1. The Bluest Eye Part 2 and 3 The Bluest “i”

2. Quiz  1. What insulting phrase to Claudia and Frieda hurl at Maureen Peel after she has insulted them – calling them black and ugly?  2. Who’s visiting with Mr. Henry when Claudia and Frieda get home from school after their encounter with Maureen Peel?  3. Why does Jr. hate the cat?  4. Why do Frieda and Claudia need to find Pecola on the afternoon that Mr. Henry has “molested” Frieda?  5. Although Mrs. Breedlove believes that her damaged foot killed her dreams, the narrator believes that, instead, it was _____________________.  6. What is it that Mrs. Breedlove loves about making love to her husband?

3. Your Assignment  You’ve been appointed to be the discussion leader for The Bluest Eye in your book group.  Pose three questions you’d like your book group to address when they meet to talk about novel.

4. Stuff to discuss --  1. The shift between Claudia young and Claudia old – p. 65, for example, and p. 74. Is this a problem? Why or why not?  2. Imitation of Life p. 67, and piece from CLC p. 328 –Plot summary –Connection between Pauline and Delilah –Name connection Pecola/Peola (328)

5. More Stuff  3. What is the Maginot Line? P. 77 – connection/symbolism?  4. Why the typing of Geraldine, before we meet Geraldine? How does it match or double Gerladine’s typing of Pecola at the end of the chapter? Where do you find other examples of doubling or pairs or opposites of doppelgangers in the novel?  5. Morrison’s sarcasm. (p. 92, for example) Does it work? Is it too obvious?

6. More Stuff  6. Pauline’s section. How does it work to move back and forth between the two voices?  7. Beauty/Romantic love. (p. 122)  8. Is Morrison asking you to forgive Pauline’s “sins” because of the trauma/trials of her past? Is this a kind of “excuse” you can accept?

7. Friday’s Quiz  1. Why would it be dangerous for Cholly to hate the white men who interrupt his “tryst” with Darlene?  2. “Only a ___________ would sense, know without knowing that he knew, that Cholly was free. Dangerously free.”  3. What is a misanthrope?  4. Why does Velma leave Elihue Micah Whitcomb? (AKA Soaphead Church)  5. List 3 things in Soaphead Church’s cigar box.  6. What is it that Frieda and Claudia want to hear grownups say about Pecola?  7. X-tra credit ?

8. Morrison’s Afterward  P. 210 – Her focus  P. 211 – her intent  P. 215 – her meditation on her success and failure

9. For Friday: Themes  1. Many critics have approached the novel in the context of the rise of African American writers, assigning significance to their revision of American history with their own cultural materials and folk traditions. –How do you see Morrison revising history, working with African American materials, reworking white American materials, using folk traditions? Any examples?

10. Themes  2. Others have considered the ways The Bluest Eye uses conventional grotesque imagery as a vehicle for social protest. –What is the grotesque?  Wolfgang Kayser – focuses on terror and fear, the negative grotesque, to express alienation, estrangement, and the terrifying disorder underlying daily life in the 20 th century.  Mikhail Bakhtin – emphasizes the elements of play, humor and renewal, the positive grotesque, to express the idea of change and transformation, the regenerative reality behind the surface of everyday life. –Is there some sense of social protest here? How does it hinge from her use of the grotesque?

11. Themes  3. Scholars also have been attracted to The Bluest Eye by its deconstruction of "whiteness" along racial, gender, and economic lines. –What connections do you make between Morrison’s construction of whiteness in this novel and her comments about whites’ construction of the Africanist presence in her theory?

12. Themes  4. Feminists have equated the violence of the narrative with self- hatred wrought by a wide range of illusions about white American society and African American women's place in it. –Can you separate the racial and gendered themes of the novel? How are they entwined? Is the novel as much about Cholly’s victimization as it is about Pecola’s?

13. Themes  5. Some critics have examined the influence of environment on the novel's characters, identifying stylistic affinities with literary naturalism. –What do you know about naturalism? –What other naturalist texts have you read? –Is Morrison making a plea for the “faultlessness” of her characters based on their position in the universe? –Did this work for Crane and Dreiser? Does it work for Morrison?

14. Themes  6. Other readers have offered Marxist interpretations of the novel's formal aspects in terms of the ideological content of its representation of African American life. –Is this a comment on the evils of capitalism? –Where is that commentary on the economic system foregrounded? –How is slavery, for example, at the heart of Soaphead Church’s story? –How does Morrison’s reference to Imitation of Life support a Marxist reading of the text?

15. A summing up by the critics  Acknowledging Morrison's achievement in the novel, critics have generally acclaimed The Bluest Eye for  1) deconstructing a number of literary taboos with its honest portrayals of American girlhood, 2) its frank descriptions of intraracial racism or "colorism" in the African American community, and,  3) its thoughtful treatment of the emotional precocity of prepubescent girls.