Directions: In class today, please select passages from the "Winter" p.61-93 (only) to meet the following criteria:
- passage that reveals an important quality of the main character (protagonist)
- passage that shows the symbolic importance of something or a passage that suggests why the book has the title it has
Make sure to write the passage and page number and then analyze the passage based on the criteria... what does Toni Morrison do to show the above? How is it effective? How does it relate back to the novel as a whole? Be specific - underline words, make direct references to what you've selected...
Please post both of your passages and comments to this post.
For instance: (and you can't use this as an example of your own...)
passage that the author used language in a particularly effective way:
"My daddy's face is a study. Winter moves into it and presides there. His eyes become a cliff of snow threatening to avalanche; his eyebrows bend like black limbs of leafless trees. His skin takes on the pale, cheerless yellow of winter sun; for a jaw he has the edges of a snowbound field dotted with stubble; his high forehead is the frozen sweep of the Erie, hiding current of gelid thoughts that eddy in darkness. Wolf killer turned hawk fighter, he worked night and day to keep one from teh door and the other from under the windowsills. A Vulcan guarding the flames, he gives us instructions about which doors to keep closed and opened for proper distribution of heat, lays kindling by, discusses qualities of coal, and teaches us how to rake, feed, and bank the fire. And he will not unrazor his lips until spring" (Morrison 61).
Analysis: In this passage Morrison uses the motif of winter to characterize Mr. Macteer. She uses the extended metaphor comparing his features to wintery imagery, such as "eyes become a cliff of snow threatening to avalanche." This image is strong and potentially scary, almost threatening, yet at the same time respected. She uses the simile "eyebrows bend like black limbs of leafless trees" to show the curves of his brow emphasizing the power of the before mentioned avalanche in his eyes. He is "cheerless" like the winter sun, not yielding enough warmth to keep them sated. Morrison characterizes Mr. Macteer in this stern manner to give us a contrast to Cholly Breedlove as well as present a tone for what the winter section will be about. It is effective as the reader gets a better sense of who Claudia is in its description and how she is raised. We've already learned a little about Mrs. Macteer and now we get the other half. The whole Macteer family serves as a barometer to which we can compare/judge the Breedloves in the future. The strong imagery and diction further solidifies the watchful way that her father protects the family :"A Vulcan guarding the flames, he gives us instructions about which doors to keep closed and opened for proper distribution of heat, lays kindling by, discusses qualities of coal, and teaches us how to rake, feed, and bank the fire." He both protects and instructs as a good, authorative parent should. The reader walks away from this description feeling like children, slightly afraid of him, but curious nonetheless.
15 comments:
Pecola talks bout diffrent things in certain chapeter
like in winter she starts of saying that his eyebrows bend like limbs oh leafless trees his skin takes on the pale cheerless yellow of winter sun, they way she described her father the way she is describing winter
In page 63
“Frieda and I were bemused, irritated, and fascinated by her. We looked hard for flaws to restore our equilibrium, but had to be content at first with uglying up her name, changing Maureen Peal to Meringue Pie. Later a minor epiphany was ours when we discovered that she had a dogtooth, a charming one to be sure, but a dogtooth nonetheless. And when we found out she had been born with six fingers on each hand and that there was a little bump where each extra one had been removed, we smiled.”
I feel this passage reveals the important quality of the man character, which is Pecola, because it shows the way she feels about people who are different with her. But what she doesn’t realize is that she doesn’t have the right to judge another person.
In the winter part, the author describes how daddys face is used as a winter season. it is compared to winter to daddys face because winter is very cold and white, just as a person is usallay thought when they get old.
.....Josue Sanchez
"The tears came fast, and the held her face in her hands. When something soft and furry moved around her ankles, she jumped, and saw it was the cat. He wound himself in and about her legs. Momentarily distracted from her feet fear, she squatted down t touch him, her hands wet from the tears. The cat rubbed up against her knee. He was black all over, deep silky black and his eyes pointing down towards his nose was bluish green. The light made them shine like blue ice. Pecola rubbed the cats head, he whined, his tongue flicking with pleasure the blue eyes in the black face held her.” page 90
In this passage Morrison uses the cat to calm pecola down. Also If you look at it closely you can see that the cats face was black while his eyes were blue. Pecola wanted her eyes to be blue even though her face was black as well. It also relates to the title because of the cats eyes and the need that pecola wanted. To have blue eyes.
"What do I care about her old black daddy?" asked Maureen.
"Black?" Who you calling black?"
"You!"
"You think you so cute!" I swung at her and missed hitting Pecola in the face. Furious at my clumsiness, I threw my notebook at her. but it caught in the small of her velvet back, for she had turned and was flying across the street against traffic. (The Bluest Eye, Page 73).
An important quality that Claudia possesses, being able to stick up for herself, can be a positive consequence for her personality, or hurt close ones... literally.
This disrupter of seasons was a new girl in school named Maureen Peal. A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back. She was rich as the richest of the white girls, swaddled in comfort and care.
PAGE 90 JOVAN AND Jonathann=]
" The tears came fast, and she held her face in her hands. When something soft and furry moved around in her ankles, she jumped, and saw it was the cat. He wound himself in and about her legs. Momentarily distracted from her fear, she squatted down to touch him, her hands wet from the tears The cat rubbed up against her knee. He was black all over, deep silky black, and his eyes, pointing down toward his noise, were bluish green. The light made them shine like blue ice. "
this passage shows that Pecola loved her cat very dearily. when she was feeling very down the cat cheered her up. this was probably like her best friend!
A passage that reveals an important quality of a main character is on page 74
“Jealously we understood and thought natural---a desire to have what somebody else had; but envy was a strange, new feeling for us. And all that time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The thing to fear was the thing that made her beautiful, and not us.”
This passage shows the shift in Claudia and Frieda’s attitude and how comfortable they were within their own skin. They had never felt envious toward someone, so it was new. This is an important aspect of the book because it goes back to Toni Morrison’s theme in beauty, and how one feel’s toward themselves.
The incident with Maureen Peal was a bad experience for Claudia and Frieda
1.passage that reveals an important quality of the main character
Pecola edged around the circle crying. She had dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands.
We watched, afraid they might notice us and turn their energies our way. Then Frieda, with set lips and mama eyes, snatched her coat from her head and threw it on the ground. She ran toward them and brought her books down on Woodrow Cain’s head. The circle broke.
Woodrow Cain grabbed his head.
“Hey girl!”
“You cut that out, you hear?” I had never heard Frieda’s voice so loud and clear.
… “ Leave her ‘lone, or im gone tell everyone what you did!”
-Pg 66
This passage shows Frieda’s, outgoing bravery, although she has her own problems going on at home, she stood up for pecola, against three boys, and I think she realized that after this little conflict, the boys would continue to bother her, but she could obviously handle it and maybe lay off pecola for a while.
This passage is effective because it shows another conflict t pecola has to go thru, not just being without a home, and wanting people to accept her, but being bullied, and physically and mentally getting hurt even more. For example on page 71 Maureen played with pecolas feelings by buying her ice cream and making her feel special, and them turning brutally against her by screaming to all of them “ I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute” on page 73.
PASSAGE THAT REVEALS AN IMPORTANT QUALITY OF THE PROTAGONIST:
Pecola edged around the circle crying. She had dropped her dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands.We watched, afraid they might notice us and turn their energies our way. Then Freida, with set lips and Mama’s eyes, snatchedher coat from her head and threw it on down on Woodrow Cain grabbed his head.” Hey girl, you cut that out you hear!”pg. 66
***- This shows that Pecola has a sensitive side. Obviously because she is getting yelled at by Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson and Junie Bug. She reveals that she does not stand as strong as she was represented in the first half of the book. This passage reminded me of the cover. She is crying in the passage. On the cover,she isnt nescisarlly crying, but she is sad.
PASSAGE THAT IS SYMBOLIC: "Bay Boy,Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson, Junie Bug- like a necklace of semiprecious stones, thay surrounded her. Heavy with the smell of their own musk, thrilled by the easy power of a majority, they gaily harrassed her. "black e mo. Yaddaddsleepnekked"....
****- This passage shows that Toni Morrison describes that people pick on one another. She uses a simile to describe how somebody is an object more than a person. She shows that people's feelings are fragile when you pick on something or someone as simple as her father.
Pg 65:
“A group of boys was circling and holding at bay a victim, Pecola Breedlove.
Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, Buddy Wilson, Junie Bug-like necklace of semiprecious stones they surrounded her. Heady with the smell of their own musk, thrilled by the easy power of a majority, they gaily harassed her.”
This shows that Pecola is not a fighter and that she doesn’t care about being teased. She deals with being teased due to harsh family issues. People know what goes on with her and her family. She is strong by being able to deal with these older boys harassing her because compared to them she is this small little girl.
pgs. 62-64
"She enchanted the entire school. [...] As locker friends, however, we got to know each other a little, and I was even able to hold a sensible conversation with her without visualizing her fall off a cliff, or giggling my way into what I thought was a clever insult."
In the above passage, Toni Morrison shows important traits in both Claudia and Frieda MacTeer. A new, white girl enters their school during the end of winter, and the rest of the school is "enchanted" with her (pg. 62, "When teachers called on her, they smiled encouragingly. Black boys didn't trip her in he halls; white boys didn't stone her, white girls didn't suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their work partners; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls' toilet....She never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria—they flocked to [her]..."). The two MacTeer girls are admittedly impressed, but also curious and extremely envious of Maureen (pg 63, "Frieda and [Claudia] were bemused, irritated, and fascinated by her.") Like the white baby dolls of Fall, they try to destroy her through insults they can only use with each other, as "none of the other girls would cooperate with [their] hostility." This passage is particularly affective as it relates back to an earlier passage in the book, in which Claudia laments over being viewed as sub par to white girls, and then discusses the ways she would dissect her white baby doll, to "see what it was that all the world said was lovable" (page 21). This passage also relates to pages twenty-two to twenty-three: "The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls," as this is the perfect example of such displacement.
A passage that reveals an important quality of a main character is on page 74
“Jealously we understood and thought natural---a desire to have what somebody else had; but envy was a strange, new feeling for us. And all that time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The thing to fear was the thing that made her beautiful, and not us.”
This passage shows the shift in Claudia and Frieda’s attitude and how comfortable they were within their own skin. They had never felt envious toward someone, so it was a new feeling. This is an important aspect of the book because it goes back to Toni Morrison’s theme in beauty, and how one feel’s toward themselves. The incident with Maureen Peal was a bad experience for Claudia, Frieda and Pecola, and Toni Morrison uses this mad experience to show how the girls felt about themselves and the want of being different, and fitting in. This passage is effective because it shows a change in the girls.
claudia was very observant.Toni morrison use of diction when describing claudias viewing of maureen was descriptive.showing claudias character how she deep down was insecure,lonely and jealous in a way of maureen. She envyed her popularity and how she was accepted in the school."there was a hint of spring in her sloe green eyes,something shimmery in......she even bought and liked white milk"pg63. Claudias young character is shown throughout that passage.Maureen was everything claudia wish she could be.
The typical american beauty.
Characterization of Mr.henrey.
showing how he lied to the girls and his sneaky persona was surfaced. "those were some mebers of my bible class. we read the scriptures together so they came today to read with me" pg78
"bed not mention it to to your mother she dont take to so much of bible study and dont like me having visitors even is they good christians ". This was a major shift in the book the drastic change of character for mr henery,him lying to the girl to keep from getting into trouble by their mother. He was portrayed as this nice man before all this and then the reality of his character is shown.
in the winter chapter there is a on scene were pecola is taken from the park by a boy who wanted to play with her but instead she was locked in a room were there was a cat wt black hair and blue eyes and the boy hats the cat because mom like it more then her own son so he thrown the cat and got in trouble with the mom so it was a false spring because pecola was thinking she made a friend
My daddy's face is a study. winter moves into it and presides ther. His eyes become a cliff of snow treatenig to avalanche, his eye brows bend like black limbs of leafless trees. pg61 From this passage I took away three things. Firstly that he seems to hide what he truely feels. His emotions held in by wall that are unable to be peirced. Second that if he need to be he could be very aggresive at flick of a moment for any sittution. The last being at time he could be avery warm person. Like a tree in fall that is sheding it leaves to tha ground.
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