Category Archives: The Bluest Eye

FInal Project Check-In 2- Group B: Rachel and Erica

The fliers our group will create would incorporate the book, The bluest eye. In it, we would illustrate how black girls are misrepresented by society and how that creates mental health issues through misrepresentation. Such detrimental self image ( with lack of accurate representation) could cause trauma which leads to anxiety, suicides, or mental illnesses that might seem to develop from nowhere with no cause. The fliers would be an informative piece that shows that racial disparities still exist even though it is 2017. In the fliers, there would be statistics along with with object images from the novel and from contemporary times that prove it is still a factor that effects women.

The setting in the book is in the 40s. From then til now, not much has changed in how society still portray black women. The difference is in its subtlety in how the world presents black women disparagingly through the media and what not. This applies to all black females as like in the book where we see the females and their questions and views on appearance and beauty are raised and talked about.  Because it is an informative flier, it would be available and or passed out publicly. They would be pinned in public libraries where children would have access to them with their parents. Other than that, Baruch would be one of the sites where the fliers would be posted and passed out. This would cover grounds on all levels where girls of all age range, young or old, single or married, would be reached. Of course, there would be sites and hotlines printed on the flier so individuals would be able to seek help or look more into mental issues, anxiety, or any stress release.

There are many fliers out there that also serve the purpose of promoting awareness about mental health, anxiety, and suicide. The difference in our flier is that we would present stats with images that show some of the major causes of these issues. What we are doing is placing some of the society’s “deemed” standards and paralleling them to some of the images from the nove in their timel and connecting them to the causation of these mental issues that  are still perpetuated now.

 

Group B 2nd check in – Rachel and Erica

What: We decided that we will be creating flyers to inform college students about mental illness. The flyer will include information on mental illness such as Depression, Anxiety, thoughts of suicide or even if there is a stressful event in their lives. There will be symptoms and signs that students should look out for to help them identify if they feel any of these symptoms and whether they should seek the help that they would need. The fliers will also provide access to a suicide hotline number as well as the Baruch psychologist center. We will be handing these flyers out to students around campus as well as putting them up around where students will see them.

Why: The main character from our book, The Bluest Eye, eventually projected that she had developed a mental illness at the end of the book. Pecola has obviously been through very traumatic events throughout her young life. During this time, she had no help in coping with these issues. We want to help those who feel like they have no one to turn to. We want to provide access to those that need to express their feelings. College students like ourselves struggle with school work and are sometimes juggling work and school. This can really take a toll on them which causes extreme stress and can lead to depression. We want to help our peers overcome these problems by enabling them to seek the help that they need. We want to be a part of helping those who are suicidal and, we hope that this effort of ours will help someone in this condition. We urge those who feel stressed to speak their mind and let off some steam. Unfortunately, Pecola did not have anyone to guide her and give her support but we do and we want to make sure that this opportunity is presented.

Group D: Final Project , Shatavia, Jeleah, Kye, Angel

What:  For our group project we are going to create a scrapbook.  A scrapbook is a book of blank pages for sticking clippings, drawings, or pictures in.  The scrapbook is going to be designed exactly how we think Jefferson, Grant, or a character from the book would create it.  We will be filling up the scrapbook with Jefferson’s important memories, moments, recipes, and his time in jail.  In order to do this, we will be looking for symbols in magazines, things from the internet, clippings in newspapers and physical objects.  Being in jail and confined to one place causes a person to use their imagination.  Similar to Jefferson and Grant they are both trapped in situations that cause them to do a lot of imagining and thinking.  Something our group will be doing in order to create the perfect scrapbook that represents “A Lesson Before Dying”.

 

Why: In the book “A Lesson before Dying” a lot of the book has to do with symbols and teaching.  Jefferson is being taught a lesson by being sentenced to death.  Grants job as a teacher is to teach and he is also asked to teach Jefferson how to become a man.  Since teaching plays a huge role in this book, the scrap book will be created to teach others about our insights, thoughts, and main ideas about the book.  We all thought it would be a good gesture to create a visual.  This way our imagination and how we views things from the book can be brought to life.

Group Project Check #1

Erica Chan, Shannon, Rachel Ramphal

The Bluest Eye

Choice of presentation: Flier, Poster or Picture blog

  1. A flier/poster/picture blog on bullying emphasizing on youth and how bullying from the popular youth affects others. This corresponds to the part where Maureen insults Pecola and her friends.
  2. A flier/poster/picture blog on sexual abuse of youths. This is in regards to Cholly sexually abusing his daughter ( Pecola).
  3. A flier/poster/picture blog on mental trauma and raising awareness for those who need help for depression or mental trauma. This emphasizes on Pecola’s condition at the end of the novel.

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye depicts a young colored girl, Pecola, who believes that she is not considered beautiful in other’s perspective. In the chapter about Autumn Pecola visits a candy store where she feels “shame” for having sweaty palms. She then leaves and comes across some dandelions that were growing out of the sidewalk cracks. Pecola refers to the dandelions as being “ugly” because they are weeds. Weeds are considered to be valueless and insignificant to the world. They are worthless in the eyes of people. Pecola felt anger as she went on. The “ugliness” of the weeds reminded Pecola of how she felt that she was ugly and worthless.

Pecola was told throughout the book that she was ugly by her mother. Neighbors and even in school she was told that she was ugly. Growing up she paired being ugly to the color of her eyes, skin and hair. She thought that having the bluest eyes  would make her the most beautiful girl  however like the dandelions Pecola was not considered one of a kind. She was not extraordinary nor was she a sight to gaze at. She was the sort of girl that people would view as low class and irrelevant. Just like dandelions were no flowers, Pecola was no flower.

“They are ugly. They are weeds.”(pg. 50)   These were the words Morrison incorporated into the text where Pecola is confronted with the dandelions. Her play on words gives us that sense of meaning without actually having to say what is. With just these two lines, we can feel the pain that Pecola endures about her beauty. In this way she isn’t talking about the dandelions, she is talking about herself and the shame she feels. As we go on in the same text, she feels anger and that anger gives her an idea of self-worth which the dandelions didn’t do for her.

 

The Bluest Eye Close Reading

As readers can tell, there is the significance of the “The Bluest Eye” that Toni Morrison wanted to stress to her readers. It is the symbol of beauty and perfection.  It was  something Pecola Breedlove, who is described to be this “ugly” and “black” girl, desired most of all,  believing it to be the one thing that could alter her life. As for Claudia, her feelings for these blue eyes are opposite. Instead, she despises the “Shirley Temple” images, yellow haired and blue eyes. In contrast, both these characters have their own ideas about these blue eyes. The image of beauty is different for these two girls.

Early on the reading, we learn that Claudia has a hatred for “little white girls”. (p.22) Her disdain is carried onto the dolls she’d been given on holidays like Christmas. “What I felt at that time was unsullied hatred. But before that I had felt a stranger, more frightening thing than hatred for all the Shirley Temples of the world.” (p.19) Claudia never understood why the grown ups believed that a doll was something she would ever want. What she truly wanted was to be surrounded by her family with love. She admits that there is an element of desire the dolls and “Shirley Temples” hold that she didn’t have. It was something missing within her that she can’t seem to acquire but it also was something she couldn’t fully grasp. At the end of it all, her dolls were always mutilated. “Remove the cold and stupid eye ball,…” (p.21)

For Pecola, the one thing that she believes to make her “ugly”, is her eyes. She thinks they are the very thing that makes her unbearable, the reason why people don’t look at her. When her father, Cholly and mother, Mrs. Breedlove would argue and get into a fight, she would pray to God to make her disappear. In her mind, that act of vanishing was never possible because her eyes would never disappear.  Her constant wish to get these blue eyes stems from her belief that they’re set her apart from her family. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights-if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” (p.46) If she had them, Pecola thinks her family will love her and she would be beautiful.

The author wants very much for the readers to see what these “blue eyes” signified for each of these characters. What they mean for them are different but the mental affects of it shows how “blue eyes” are  and was deemed more beautiful and how young and black girls had to view their own beauty as secondary.