Bluest Eyes
She was the first black woman to receive a Nobel Prize for literature, Toni Morrison. Born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, she was the second of four children of George and Ramah Wofford. As a child she escaped from the racist attitudes moving to Ohio. She was raised to be proud of her heritage and background. She grew up in Lorain, Ohio, where she attended school and was the only black student and the only who could read as a first grader. Morrison didn't encounter discrimination until she grew older. Morrison was a very good student and graduated with honors from Lorain High School. Morrison loved the arts as a little girl and hope to become a dancer (Hatcher 1). Morrison attended Howard University where she majored in English. She had to change her name to Toni because people couldn't pronounce her name correctly. After graduating from Howard University with a B.A in English, she attended Cornell University where she received her master degree in 1955. Morrison worked at Texas Southern University teaching introductory English (Hatcher 2). Howard University neglected black culture, but in Texas Southern black heritage was celebrated with Negro history week making her proud. She
L.E. Sissman, The New Yorker describes the novel as a "fresh, close look at the lives of terror and decorum of those Negroes who want to get on in a white man's world." Sissman express The Bluest Eyes as a "touching and disturbing picture of the doomed youth of [the author's] race." Gary Blonston of the Detroit Free Press reviews the novel as a "successful work of fiction...so controlled, so [well]...Taut and understated, harsh in its detachment, sympathetic in its truth...it is an experience." The Bluest Eyes describes the blue-eyed little girls which get a lot of attention, while, Pecola Breedlove represents all the blacks, and is ironic because Pecola lives in a society that does not "breed love." She lives in a world of hate, hate of blackness, and hatred of oneself. ("Media Reviews") Howard University introduced to her love, a young Jamaican architect, Harold Morrison. She got married in 1958 and had her first baby, Harold Ford, after two years in 1961. Morrison didn't stop teaching; she took care of her family and work at the same time. To escape from an unhappy marriage she joined a writer's group (2). She needed the company of others who loved literature as well. She was required to bring a story or poem for discussion, but one day she had nothing, she wrote a story based on a girl she need of her childhood who prayed to God for blue eyes. How can it be that a little girl could be made to feel so ugly? She believes that if she had beautiful blue eyes that "maybe Cholly [her father] would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove [her mother] too. Maybe they'd say, "Why look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We musn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes" (Morrison 46). Each night "she [constantly] prayed for blue eyes" (46). The beauty that Pecola so strongly desires is not the physical attribute of blue eyes but the love that those "blond haired, blue-eyed, pink skinned" girls seem to have (49).
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1546
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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