Obsession for beauty, and the popular definition of what it is; these are some of the bigger themes in both books. The authors show us how these can lead to self-hatred, and the hating of others. Toni Morrison creates a number of characters who handle this inner-struggle differently in an attempt, i presume, to show us how many ways it can lead to destroying us. Two contrasting characters, Claudia and Pecola, each suffer this in their own ways. Claudia wishes to take place of things, and other children (Shirley Temple) while Pecola wants to become them (eating the candy, and hoping to plant Mary in her). A sublte difference, but it depicts how two very different children could both be going through the same conflict. Jin, from American Born Chinese, has the same passive personality as Pecola, and with him we see the desire to become a Transformer...
Personally, i had a tough time swallowing some of the things Toni Morrison said, mainly because I wasn't sure if they were untrue. For example, Cholly and Pauline, It seems to me that their relationship fell apart because they had no one but them selves--or atleast Pauline didn't. I wonder if relationships are better off with or without friends and others to talk to...
Another thing, When Cholly on the day of the Funereal is forced to have Intercourse with Darlene. He was feeling hatred to her and not "Flashlight" and "Lamplight. This puzzles me still, i'd love to hear your thoughts.
The most powerful part of the Video to me happened at the very end. The Little girl (black) says the white doll is "nicer" because its "white" though this was painfull enough to watch i was even more stunned when the examiner asks her which one looks like her, and she pushed up the black one. I thought, maybe, at a younger age, children would not be able to relate themselves or catergorize themselves based on physical attributes--i was wrong. This makes the experiement even more powerful, because it cancels out the question on whether or not the child realizes what he or she is...
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It's funny because a few of the ideas of what you wrote here are almost exactly what I wrote as responses on others' blogs.
ReplyDeleteI think that Cholly decides to become infuriated with Darlene because he knows that hating the white men is a lost cause. It's likely that Cholly and his peers have accumulated a heightened hate for whites merely because of how whites treat blacks, especially in the South. However, they've been conditioned to not act on this hate because it will do them no good; battling against whites always results in the white man's victory. He seeks out an alternate outlet for his fury, and since no one else is there besides the white men and Darlene, he feels compelled to place the blame on her.
That's what I think. :)