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Transcript

Symbolism of Seeds

“It never occurred to either of us that the earth itself might have been unyielding. We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola’s father had dropped his seeds in his own plot of black dirt. Our innocence and faith were no more productive than his lust or despair” (Morrison 20).

Claudia makes the stunning parallel between the healing action of their planting of the marigold seeds and Pecola's pregnancy, in which Claudia and Frieda associate marigolds with the safety and well-being of Pecola’s baby. They believe that if the marigolds they have planted grow, then Pecola’s baby will be all right. Generally, marigolds represent the constant renewal of nature. In Pecola’s case, this cycle of renewal is perverted by Cholly when he rapes her.

"I even think now that the land of the entire

country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for

certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain

fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own

volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live" (Morrison 206).

Soaphead Church

Solution for Pecola

Soaphead is asked by Pecola to grant her blue eyes. He tells her if she brings meat to the dog and if the dog acts funny, then her wish will be granted. However, the meat is poisoned and it kills the dog. But Pecola believes that she now has blue eyes.

Why does she go to Soaphead Church?

Racism in the Bluest Eye

Soaphead Church

(Elihue Micah Whitcomb)

The Reader, Advisor, and Interpreter of Dreams

Letter to God

  • Soaphead's father was a schoolmaster with a violent streak. He married a half-Chinese woman who died while giving birth. Soaphead was born Elihue Micah Whitcomb.
  • Attempting to escape his father's abuse, Soaphead married a woman named Velma, but she left him after a few months.
  • When he learned the word misanthrope* found it the perfect word to describe him
  • Settled down in Lorain Ohio and the women learned he was celibate* they thought he was a supernatural shaman figure he embraced it and took their nickname.
  • Althoug celibate, molest young girls and considers sleeping with men
  • Result of Anglophilia* as family was proud of Euro and is a self proclaimed Anglophile.

"And there wasn't any look- any long funny look-any long funny Velma look afterward. No look that makes you feel firty afterward. That makes you want to die. With little girls it is all clean and good and friendly" (Morrison 181).

After Pecola leaves on her quest for blue eyes, Soaphead writes and angry letter, in which he is blaming God for making the world so bad. Both in his life and Pecola's, there are unfairnesses, and he believes that God is to blame for those. He also describes his perverse interest in young girls in the letter. The final thing the letter does is give himself (Soaphead) credit for granting Pecola's wish for blue eyes (even though she is the only one who will see the change.) Overall, it is a cry of anger and pain for the injustice in the world, written by a pretty insane man.

Falling Action Spring-Summer

Allusions to Authors

Dante Alighieri

Dante an Italian poet (1265–1321) best known for his Divine Comedy, which details his vision as he progresses through Hell and Purgatory, escorted by the poet Virgil, and is guided to Paradise by his lifelong idealized love, Beatrice, who leads him to the throne of God.

Allusions to Authors

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"...those he despised most were Dostoyevsky’s" (Morrison 184).

Dostoevsky a Russian writer (1821–1881) whose works combine religious mysticism with profound psychological insight. He is best known for his Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

Allusions to Authors

Pecola goes to see Soaphead Church ( a man that is known to molest young girls) to ask him to grant her blue eyes. Soaphead states that if she gives the dog meat and the dog acts funny, she would have her blue eyes. Pecola, however, did not know that the meat she would have to give the dog was poisoned. Soaphead saw Pecola's predicament as a opportunity to kill the old dog of his landlord, which he then called a sacrifice. Pecola agreed with the arrangement and gave the dog the poisoned meat. Afterwords, Soaphead writes a letter to God.

When Summer rolls in, Frieda and Claudia learn from the talks of grown folk that Pecola is pregnant with her fathers baby. Many of the other women in the community blame Pecola for the incident, however Frieda and Claudia sympathize with Pecola. They believe that they must work miracles to save Pecola's beautiful baby and sacrifice their hard earned bicycle money to buy marigold seeds that they tend and talk to. They believe that the fruitfulness of the Earth will result in the fruitfulness of Pecola's child and that words and song will heal. However the marigolds don't bloom and Pecola's baby is stillborn causing the girls to lose hope. Pecola begins to see an imaginary friend whom she believes is jealous of her blue eyes. The loss of her baby along with the trauma of her rape and Soapheads promise of blue eye cause Pecola to go mad.

"He noticed Gibbon's acidity, but not his tolerance, Othello’s love for the fair Desdemona, but not Iago’s perverted love of Othello. The works he admired most were Dante’s; those he despised most were Dostoyevsky’s" (Morrison 184).

Allusions to Authors

Edward Gibbon

Gibbon Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) is best known for his six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In this work, which covers a time span of thirteen centuries, Gibbon espoused the view that the decline and fall were inevitable because of the withering of the classical tradition of intellectual inquiry. He blamed this trend, in part, on the rise of Christianity. His negative treatment of Christianity and his bitter irony made the work a subject of controversy.

Vocabulary

Anglophile

A person who is fond of or greatly admires England and Britain

"They transferred this Anglophilia to their six children and sixteen grandchildren. Except for an occasional and unaccountable insurgent who chose a restive black, they married 'up,' lightening the family complexion and thinning out the family features" (Morrison 183).

Antipathy

Asceticism

A deep feeling of dislike

Severe self discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons

"Although his income was small, he had no taste for luxury—his experience in the monastery had solidified his natural asceticism while it developed his preference for solitude" (Morrison 180).

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Celibacy

A state of abstaining from marriage and sexual relations

"Then, too, he had read several books and made the acquaintance of several great misanthropes of the ages, whose spiritual company soothed him and provided him with yardsticks for measuring his whims, his yearnings, and his antipathies" (Morrison 179).

"The women of the town early discovered his celibacy, and not being able to comprehend his rejection of them, decided that he was supernatural rather than unnatural" (Morrison 171).

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Misanthrope (Misanthropy)

A person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society

"As in the case of many misanthropes, his disdain for people led him into a profession designed to serve them" ( Morrison 165).

Questions so far?

Pecola's story

How did Pecola and Soaphead meet?

Soaphead Church a man who is known to be a angophile and also having a obession of the white race, started a advertize his abilties to be able to change ones eyes to be blue. Pecola's obsession to have blue eyes leds her to meet Soaphead Church.

Quotes from text:

"Soaphead was reflecting once again on these thoughts one late hot afternoon when he heard a tap on his door. Opening it, he saw a little girl, quite unknown to him. She was about twelve or so, he thought, and seemed to him pitifully unattractive. When he asked her what she wanted, she did not answer, but held out to him one of his cards advertising his gifts and services: “If you are overcome with trouble and conditions that are not natural, I can remove them; Overcome Spells, Bad Luck, and Evil Influences. Remember, I am a true Spiritualist and Psychic Reader, born with power, and I will help you. Satisfaction in one visit (Morrison 173).

Allusions to Authors

De Gobineau

"The most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received. Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty"

(Morrison 174).

"They were industrious, orderly, and energetic, hoping to prove beyond a doubt De Gobineau’s hypothesis that “all civilizations derive from the white race, that none can exist without its help, and that a society is great and brilliant only so far as it preserves the blood of the noble group that created it" (Morrison 183).

The Bluest Eye

Allusions to Authors

Arthur Comte de Gobineau

De Gobineau was a French diplomat and social philosopher whose racial theories became a philosophical justification for Nazi "ethnic cleansing." His most famous work, Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, states that the Aryan race is superior to all other races. His theory of racial superiority has been thoroughly refuted, of course, and is considered worthless by modern anthropologists.

How it all started...

Spring - Summer

featuring

Soaphead Church

Pecola's Insanity

Thank you!

ANY QUESTIONS?

Presented By: Mikalah Bailey, Braxton Dixon, Fabeeha Khan, Darlene Metellus, Samantha O'Brien, Freddyli Villar, & Kianna Young

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