Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Jamming to the blues? or to the Bluest eye?

When you listen to the blues, it’s sad, it’s slow, and it wraps you around someone’s story. It’s so beautifully painful. The artist pouring out their heart and soul into the song they have created. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is like the blues. It’s a sad slow song that wraps you around someone’s story making you feel the emotions being portrayed but in her own style making sure you know its not you average story. Turning a book into a beautiful blues song.
            The book doesn’t speak of just anyone’s blues there isn’t one person going through a problem the book talks of everyone’s problems. Pecola, Freida, Claudia, Cholly, Mrs. Breedlove and even minor characters like Maureen had their problems reflected in the book. Their problems were not ass bad as Pecolas but they still brought out a sympathetic feeling out of the reader. We have Claudia and who is struggling to embrace her own colors in a way. You can see this in the way she gets upset at the white doll she is given and when Maureen was being put on a pedestal because of her skin tone. I feel like her anger and wanting to hurt people when she was upset was her way in coping with it. In a way I feel like she was having her own struggle even Maureen to me had her own little struggle because it seemed the she couldn’t even realize that she wasn’t white. Lighter than everyone she may be but one of her parents is still black and I feel that she doesn’t accept it. Sometimes when you hear a blues song it doesn’t just talk about that one person it has another party in the song and I feel every character in the book was another party that was added to make the story/song what it was.

            Ultimately though the song comes back to the one person that song or person was talking about. It may go to other topics but the song always comes back to the main point. To me the main point was Pecola because without her there would be no song. Her problems are so severe but it makes people feel better about their selves. It’s like their life may suck but at the end of the day as long as they aren’t Pecola they can survive. And like a blues song the story tries to make a good in that bad,  yes its bad they deserted Pecola and she was treated horribly but it helped others move on with their own lives. So in a way Pecola was a savior to the people.

1 comment:

  1. I'm really sorry if this is short; I have no clue why my comment didn't post. /:

    When I wrote the comment, I mostly talked about how you began this blog. I don't know whether it was the characteristics of the blues, or the fact that every sentence drew me in to read more. I definitely agree with your claims about Pecola and the rest of the characters in the book. Everyone had their own personal problems, but no one compared to Pecola's. They all used her to somewhat feel uplifted about themselves. It's tragic; but unfortunately it happens even today. I really liked this blog. It was one of my favorites. Your voice was strong, every sentence has meaning, and it kept drawing me in - because I could relate (Idea wise).
    Amazing blog Steph(:!

    ReplyDelete