Toni Morrison's Sula

The second novel that was assigned for my independent study was Sula. This novel was a bit of a departure from The Bluest Eye, but in many ways the title character, Sula, reminds me of what could have happened to Pecola if she had not gone mad following the rapes and the miscarriage of her own father's child. Rather than turn her anger and angst inward at the small slights hoisted upon her, Sula lashes out at the world through her reckless behavior, she becomes a traveling prostitute of sorts after recieving a "college education", but her reckless behavior cost her one of the things she held most dear, her childhood friend Nell. Sula and Nell are like two halves of the same person, they share everything, until Sula sleeps with Nell's husband and is caught in the act. Sula seemed to think that because she and Nell had shared every else in their lives, right down to the guilt of having accidentally drowning a local youngster called Chicken Litte, that this would be one more thing that they would share. Sula also becomes, like Pecola, a scapegoat for the community, anything that goes wrong can be blamed on her, absolving the rest from having to solve their problems. Pecola is blamed for bringing the unwanted attention from her father, and Sula is blamed for every accident, injury, or misfortune that occurs. With her death, and the accident at the tunnel on National Suicide Day, the community must look for other outlets for their blame, or else blame themselves.

Role Playing as Art in Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird"

In Role playing as Art in Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird”, author Myra K. Murry discusses the growing up in the segregated south and the roles the characters in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings have to fill in order to keep the social order and their lives.
“In Marguerite's world, rigid laws govern every aspect of a child's life: there are laws for addressing adults by proper title, laws for speaking and more for not speaking, laws about cleanliness and obedience, and about performance in school and behavior in church. (3)” These laws are meant to protect children and the community at large. It is thought that is an African American follows these rules, they feel that they cannot be harmed by the white community. Maya and all the character’s follow the rules, Momma remains stone faced, humming, while she is insulted by the local white trash girls, Uncle Willie does his best to straighten up and present a whole body to perfect strangers. Murry goes on to finish by talking about how art, in this case the Angelou’s writing, can save Maya from being repressed.
This essay is helpful in looking at the community surrounding Maya in order to show the lack of community support around Pecola in The Bluest Eye.

The Daughter's Seduction: Sexual Violence and Literary History

In “The Daughter’s Seduction: Sexual Violence and Literary History”, author Christine Froula talks about the how a daughter can become a victim of the father, and the exchange of power between the two. The daughter’s power is stolen, leaving her in a fixed state, while the father increases in power and keeps that power by forbidding the daughter to tell anyone she has been violated. The daughter is made to believe that she will not be believed or that her telling will cause the breakup of her family, in short using guilt to keep her silent. Froula cites Frued saying “Freud developed his "seduction theory"-the theory that hysterical symptoms have their origin in sexual abuse suffered in childhood, which is repressed and eventually assimilated to later sexual experience.(629)” She continues with a short history of the Frued’s theory on the seduction theory. She does not get into the discussion of I Know why the Caged Bird Sings until page 635. She discusses the rape of Maya by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freedman and the terror that telling the truth and having her family turn against her, or lying and sinning against God and still losing her family because she told a lie. Maya withdraws and refuses to speak after her uncles seek revenge on Freeman and kill him. Maya believes that her words killed him and it is only after memorizing a two thousand word poem by Shakespeare, Rape of Lucrece. “Maya's feat of memory signals a double seduction: by the white culture that her grandmother wished her black child not to love and by the male culture which imposes upon the rape victim.” Froula goes on to say that, Maya is doubly seduced, first by her “father” figure, and then by the images of white society. She doesn’t really go into much detail about his, but quickly moves on to discuss The Color Purple.
I do feel that this essay will help to make my argument in the similarities between Pecola and Maya, as well as the differences in family support of the victim.

Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: The Journey away from Self-Love in The

In "Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: The JOurney away from Self-Love in The Bluest Eye", author Patrice Cormier-Hamilton, dicusses the how the idea of loving one's self for who you are is damaged by the social standards around us and that without the proper support, one can lose that sense of Self-Love. In mentioning The Bluest Eye, Hamiltion is trying to show how the "blackness" has been adapted to fit the society. She takes the idea that while naturalism maintains that one's identity is reaffirmed and molded by the community, she takes it one step further, that a person is shaped more by themselves than those around them, a psychological perspective that I have not encountered before, but seems to make some sense. Pecola wants blue eyes, to be white, because she as internalized this set of values and is now in conflict with herself because she cannot imitate her values.
This essay, though confusing at times, is helpful in understanding the pyschological idea of being one "race", but longing to be like the other. I feel that I will be able to use this essay as a foil to bounce Pecola's assimilation off of May Angelou's non-assimilation in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Blackness/Mixedness: Contestations over Crossing Signs

In "Blackness/Mixedness: Contestation over Crossing Signs, by Naomi Pabst, discusses the problem of defiing a person as being of mixed ancestry, when they may only have one drop of "another race" in them, in the case of this essay, African blood. The essay gets involved with a lenghty discussio of exactly what can be considered "Black" in the African American Community, and includes a section on the importance of Maureen Peal in The Bluest Eye. This section, as well as the rest of the essay helps me to understand the problem that Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda have with Maureen, and in a strech helps me to understand the very minor characters of the two mixed girls in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The essay goes on to discuss more modern situations of mixed race and how to define it, but this section does not fit he time period I am focusing on.

Racism within the African American Communities in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Paradise

In Maria Bring's essay, Racism within the African American Communities, published by the department of language and culture at Lulea University of Technology Autmun 2004, the author discusses two of Morrison's novels, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, however, The Bluest Eye is covered in three of the four sections of the essay. Part one is entitled "Pecola-A Life Destroyed by Hate, and discusses how Pecola's life is destroyed because she is hated and neglected because she does not match the standard of African American beauty in the 1940's, the lighter the skin the more beautiful the person. "Racism within the race is the most damaging because Pecola rarely meets whites at all (7)." Her world is shaped by those she comes in contact with rather than more of the white culture, therefore it effects her indirectly. Pecola believes that if she looked different that her parents would treat her differently, love her, something she craves.
In Part Two, "The Family Surrounding Pecola" discusses how her own families' notion that they are ugly and how Pecloa's parents ignore her and her brother, leaving them to fend for themselves. Mrs. Breedlove, the children can't even call her Mama or mother, perfers to live in her created dreamworld at work, the beautiful masion by the lake which is owned by the Fisher family. "She actually prefers the Fisher girl to her own little girl.(14)". This leaves Pecola without a safety net for when she is assaulted by her father.
In Part Three, "The Community Surrounding Pecola", discusses who the community as a whole does not aknowledge Pecola, or move to help and defend her after her assault. The community places more emphasis on passing in the white world than being beautiful as you are. Clauida and Freida, Pecola's friends and the narrators, try to understand the problem, but are to young to understand the problem. The need for being lighter skinned, and the preference for it, appears in the character of Maureen Peal. Maureen if described as a "high yellow dream child", evidence that if you cannot have a white child, Maureen is the next best thing. Maureen tries to be sympathetic to Pecola, but when the children get into an argument Maureen pulls the color card in order to put Pecola down, as well as reaffirm her position as a desireable child. When Pecola is raped the community closes ranks, against an innocent, unloved, and percieved ugly child. Has Maureen been the one that was violated, the community would have gathered arms to hunt the offender down.
These section of this essay help with my future paper because they focus on how the community affects Pecola's perception of herself and that the lack of support from both family and community pushed an already teetering souls over the cliff into madness.