Essay on Narrative Voice in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

It is a third person omniscient narrator, which gives the reader an opportunity to gain insight into the minds, thoughts and perceptions of Munda and the white men. This allows the reader to empathise with the characters. The narrator is implicit, as he/she does not participate in the story. The events are seen from both the black and the white people’s points of view, which clarifies the reasons behind the hostile relationship between these two population groups. In this way, the reader becomes acquainted with both sides of the story. The narrator’s own attitude to the events and to the characters is not shown, but the sympathy lies with Munda and the

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

A narrator, who is without a name, tells of his first hand experiences throughout the story. This is in contrast to ‘Miss Brill’ in which narrative is delivered in the third person, with the use of free indirect speech to depict the story and portray the characters. By Wells selecting a first person narrative he draws the reader closer into the character’s mind set. This gives Wells the ability to convey the primary characters full spectrum of emotional thought, from open mindedness to the conflict and fear within him. First narrative provides the reader insight to thoughts and observations therefore adding suspense of the unknowing into the gothic style.

The novel is narrated by Mattie Cook in the first person. She is only able to speak for herself. The only thoughts and feelings she displays are her own and the story is set wherever she is.

One thing that helps the reader empathize with the narrator is the narrator observing Sheila Mant. As the narrator observes

The narration is in first person only. This allows for the reader to really feel for and understand what the main character is going through. The mental illness she is suffering from over takes her; leading to full blown hysteria by the end of her stay.

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

The desire to feel beautiful has never been more in demand, yet so impossible to achieve. In the book “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the story of two black families that live during the mid-1900’s. Even though slavery is a thing of the past, discrimination and racism are still a big issue at this time. Through the whole book, characters struggle to feel beautiful and battle the curse of being ugly because of their skin color. Throughout the book Pecola feels ugly and does not like who she is because of her back skin. She believes the only thing that can ever make her beautiful is if she got blue eyes. Frieda, Pecola, Claudia, and other black characters have been taught that the key to being beautiful is by having white skin. So by being black, this makes them automatically ugly. In the final chapter of the book, the need to feel beautiful drives Pecola so crazy that she imagines that she has blue eyes. She thinks that people don’t want to look at her because they are jealous of her beauty, but the truth is they don’t look at her because she is pregnant. From the time these black girls are little, the belief that beauty comes from the color of their skin has been hammered into their mind. Mrs. Breedlove and Geraldine are also affected by the standards of beauty and the impossible goal to look and be accepted by white people. Throughout “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison uses the motif of beauty to portray its negative effect on characters.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and “Junior,” and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home.

When things happen it is like you are in her head. This point of view is called first person. Beatrice is the main character, and the book is written from her point of view. the point of view is reflected in the text when Beatrice is thinking, because they are her thoughts, and when she says things like “I” and “Me”. This reflects her point of view because if you are in her head you are reading what she is thinking. When the book is written in first person you can see what the persons opinions are, and how they feel, and that helps the book be more in depth.

Morrison’s use of two different narrators through the story also goes hand-in-hand with the novel’s contents. Throughout The Bluest Eye, Morrison uses an older Claudia MacTeer and a third-person omniscient narrator effectively in telling parts of the story. Claudia’s narration of the events provides a limited view of the story, as she can only relay what she knows and experienced. This can be seen through simple dialogue between Claudia and Frieda on page 101, where the girls discuss how a person can be “ruined” based on information fed to them by their mother. This makes Claudia’s narration somewhat unreliable, but her point of view still allows the reader to interpret more about the content and character presented. This is vital to the story, as she inserts her own opinions and reflections on the heavy topics

While this text is set from a third person viewpoint, it also uses an interesting narrative technique, which is known as 'free indirect discourse' or 'free indirect style'. This is when a third person story uses certain features of first person speech. This style is different in the fact that introductory expressions such as, ‘she thought’, and ‘they said’, are not used. Using this technique allows a third person text to utilise a first person perspective, portraying the characters thoughts and words more directly.

Have you ever experienced or seen racism and/or sexism and you were not able to help make the situation better? Throughout the novel The Bluest Eye, the author, Toni Morrison takes us on a journey of an eleven-year-old girl named Pecola Breedlove whose love for blond hair and blue eyes affects how she perceives everyone around her. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio where Morrison grew up. Pecola wishes for blue eyes because she thinks that people will look at her and treat her better. Her family is very dysfunctional; her father drinks. Her mother is not affectionate and the two of them fight very often. Her older brother, Sammy, runs away. Instead of being loved and

The narrative voice is the niece of Aunt Jennifer, who therefore acts as a feminine figure, and a representation of the

It is a 3rd person narrator, which means that the narrator describes the story’s people as he or she. It is an omniscient 3rd person narrator as you can see when the narrator says “She passed on her way, thinking: He’s in love.” This quotation illustrates why it is an omniscient narrator, because it highlights that the narrator knows a person’s feelings and thoughts. The fact that it is an omniscient narrator gives the reader the ability to realize that the main character has a spilt personality. The narrator describes how peo-ple look at the main character’s facade, but when you can see his thoughts you know how he really is. The narrator is all things considered a very describing narrator as you can see when he uses the entire first page on just describing how lovely New York is. The narrator is trustworthy because he knows anything and he narrates the story with a neutral point of view. It makes him more reliable because he just wants to narrate a story.