Lesson9TheBluestEye解读.docx

1、Lesson9TheBluestEye解读The Bluest Eye(Excerpts)by Toni MorrisonGuide to ReadingWhen we discuss contemporary American literature, it is impossible not to mention the name and works of Toni Morrison. A Nobel Prize winner for literature, she has written up to now seven novels, making significant contribu

2、tions to the depiction of African American experience. Unlike some African American writers who expose white racism against the blacks in a direct way, Morrisons exploration tends to be introverted, focusing on the relationships within the black community. Her novels often reveal how the dominant wh

3、ite culture has deprived the black people of their own cultural values and the destructive impact this cultural mutilationhas brought about among the black people. Although most of her novels are apparently set in her home town in Ohio, they not only depict the black experience in that region, but t

4、ell about shared human conditions with universal themes of love, death, betrayal, and the individuals responsibility for his or her own fate. Morrisons first novel The Bluest Eye, from which the following text is taken, tells the heartbreaking story of Pecola Breedlove, a vulnerable black girl, livi

5、ng in Lorain, Ohio, in the early 1940s. In a society where blue eyes and whiteness are equated with beauty, and therefore, goodnessand happiness while blackness is perceivedugliness, Pecolas greatest desire is to have blue eyes. Each night, without fail, she prays for pretty blue eyes. She believes

6、that having blue eyes is the key to wiping out all the unbearable miseries for her familytheir hopeless poverty, the constant fighting between the parents, the contempt of other children, etc. She imagines that with blue eyes, she will become a beautiful girl loved by everyone. In her wildimaginatio

7、n Pecola feels that the color of her eyes has been finally transformed. Ironically, instead of love, what she gets in the end is the violence of her fathers rape. Rather than happiness, she sinks deeper into the abyss of misery. Her dream of finding shelter in her fantasy of whiteness mercilessly de

8、stroyed, the girl is thrown into madness. Following is one of the most vivid scenes in the novel. In this part the author describes a particular type of blacksbrown-skinned people. They hold themselves high above the other blacks. These sugar-brown or milk-brown girls are from better families, “go t

9、o land-grant colleges, learn how to do the white mans work with refinement,” marry successfully, living in their own inviolable worlds in quiet, black neighborhoods. With a certain proportion of white blood in them, they feel superior to other black people. Like the whites, they detest blackness, an

10、d project their hatred and contempt for it onto Negroes with darker skins. They blindly believe in the mainstream white cultural values and imitate the white middle class in every possible way. They are unable to establish healthy relationships with their own people. Geraldine is such a woman, and h

11、er son Junior is on the way of becoming one like her. Incapable of human love, Geraldine finds comfort in her cat. So when her cat is killed (by her son), she pours all her anger onto Pecola and cruelly drives the poor girl from her home. Once again, Pecola is made a victim. Yet, Geraldine, who has

12、victimizedthis helpless black girl, is also a victim herselfa victim of racial prejudice that has penetrated into the minds of black people like her and warpedtheir true identity. This scene is vivid and disturbing. After reading the story the reader finds it hard to forget the characters and their

13、fate. Realisticdetails, metaphorical language and the freshest and most strikingprose all contribute to Morrisons effective exploration of complex themes through telling simple stories. Text1.They come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Meridian. And the sounds of these place

14、s in their mouths make you think of love. When you ask them where they are from, they tilt their heads and say Mobile and you think youve been kissed. They say Aiken and you see a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing. They say Nagadoches and you want to say Yes, I will. You dont know

15、what these towns are like, but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out. 2.Meridian. The sound of it opens the windows of a room like the first four notesof a hymn. Few people can say the names of their home towns with such sly affection. Perhaps because

16、they dont have home towns, just places where they were born. But these girls soak up the juiceof their home towns, and it never leaves them. They are thinbrown girls who have looked long at hollyhocks in the backyards of Meridian, Mobile, Aiken, and Baton Rouge. And like hollyhocks they are narrow, tall, and still. Their roots are deep, their stalks are firm, and only the top blossom nodsin the wind. They have the eyes of people who can tell what time it