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.
