On The Artistic Features In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

Indelible contributions have been made by the American black writers to the development of the American literature, and the black literature has already become an indispensable part of the literature and culture of the United States.1970s saw the third upsurge of black literature, set off by the American black writers. The remarkable feature, in terms of the upsurge, was that female writers played a leading role, among whom, Toni Morrison is the most conspicuous.Toni Morrison published her first novel in 1970 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature a scant twenty-three years later in1993. Born in a black family in 1931 in a small town in northern Ohio, Morrison grew up in typical black culture. She studied English (minored in classics) in college and has taught literature at Howard University and Yale University. And just as her seven novels—The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise—have attracted intense critical scrutiny, Morrison, herself, has drawn great attention to her, and to black women literature as well. In her writing career, Morrison roots herself in black tradition, culture, history and reality and brings the black novels to a new degree both thematically and artistically. Although over the past decades, we have occasionally seen Toni Morrison and some comments on her works in Chinese textbooks, journals and magazines, we still have a long way to go especially in making further study of the unique writing techniques of African-American literature. Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), is still the best seller of the 21st century and shows her extraordinary talent , charm and her unique writing features as a great black woman writer. Throughout this paper I have tried to discuss the artistic features of the writing skills in her works. The Bluest Eye is a breakthrough of the black literature. In this novel Morrison unprecedentedly depicts the tragic life of a twelve-year-old black girl, Pocola Breedlove, who wants nothing more than to be loved by her family and her schoolmates in 1941. Pecola, soon after entering young womanhood, is raped and impregnated by her father, Cholly. As a result of this, she goes quietly insane and withdraws into a fantasy world. "Unable to endure the brutality toward her frail self-image. Pecola goes quietly insane and withdraws into a fantasy world in which she is the most beloved little girl because she ends up having the bluest of all." (Tate, p.23)This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. In the part of introduction, the following are included: First, a brief introduction to Toni Morrison and the unique writing features in her works. Second, a brief synopsis of what The Bluest Eye is about in her works and the writing features in The Bluest Eye. Finally, arguments on Morrison's concern with racism, historical and literary context of The Bluest Eye and characters, actions and ideas present in other sections and functions both as a means to move the story along and as a counterpoint to some other sections. Secondly, the features of the thematic structures of the novel are discussed. We can see the arrangements of the thematic structures clearly in the novel. The themes of the novel are reflected deeply and distinctively with the development of plots in each thematic structure. In the first thematic structure a main theme in this novel is the "quest for individual identity and the influences of the family and community in that quest". This theme is present throughout the novel and evident in many of the characters. In The Bluest Eye, there are also two other main thematic structures that can be found in the novel, which are the thematic structures of racism and beauty. Morrison presents a more complicated portrayal of racism. She shows how the epistemic of the other is both outside and inside. She suggests that in modeling themselves on the Whites (as Pecola has done), the Blacks have not only given up their own identity, they have taken up the very white characteristic...