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Rough Draft

I fianally have all the writing done!! I woke up at 6 and just finished the thing! I still need to fix the wording, grammar, and some of the MLA stuff but besides that I’m pretty much done at least I think. Im going to have Mr. Kreinbring and Reanna read it again just to make sure they agree, and maybe my sister since she’s in Mrs. Nofs class right now and has the grammar fresh (she would never do it for me :) ). I just have to make sure that my reviewers don’t think I need to add or take away anything, but even so it won’t be that much more work I hope. Everything is close to being over! It’s a bitter sweet feeling!

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Writing Lit Review

Writing the lit review was hard not going to lie. Coming up with the ideas wasn’t really the problem, it was more formatting them and putting them on paper. What I really struggled with was while I was writing one part I was already trying to think of the next part I wanted to focus on and how that connected and imcorporatiknc that with the stuff in my writers notebook Finally I just figure that I should just write what I had in my writers notebook, and then build off that. After I did that I printed it, started editing it, and by rereading it I was able to keep writing and adding new ideas.

The problem that I think my paper might be having is that I wrote it so They all connect to the idea of finding identity, but I don’t know if I have too many ideas in it about finding the identity. There were a couple of times where I was like I could stop but instead I wanted to add another idea that i had/was talked about. Also one of my quotes that I used was about a study that one of my critics used in his paper. To be honest I don’t know if that really counts since he critic didn’t actually say it, but the study proved the idea that I was making about him, so I hope it does.

Also the way my draft is set up, it is more me making a claim and using the critics as evidence. I’m not sure if that’s right, but I hope and think it is.

I hope by reading Reanna’s my partners and her editing mine I will figure out the questions I still have.

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Literary Critics

I have read 3 criticisms and I think they are actually soo cool to read. At first I hated them, they were hard to comprehend and made me want to fall asleep, but after reading them and now that I’m starting to reread parts for writing they are really interesting. A lot of ideas that they talk about I haven’t thought about, but they make sense. It almost feels like one of those pictures with a face and you look at it and see a man but then when you look at it again you see a different woman. That’s how I feel about my book, when I read it I saw and experienced one thing, but this is opening my eyes to new ideas. I think that it has really helped me to have Bloom’s Modern Critical Intrepetations, because it has given me 13 critisms that I can choose from. Honestly I’ve already took advantage of this because I had 3 sources, but I really didn’t like 1 of them and they didn’t connect to my other sources, but I went through the book and found a different one that I have already started annotating and I like it a lot better. (It talks about forcing assimilation but loosing heritage vs. letting time blend the cultures together which was soo cool and brought up characters that I haven’t really read much about). I now need to figure out how to add this critict into my writing that I already did in my writers notebook. However I think enough ideas align that it won’t be too challenging, and in a way it actually extends a lot of the other two critisms.

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World War 2

So when I was reading The Bluest Eye and looking out for influences, I was very surprised that World War 2 wasn’t mentioned at all. I was confused because the book was set in 1940-41 which would be in the middle of the war, but the characters acted like it was no big deal. It wasn’t even mentioned!

However, I was reading a piece of critism by Debra T. Werein, a composition professor at Heorge Mason University, and she talked about how the war wasn’t mentioned. She said that during war, history books make it seem that families supported the war, and lived peacefully. Domestic issues were hidden by the international parts. So as a way to shed light on the domestic tensions, Morrison wrote the book with a narrator and protagonist that no longer have innocence because of these problems. By not mentioning war, she is containing the focus toward the at home problems.

When I read this part of the critism I was shocked and very interested. I think she is right, history books have one paragraph about the Home life during a war, which almost makes it sound like it was a grand time, but it was far from it as seen by the girls in the Blues Eye. I don’t know if an influence could be avoiding talking about the war, but history books definitly played a role in what she included in her story.

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I found a book at the OU library called “Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations- Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye”! Skimming through it, it has many different essays with different lenses and writers that I could use in my project. I thought the process would be much harder, but it was a lot easier than I thought.

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Jane and Dick

Now having WiFi and google I looked up what Jane and Dick are and they are how reading was taught to young kids. The stories were about a perfect white family that were all very pretty and happy. Basically the opposite of Pecola’s family since everyone is unhappy, she is raped, and their house is no where near beautiful like Jane’s. Jane also has the eyes that Pecola has always wanted. However never do we see a black family in the book.

Since kids were taught with this book, it makes sense that that’s what they would think life should be like. Unfortunately for young black families, they could never have this. They could dream, but unlike white people it couldn’t ever become a reality. Imagine what that would be like for an innocent little girl. Plus this contributes to what society is seeing and creating expectations for what they should be. It only makes sense that if this was a perfect family that black families would be the opposite.

I think Morrison put this in her book in the prologue to see the opposites. We see Jane and Dick’s perfect life, then we see the character’s life. Pecola and Chlaudia’s life is foreshadowed, but that is because that’s what happened, and that’s what we need to compare. Plus by having this at the beggining, we get to compare for the rest of the story. None of the characters have perfect houses or happy lives.

Honestly this really opened my eyes. My grandma and grandpa have a lot of old children books at their house like these. I have never even thought or realized that they are white families. If part of Morrison’s goal was to make people open their eyes, I know she did it to me.

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Summer- The end!

Honestly I REALLY liked this book, and the ending was just as good. It kind of has two endings just like the prologue has.

The first ending is about Frieda and Chlaudia finding out that Pecola is pregnant by her father through town gossip. The whole town thinks the pregnancy is disgusting, and that the baby should die except for Chlaudia and Frieda. They want the baby to die, and ask God and buy seeds and money in hopes hat if the flowers grow the baby will as well. Chlaudia believes that the baby will be more beautiful than the white baby dolls. However the seeds don’t grow and the baby dies. The girls think t is their fault and are very sympathetic towards their friend.

However the next ending has Pecola talking to an imaginary friend. She has told herself that she now has blue eyes and has believed it. She finally sees her self as beautiful, but she is now crazy. She thinks people don’t look at her and she can’t go to school because they are jealous. She has used her eyes to explain the changes in her life that her rape has caused. In this ending, Chlaudia also reveals that it wasn’t their fault that baby died. It was the earth. She also admits that the world and herself uses the ugliness of Pecola to make theirselves feel more beautiful.

I’m not really sure what to think about these endings. The first one makes sense and seems like it goes along with the story, but the second one seems like it is more honest and real. However this makes me question the rest of the story. Was it not honest? There was so many characters that my opinions changed overwhen they told their own story, is Chlaudia telling her story with a different/ false perspective? Was she putting down Pecola to make herself feel better?

The other thing about the ending is Pecola finally has blue eyes, but she is still so insecure. She wants to make sure they are the Bluest eyes, but what does that give her? More beauty? But the beauty doesn’t matter because she now talks to no one. People judge even more and see her as ugly yet she now sees herself as beautiful. What does that say about Society? That you need to see yourself as everyone does and if you see yourself as better people see you as worse?

Her eyes are brown, she wants them to be blue and believes they are, so what are they what she believes or what they really are? Is she now beautiful or is she still ugly?

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Spring-Part 3

Spring was a very different part from the begging of the book. At first it starts off with Frieda getting touched by an older man and she believes that she is ruined. She knows some other people that her mother considers ruined and she doesn’t want to be like them , and believes the cure is whiskey. Her and Claudia find Pecola and her mother to get wiskey. Pecola’s Mom works for a white family and it is very obvious she likes them better just by the way she treats the young white girl compared to Pecola.

From the beggining of the book until this chapter, Pecola’s mother and father seem like they are very bad people and bad parents. However, the next chapters in spring, we get to read a chapter with Pecola’s Mom telling her story and Pecola’s father telling his.

This is a different technique that Morrison uses and it honestly creates so much sympathy for them. My views on them have changed. Both parents have gone through a lot of hardship and it explains why they are the way they are. I think that was the point because the reader looks as them as “ugly”/ bad parents, but one we get to know them it is apparent that they are trying and have their own stories. It’s like the theme in the book that everyone has their own beauty, but the world assumes so much ugliness in them.

However at the end of the father’s chapter my view goes another 180 degrees. I still have sympathy for him, but HE RAPED HIS OWN DAUGHTER! He was drunk and torn over if he should do it or not, but he still did it, so I don’t know how I feel about him now.

Another character was introduce in this part as well named Soaphead. He was scamming people by telling people he was doing God’s work and could help them. At first i was very confused what his purpose was, but at the end Pecola comes and visits him. She asks him for blue eyes and realizes that is the realist demand that he has ever received.

He says “He thought it was at once the most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received. Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty. A surge of love and understanding swept through him, but was quickly replaced by anger. Anger that he was powerless to help her. A little black girl who wanted to ride up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes” (174). Pecola just wants to be seen and realizes her problem, yet she is still so innocent that she is begging for her eyes to change.

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Winter-Part 2

I loved this section of the book. It really pulled me into the story, and made me invested in the book. This part had 2 chapter, which both had different stories and new characters introduced. Which was an interesting writing style. I think Morrison’s way of writing is to write different stories that the characters experience that all together show the themes of the book and the girls’ lives.

The stories in this section intoroduced characters with light skin. They aren’t white nor black, so we get to see where they fit into the girls’ stories. According to Chlaudia the mixed girls are also pretty, maybe not as pretty as the white girls, but they aren’t ugly like she thinks she is. It seems that their is a parallel that says the lighter you are the more beauty you possess.

The first chapter in this section a new girl comes into town, and she is light skinned and beautiful. She is also very wealthy compared to Chlaudia and the other girls. Her character shines light onto the idea that skin color also affects the social class/ money. She is so mean to the girls, and I want to go in the story and yell at her. She makes fun of what the girls have expierenced, yet they have no choice! It’s not their choice to see their father naked!

The other chapter in this section is about a light skinned family. They do not see themselves nor want to be associated with the “black ugliness” they see in this world. The mother of this family refuses to let her son talk to black kids and as a result he is rude and bullies Pecola. He says “A little girl who is very black comes. She was ugly” (88).

The society puts so much negative attitudes towards black people that no one wants to be that race. Even people that have black in them and should be proud of it, avoid it.

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Influence- Great Depression

Another influence in this book is the Great Depression. Tho book is set in 1940-41, so America is still pretty poor. It is very obvious that the characters in the story are still recovering from the depression, and are therefore poor.

At one point Chlaudia’s mother is very upset used 3 quarts of milk because they can’t afford it. She says, “Time for me to get out of the giving line and get in the getting line. I guess I ain’t supposed to have nothing. I’m supposed to end up in the poor house” (24). Money is very tight, and the families in the book struggles to make ends meet. This influences the story because it makes life harder on the girls in the book. Their parents are always stressed from money, so are mean, the kids can’t buy new clothes and are looked down upon, and it is even harder for them to have beauty.

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Influence- Pop Culture

Pop culture during this time period (1940-1941) were big influences in this book. Shirley Temple is brought up a lot in this book. She is thought of as beautiful by society because she is white and has blue ruse. However Chlaudia hates her because the world loves her since she is white. However Pecola and Frieda love Shirley, because that is the what the world wants them to do, and since she is like a dream to them, what they want to be.

Chlaudia shares her opinion when she says, “I couldn’t join them because I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, who ought to have been soft-showing it and chuckling with me. Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those white girls” (19). Pecola loves Shirley because she idols her, same as Frieda, but Claudia rejects these beauty standards, and sees the unfairness.

It is prominent that Shirley Temple is a big role because she helps create these beauty standards and influences others to believe them. She is what makes the world think the main characters are ugly.

Pop culture is brought up again when Maureen, a kind of friend, brings up the movie Imitation of Life. This movie is about a mixed girl, who loves her father because he is white, but hates her mother because she is Africa’s American and ugly. However she does cry when her mother dies. This reinforces the idea that society is making the world thing that you need to believe black people are ugly, even if that’s not what you actually believe.

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The Bluest Eye

I now know why the title is The Bluest Eye. Both the main characters, Chlaudia and Pecola are really struggling with being an African American females. They are very jealous of white figures because society thinks they are beautiful, and black girls are “ugly”.

Chlaudia is mad that she can’t be beautiful and angry at white girls because they are. She wants to know the reason for the beauty, and destroys white baby dolls trying to unlock the secret. She takes her anger out on these dolls. She says, “I destroyed white baby dolls. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls. To discover what eluded me: the secret of the magic they weaves on others. What made people look at them and say, Awww,” but not for me.” (22) All that she wants is to be pretty like the white girls with BLUE EYES.

Pecola is also having this problem. She wants to be pretty and to not have to see the horrid things that she does. She says that her eyes were the problem, “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights- if those eyes of hers were different, that’s is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes” (46).

These characters associate blue eyes with beauty because blue eyes are what white people have. The eyes are a metaphor for being white. Eyes play a big role on this book. The colors are talked about, but so is the different types of looks, what they have seen, and where they look. Eyes are what sees beauty and horror and now they are what are the beauty.

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Autumn-Chunk 1

I have now read the first chunk which is about 50 pages and takes place in Autumn (the book is divided into the 4 seasons). I am now really enjoying the book. Like I thought, Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda are the main characters, but it is mostly focused on Chlaudia and Pecols’s point of view. The plot is so sad, because Chlaudia is only about 7 and she is already learning that she needs to navigate her world differently than other people because she is black, young, and a female. It’s not fair! I think these are going to be the main focuses and themes throughout the book. I’m predicting that growing up/ loosing innocence, being mistreated because of race, and being mistreated because of gender will be brought up a lot.

Also the writing that Morrison used in the prologue (where she has no spaces, and simple words) is used again, but only about 3 lines at the beggining of each chapter. I’m not sure how it relates yet.

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Prologue

The first 4 pages seems to be a prologue. It is divided into two sections. I don’t really understand the first section because it’s talking about a house that’s green and white where Janine, Dick, Mother and Father live. The sentences they use are very short as if they are a child’s book. The passage is then repeated without punctuation and again but without spaces. I do not know what Morrison is trying to do, but I assume that she will use this technique again. Also this part confuses me because, Jane and Dick are not the main characters so I don’t know how they relate to in the book. I will research it when I get home, but I currently have no WiFi on the boat.

The next part of the prologue is foreshadowing, because Pecola, one of the main characters is already pregnant. Also the metaphor of flowers and fertility in women is brought up in these few pages. This part introduces the main characters, Claudia, Pocola, and Frida, but no mention of Janie or Dick.

Honestly I’m really confused with what is happening in this section of the book. I’m only 4 pages in, but so far I’m not that interested in it because it is starting off confusing, and there isn’t really a plot. (It may also be because I’m on a cruise rite now :) )

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The Bluest Eye

Update- I finally decided between my two books, The Color Purple and The Bluest Eye, and I chose The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I decided on this book, because Mr. Kreinbring said that Toni Morrison is amazing, and I will love her writing. The story is also really interesting. It’s about a 10 year old African American girl and all she wants to be is white, and associates being white as being pretty. I’m really excited to get started reading, but I’m really busy with Mr. Avondale right now, so sadly I’m not going to start this week.

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Choosing My Book

Starting my book search, I had no idea what I wanted to read. I’m not very picky on what I like to read as long as it has a good story which most books have, so I didn’t know how to narrow my search. I have liked all the books we have read so far for class, so at first I tried to look up books similar to those titles, however without actually holding the book in my hand, I was stuck on what I would actually like. So I went to Barnes and Noble to check out their books, and I still couldn’t find anything. I went up to customer service desk and I told the woman, “I need a fictional book that was talked a lot about by literary critics and scholars and has a story that I would enjoy. Ohh and I also would prefer it to not have a old white guy as the author” She laughed at that, and directed me around the store and gave me a pile of books. They included: The Color Purple by Alice walker Beloved by Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison The Joy Luck Club by Amy tan The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros I took the stack and looked up their plots and the literary criticism written on them, and they all had pros and cons. Out of all the books the ones that seemed most interesting and had good criticism was The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple. I couldn’t decide between the two, but both are about African American females being mistreated in the mid 1900’s. I liked both, so I bought both to read, but I don’t know which I will use for my project. My next step in to narrow it down between the two.

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Indie Write #1

I don’t write or read poetry a lot, honestly the last time I remember reading poetry was in 10th grade for April Poetry month, and the last poems I wrote were about my childhood, being a girl, and running. I think poetry is a really cool form of writing, but whenever I try I feel like my words just don’t “flow” like a good poem should and aren’t deep enough. However, I hope that being able to study a newer, more recent poet that I can actually relate to more will help me learn how to better create poetry. As a poet, I would like to write about happier ideas such as learning to grow up or my childhood (I also really like using the repeating phrase technique). I think part of the reason I never really felt that much of a connection to poetry is because I feel like a lot of the poems we read in school are about very deep and dark places, such as Edgar Allan Poem’s work. Yes, I think he was very talented, but I never really felt connected to him or his poems. I hope by studying Amanda Lovelace, I will be more appreciative of poetry seeing I will have more luck in using her style to help create my own style. Based on the poems of hers I’ve read so far I like how she is able to talk about deep topics but not in a sad and gloomy way.