Bluest Eye CR Post 3
Close Reading Archeological Dig
“My mother’s voice drones on. She is not talking to me. She is talking to the puke, but she is calling it my name: Claudia…My mother’s anger humiliates me; her words chafe my cheeks, and I am crying. I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness. I believe she despises my weakness for letting the sickness “take holt.” By and by I will not get sick; I will refuse to. But for now I am crying. I know I am making more snot, but I can’t stop.” (p. 11-2)
The theme of sickness is one that is shown both literally and metaphorically within The Bluest Eye. By showing illness using these methods, Toni Morrison is able to successfully illustrate how racism works in a deeper level than just the surface oppression that blacks experience from whites. From the passage above, she reveals that the story’s narrator, Claudia MacTeer, had caught a cold from gathering coal that have fallen out from railroad cars near her house.
Based on the passage above, when Claudia’s mother takes care of her, there is a certain angry undertone that surfaces and reflects the state in which blacks can also treat each other. Even within families, which are ideally supposed to be close, are not spared by the influence of racism. Here, racism can also be self-perpetuating, enough so that states of weaknesses are counted as an absence of strength. Sickness can be shown through the body as symptoms, but the reasons she has caught a cold includes factoring in systems such as poverty and racial barriers. This is enough for her to believe that she is the source of anger, failure, and disappointment. She reflects that she resolves to not get self later on, therefore become strong. However, by doing so, she is also denying a human part of her that naturally reacts to the harshness of her environment. It is only when she is young that she is able to express this truth, despite how hurtful it may be.
That being said, Morrison makes a deliberate choice in having Claudia reveal her age when retelling the story, as well as how it connects to this powerful memory. At the age of nine, Claudia acknowledges the fact she did not understand the world as much as she understood going along with the flow. Yet, even as a child she was able to subconsciously pick up on cues and sense that there was a favoritism towards whites, that there is a clear distinction between their living conditions, status, and race. The innocence of children, and their ability to pick up on the truths of their situations without really understanding it contribute to this sickness, which although is displayed as physical, later took hold over Claudia, and by extension, her community: “Our illness is treated with contempt, foul Black Draught, and castor oil that blunts our minds.” (p. 10)
Toni Morrison does well to raise the question of what would become of people if they view themselves or others as diseases, and if they allow the cycle of self hate to continue. This system of racism is not one-sided. Rather, it can lead to ingrained negativity that takes a physiological hold on the oppressed group themselves.