the bluest eye 最蓝的眼睛

Social Background
• The story in this novel happened in 1940s.Although slave system had been cancelled, Black had been unable to get rid of racial discrimination that exists in every corner of American society. This discrimination is grimly dominant in the mind of the White and the Brown.
• Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison does not identify her works as feminist. • She has stated that she thinks ―it‗s off-putting(令人不快) to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things.
Toni Morrison
• Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters.
• Morrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. • She went to one meeting with a short story about a black girl who longed to have blue eyes. The story later evolved into her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970).
the Bluest Eye
Themes
• The importance of family and community • The innocence of children • Seeing versus Being seen • Sexual Initiation and abuse • Powerlessness of Women and children and child molestation • The cyclical nature of racism • Whiteness is the standard of beauty • ……
• Paragraph 10-53 – a small incident between the heroine Pecola Breedlove- a black girl and a boy and his brown mother.
wk.baidu.comobile
• Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States.
Cobb County courthouse in Marietta
Meridian
• Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan. Statistical Area. Along major highways, the city is 93 mi (150 km) east of Jackson, MS; 154 mi (248 km) west of Birmingham, AL; 202 mi (325 km) northeast of New Orleans, LA; and 231 mi (372 km) southeast of Memphis, TN.
Newport News
City Center at Oyster Point
Marietta
• Marietta is a city located in central Cobb County, Georgia,and is its county seat. • As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,748, making it one of metro Atlanta's largest suburbs. Census estimates of 2008 indicate a population of 67,021.Marietta is the third-largest of three principal cities (by population) of and is included in the Atlanta– Sandy Springs–Marietta, Georgia, metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the AtlantaSandy Springs-Gainesville, Georgia-Alabama (part) combined statistical area.
motifs
• • • • Dirtiness and Cleanliness Whiteness and Coloredness Ugliness and Beauty ……
Pattern
施婷娜
Structure
• Paragraph 1-9 – the debut and description of ―the brown girls‖.
the Bluest Eye
• • • • • • Character: Pecola Breedlove Geraldine Junior The cat Louis
• The story of elevenyear-old Pecola Breedlove, the tragic heroine of Toni Morrison’s haunting first novel, grew out of her memory of a girlhood friend who wanted blue eyes.
Aiken
Aiken County Courthouse
• Newport News is an independent city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the south-western end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiff's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News Point on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
Background
詹宁
• • • • • • • • • •
Born :February 18, 1931 (1931-02-18) Lorain, Ohio, United States Occupation :Novelist, Writer Genres: African American literature Notable work(s) :Beloved, Song of Solomon Notable award(s) : Nobel Prize in Literature 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1988
Mobile
• From top: Pincus Building, Old City Hall and Southern Market, Fort Condé, Barton Academy, Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and the skyline of downtown Mobile from the Mobile River.
• Pecola lives with her alcoholic father and embittered, overworked mother in a shabby storefront that reeks of the hopeless destitution that overwhelms their lives. • Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes. In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her.
• Aiken is a city in and the county seat of Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. With Augusta, Georgia, it is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. It is part of the Augusta-Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area. Aiken is home to the University of South Carolina at Aiken. The population was 25,337 at the 2000 census. Aiken was recognized with the All-America City Award in 1997 by the National Civic League