#5

This picture could be my thesis.   I could stop my blog right here.   .   .   But, I won’t, don’t worry.   

Toni Morrison has embedded metaphors in her writing that are used to compare against plot situation in her book.   The comparison between the metaphor and the plot makes the story even more dramatic and the events devastating.   In the Bluest Eye, a big metaphor was the Dick and Jane story.   Dick and Jane are siblings, they are white, they have a family; they had the perfect life.  Morrison included this text from a Dick and Jane Story: “Here is the house.   .   .   It’s very pretty. Here is the family.   Mother, Father, Dick and Jane live in the green and white house.   They are very happy.   .   .   .   See mother .Mother is very nice.   .  .See father.   He is big and strong.   Father is smiling”    They live the perfect white picket fence American dream.  They have an unrealistic stable and happy family.  They have a daughter with a cute little dress and happy parents.  

This is the same type of “dream”  that the community of Lorain, Ohio upheld in the Bluest Eye; a stable family, good children and a non-problematic household . Lorain, Ohio had their own rendition of a ‘dream’ family that was - a good Christian woman, who and the hardworking man that provided for his family, and well rounded, presentable children.

Now, Pecola comes into this.   She is the opposite in everything that make a well-rounded family.  Her mother physically abused, her father is a drunk and her brother is always ready to run away.   On top of that, Pecola is the victim of insult, ugly, poor and the negative adjectives can go on and on.  

The community looks down on her for who she is, because they truly don't know her at all.   Why do only a two people in the whole book seem sympathetic for her? Her own father raped her for goodness sake and the baby died as well! It’s not as if she wanted to have his child, be raped and have the worst fortune. Not to forget, she had to leave school and no one even looks her in the eye.   Repeating the Dick and Jane story in the beginning and using versus as chapter title, continual remind the reader this story is significant to make Pocola’s misery stand out.   Readers can true see Pecola’s life is nothing close to the life of Dicks and Jane.  

Another thought is that Morrison is using the Dick and Jane metaphor, not to encourage us to remember our history, but to help remind society to understand and remember someone’s history.  People should try to understand, to know to, and to take the time to know someone’s past before we turn our eyes from them.  Forgetting to truly grasp and understand someone’s history, from their point of view, before judging them is dangerous for society.   Who wants to live in an inconsiderate world?  

Morrison encourages us to not be the kind of society that judges by appearance and surface facts but to consider that person past and personal know their history because it could change our outlook.

Take Cholly for example, he raped his daughter but he didn't know how to show love to his daughter because he had no parent to show him.   Soaphead church was lonely with no wife, a depressing childhood as well and found no pleasure in woman or man, so he resulted in children, he never hurt them though.   Does knowing the past of someone change how you look at them and their actions?   I think so.   

Don’t judge what you don’t understand.   Then, when you understand, judging won’t even be pertinent.