Ketzia Chetrite and Claire Hayate

Ketzia Chetrite and Claire Hayate

CA2 oral - passage 7- The Bluest Eye

Introduction:

This text is an extract from The Bluest Eye and was written by the African American writer Toni Morrison. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. In this scene, Pecola, a black little girl, goes to Yacobowski's Fresh Veg. Meat and Sundries Store to buy candies. She decides she wants Mary Janes. Unfortunately, she discovers without surprise that as soon as she enters the shop she becomes once again the victim of racism. The important themes are racism because Morrison wants to show how Pecola is treated in this scene. There is also the theme of vision which clearly describes the relationship between Mr Yacobowski and Pecola. Moreover, the author uses symbolism a lot. In this scene, the narrator is exterior.

The verb "encounter" shows that Mr Yacobowski really has to make an effort to look at her, she represents someone difficult to look at or hostile. This reveals that he is racist and cannot bear to acknowledge her.

The expression "Blue eyes" shows that the only thing that there is to see for P. is the eyes of other people. She concentrates her vision on this when she looks at Mr Y.

The simile "like Indian summer moving imperceptibly toward fall" shows that Pecola did not expect Mr Y. to look at her since she is used to the fact that people tend to ignore her.

The choice of word "toward her" instead of "at her" shows that Mr Y. does not look directly at P. but only in her direction because he is racist and does not want to be dirtied by P. sight.

Morrison makes a clear distinction between "vision" and "view" to emphasize the fact Y. sees P. but does not pay attention to her.

"he does not see her because for him there is nothing to see": shows that she is almost transparent to him ,she does not exist. This behavior emphasizes the fact that P. is eager to completely disappear as we can see a few pages before: she does not move until she cannot feel any part of her body.

"Yeah" reveals how unfriendly and unwelcoming Y. is to Pecola. It shows once again the racist behavior that Y. has and he probably wouldn't have with other people.

"the total absence of human recognition": Y. does not consider P as a human only because she is different, she is black and his white. He therefore thinks he is superior to her.

Also, P knows that it is only because she is a little girl that he dares to look at her, he is less disgusted by the color of her skin because she stills has the appearance of a little girl.

"This vacuum is not new to her": she is used to being treated differently and ignored.

"The distaste must be for her, her blackness":she realizes that when she looks at her he is disgusted by the fact that she is black. This idea confirms the sense of hatred for the black society.

The expression "her blackness is static and dread" points to the fact that things around her continue to change but she is always going to stay black and she cannot do anything about it.

The word "them" depicts the fact that she is unable to express herself in front of him since he put her in a difficult position as she clearly senses his hatred for her and more importantly for black people in general.

The Mary Janes are a symbol for Pecola's eagerness to fit into the white society. She wants to buy candies that white people usually buy.

"He cannot see her view": When P wants to show the Mary Janes to Y., they clearly do not understand each other; they both see it from a different angle just like the fact that they both see the world from different angles. They experience it differently: Pecola is constantly rejected and Y. is the one who rejects. Moreover, Y. makes no effort to understand P. just like the fact that he makes no effort to understand the black society, he does not care about their feelings.

"Not wanting to touch her hand". This behavior emphasizes P’s disgust for Y so much that he does not even want to have a glimpse of contact with her. She is therefore dishumanized because she is treated like an animal who can't be touch, as if she was infected. For Y. black people are all infected and do not deserve to be treated as human.

Conclusion:

This scene depicts well how racism affects black society and how it contributes to Pecola slow downfall since she becomes mad at the end of the book. She slowly disappears due to the fact that people no longer see her.