Wednesday, December 30, 2015

What do the passages from the child's reading primer at the beginning of the chapters represent in The Bluest Eye?

The passage from the child's primer also symbolizes that
which is slowly destroying Pecola's sanity, primarily the fact that her life is not
happy and as "perfect" as that of a child with blue eyes, or more specifically, a white
child. The characters Dick and Jane in the children's primer were beautiful according to
that time period's standards because of their blonde hair and blue eyes (the latter
being that which Pecola desperately wants). Furthermore, they seemed to live a perfect
life in the illustrations, having a mom and dad that loved them and cared for them, a
beautiful home with a white picket fence, and even a dog named Spot.  These were all the
things that Pecola longed for. Her desire for the blue eyes is symbolic of her desire
for the things she believed a child with blue eyes would have, i.e. Dick and Jane's
life. Not only does Morrison's way of using the primer symbolize the different kinds of
familly, but it also stands as a sharp contrast to Pecola's reality. Dick and Jane's
lives were her fantasy.

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