WORLD OF WHITES
WORLD OF BLACKS
•
•
blue sky
porcelain bath tub with silvery taps,
hot&clear water, fluffy white towels
•
•
orange-patched sky
zinc bath tub; buckets of stove-heated
water; flaky,stiff, grayish towels
•
beauty, order, cleanliness and praise
•
no beauty or style
•
a large white spacious kitchen in
where there are odors of meat,
vegetables
•
no kitchen in Breedloves storefront
they have just two rooms and they can't
find easily something to eat
•
•
•
park for white children
wealth
blue eyes
•
•
•
park is forbidden for black chilren
poverty
desire of blue eyes
THE THEFT OF INNOCENCE
• Cholly’s theft of Pecola’s innocence
• What symbolizes Pecola’s innocence?
• How does Cholly steal it?- “thief”
Do we see the theme of theft of
innocence in the movie “Precious” too?
Explain.
•
•
•
-
Sexual coming of age
First sexual experiences
Pecola’s innocenceSeeing their father naked
Her first menstruation
Why do we call this event loss of “innocence”? Isn’t
Pecola an innocent girl anymore? Explain your thoughts.
Some Quotes...
• “Am I going to die?” (pg.28)
• “How do you get someone to love you?”(pg.32)
• “ So when the child regained consciousness, she was
lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt, trying to
connect the pain between her legs with the face of her
mother looming over her.”(pg.163)
• “The tenderness welled up in him, and he sank to his
knees, his eyes on the foot of his daughter.” (pg.162)
• “I never saw my daddy naked. Never.” (pg.72)
Cholly
•
•
•
•
•
•
His traumatic sex experience
Self- hatred
“Lovelessness”
Having grown up without any parents
Abuses his wife
Endangers everybody around him
Pecola
• She is the one who is seen as guilty
• She suffers and pays for this event
• This event is not only her loss of innocence, but loss of
her baby and her existance
•How do Cholly and
Frieda’s father play a role in
their daughters’ first sexual
experiences?
• In what way these roles are
exactly opposite?
• The result• Pecola is beaten up , goes mad, everybody
hates her, her baby dies, her life gets
ruined. She is excluded from the society.
• Her mother --mad at Pecola.
• Nothing changes for Cholly –goes on to
his life. His traumatic sexual experience
causes another traumatic experience for a
little girl. -----Racism
References
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feminism. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from Encyclopædia
Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/724633/feminism
Black feminism. Retrieved May 21, 2010, from
http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/thistle/v9/9.01/6blackf.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAjimcrow.htm
http://sabanciyabanci.wikispaces.com/
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage Books.
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