After class discussion today when we looked at different passages that met criteria for the independent reading assignment. Select one of the passages we discussed in class and try to analyze it based on the criteria. I will give feedback on this blog to help you all see what is being done well and what needs more work.
Look to older posts for examples of how this should be done.
Remember the 8 different kinds of passages are:
a passage that shows an important quality of the main character (protagonist)
a passage that shows setting
a passage that shows the complexity of a conflict for the main character
a passage that shows effective language
a passage that shows something symbolic, or why the book is titled what it is
a passage that shows the character's situation at the end
a passage that shows why you like the book
a passage that conveys an important theme or insight the book conveys...
You may use passages from Spring or Summer... type the passage in quotation marks and then put the page number... then analyze the passage based on which one you choose to do. As soon as you post, I will try to post feedback on the blog. This way, everyone can see what is good and what needs work.
This will help you focus your analysis for your unified essays and your critical lens essays taking you away from summary and moving into analysis.
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"... Another door opened, and in walked a little girl, smaller and younger than all of us. She wore a pink sunback dress and pink fluffy bedroom slippers with two bunny ears pointed up from the tips. Her hair was corn yellow and bound in a thick ribbon..." Where's Polly?" she asked.
The familiar violence rose in me. Her calling Mrs. Breedlove Polly, when even Pecola called her mother Mrs. Breedlove, seemed reason enough to scratch her.
This passage represents the complexity of the protagonist's situation, the protagonist being Claudia. Her whole goal, in a manner of speaking, is to discover what it is about little white girls
that everyone simply adores them and speak to them so lovingly and casually, but when they turn to even they're own children to look upon them with such contempt. This passage is one that exemplifies that idea, seeing as how Pecola cannot even call her own mother " Mom", but a complete stranger can call her Polly, in such an informal manner.
"... Another door opened, and in walked a little girl, smaller and younger than all of us. She wore a pink sunback dress and pink fluffy bedroom slippers with two bunny ears pointed up from the tips. Her hair was corn yellow and bound in a thick ribbon..." Where's Polly?" she asked.
The familiar violence rose in me. Her calling Mrs. Breedlove Polly, when even Pecola called her mother Mrs. Breedlove, seemed reason enough to scratch her.
This passage shows the complexity of a conflict of the main character. The conflict was that Pecola saw this small little puny girl come in and ask wheres Polly? And Pecola wouldn't even dream of calling her mother by her first name. Cause she knew the utmost respect was due to adults especially her mom. This really onfruriatefed Pecola, so much so that she wanted to go after this little girl!
Robert, you are starting to get the idea. You selected a good passag for complexity of the situation, however, the analysis should center around how this situation is really difficult for Pecola. Claudia is telling the story, but this is really about Pecola and how she doesn't feel close to her mom. She isn't allowed to call her mom, "mom," but this strange white girl that her mother works for has a nickname for her mother. Pecola now feels like she too much compete for her mother's affection with a stranger. Why does Morrison allow Polly to love these strangers and not her own kids... this makes for a complex situation for Pecola.
Jovan,
You seemed dead on in your analysis. It is a complexity for sure to not be able to address your mom and to watch a stranger show such affection when you cannot. Good job.
"But the dismembering of dolls was not the true horror. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to white girls... The eye slide of black women as they approached them on the street, and the possessive gentleness of their touch as they handled them." bottom of page 22.
This passage shows something symbolic, or why the book is titled what it is.
This passage exemplifies Claudia's antagonism for the white doll she was given. In her eyes the doll represented everything she felt she was not. In Claudia's eyes that doll represented all the little white girls that were given the attention that she craved. I think that by Claudia dismembering the doll into pieces, the doll had lost it's value and gave her the feeling that she had done that to an actual girl.
Yanill,
It's a good analysis of the passage and a good passage selection. However, the assignment called for something from Spring or Summer section, not the beginning of the novel again. I wanted you to use a section that would function from this section. Otherwise, apt analysis and selection.
this passage has effective language because Frieda gets worried that she might be "ruined,"which is girl who has lost her had been touch or nasty. Claudia and Frieda are confused by there mom she make it seem bad. She and Claudia know that some of the other prostitutes are thin and they think it is because of all of the liquor they drink.
The little girl in pink started to cry. Mrs Breedlove turned to her. Hush baby hush. Come here. Oh lord look at your dress. Dont cry no more. polly will change it. she went to the sink and turned tap water on a fresh towel. Over hershouldershe spit out words to us like rotten pieces of apple. pg 109 This passage is an example of how complex Mrs Breedlove Was. How her internal feeling contadicted her apprence. To the the point that she would confort a strangers daughter over her own. It is also obvious that she has an amount of resentment for her rase and her Kin
"One winter Pauline discovered she was pregnant. When she told Cholly, he surprised her by being pleased. He began to drink less and come home more often. They eased back into a realationship m ore like the early days of their marriage, when he asked if she were tired or wanted him to bring her something from the store."
This passage show how Cholly was luring Pauline in to a false sence of kindness and love because she was pregnant. You can see that there is something in it for cholly. Because if that wasn't the case he would have always been nice even if she wasn't pregnant. Hes a deciver and a bad person. (other wise he wouldn't have burned the house down)
Jenee,
You are sort of getting it and mentioning "ruined" is a good thing when discussing diction, but you also have to discuss the effect of the choice. Why is ruined so significant? How do the girls mistake what it means? How does it show who they are and particularly their innocence or niavity about the situation?
Alex,
You need to proofread before you publish. There are many errors that could have been caught if you read what you wrote first.
In terms of your analysis, it does meet the criteria of complexity of character, but I want more depth. You need to talk about who Pauline is very the Polly that this passage is showing. She is two different people and that is largely because of how she grew up. Make sure to connect it back to the whole novel.
Richard,
We have to move beyond summary of the passage selected. For what criteria is this analysis for? How well does Morrison meet the criteria? What you have is a summary... that is not what is being asked for... real analysis comes from an understanding of why you selected the passage and then a close reading and interpreting of what is being said.
"yes. now she does. ever since i got my6 blue eyes,she look way from me all of the time. do you suppose she's jealous too......no honey.right after you eyes" (pg 195-196)
This passage I felt showed the complexity of Pecolas character. This showed the true emotional break down of her character.The breaking point for this mere child who has, had to deal with situations no child show be faced with.Where she more or less loses her mind because of all these drastic events that have occured.She in end begins talking to an "imaginary friend". Which is a point all in itself that she had noone. She was alone and these situation drove her to insantiy.She beleived she had blue eyes,the blue eyes that she always wanted,the blue eyes that by americas standard were only beautiful.
"When I first seed cholly, I want you to know it was like all the bits of color from that time down home when all us chil'ren went berry picking after a funeral and I put some in the pocket of my Sunday dress, and they mashed up and stained my hips. My whole dress was messed with purple, and it never did wash out. Not the dress nor me. I could feel that purple deep inside me. And that lemonade mama used to make when pap came in out the fields. It be cool and yellowish, with seeds floating near the bottom. And that streak of green them June bugs made on the trees the night we left from down home. All of them colors was in me. Just sitting there. So when cholly came up and tickled my foot, it was like them berries, that lemonade, all come together. cholly was thin then, with real light eyes. He used to whistle, and when I heerd him, shivers come on my skin" - pg 115
This passage shows effective language because by what has been heard and said about cholly, there is nothing good about him, yet the way Pauline describes how she felt when she first laid eyes on cholly is very ironic because he seems like a nice person by how she is describing him at that moment yet now he is a cranky drunk who she is ashamed of, like when she goes to work and does not want to be seem with neither him or her children. Cholly was like a stain in her existence but he no longer holds that position.
But the dismembering of dolls was not the true horror. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to white girls... The eye slide of black women as they approached them on the street, and the possessive gentleness of their touch as they handled them.Pg 22.
This passage gives us a hint on why the book is called "The Bluest Eye". With a clear massage sent to the reader about claudia and her passion to get thoses blues eye's that mean so much to her you can figuer out clearly why the book is called like that. The eye's in the doll are all she wants to have for herself, she beleving that with these blues eye's everything will become good.
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