...Josh Kloosterman 8:30am The Bluest Eye literary analysis Beauty is a perceptual scope that the reader looks through while reading the bluest eye in its entirety. It is the focus of ideals and issues within the book the Bluest eye. Beauty or lack of is the major motivator for decisions and/or consequences throughout the story. It can define who you are in terms of society and where you fit in, but does it have to? Supposedly, in this country we call home, if you work hard enough you can have whatever your heart desires. In the Bluest eye All Pecola Breedlove wanted was to have blue eyes or in her mind, be beautiful. She believed because of what society had taught her that those whom are beautiful have blue eyes and blonde hair. This is a social institution which has been part of America’s culture since the beginning of the U.S. We must look a certain way, have a specific occupation, or live in a particular neighborhood if we are to fit into society. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison has captured these and other stigma's we place on ourselves and raise the question of, is these things the only way to be accepted and have some level of beauty in societies eyes? We are raised in a society that tells us we are all equal, however that ideal is rarely practiced throughout our history. We only have to turn on the television or open a magazine to see who the adored people in our country are. Pecola believes that if she could have blue eyes then she would be accepted. "If she looked...
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...Each section of this prologue gives, in a different way, an overview of the novel as a whole. At a glance, the Dick-and-Jane motif alerts us to the fact that for the most part the story will be told from a child’s perspective. Just as the Dick-and-Jane primer teaches children how to read, this novel will be about the larger story of how children learn to interpret their world. But there is something wrong with the Dick-and-Jane narrative as it is presented here. Because the sentences are not spread out with pictures, as they would be in an actual reader, we become uncomfortably aware of their shortness and abruptness. The paragraph that these sentences comprise lacks cohesion; it is unclear how each individual observation builds on the last. In the same way, the children in this novel lack ways to connect the disjointed, often frightening experiences that make up their lives. The substance of the narrative, though written in resolutely cheerful language, is also disturbing. Though we are told that the family that lives in the pretty house is happy, Jane is isolated. Not only do her parents and pets refuse to play with her, but they seem to refuse any direct communication with her. When Jane approaches her mother to play, the mother simply laughs, which makes us wonder if the mother actually is, as we have been told, “very nice.” When she asks her father to play, her father only smiles. The lack of connection between sentences mirrors the lack of connection between the individuals...
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...Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Morrison puts the spotlight on society, lighting up the corrupt acts that it partakes in, through the story of how a little, black girl is thrown by the curb since she does not exemplify the common model. Instead of our protagonist, Pecola, having one human adversary, we see how most of most of society plays as the antagonist. The wicked acts of society eat up Pecola Breedlove from the inside to the outside, as they rape her, take away her innocence and leave her to go mad. Looking at everything from Pecola’s perspective, we realize that society rapes her constantly, by their critical attitudes towards all that she is. To them, she is black, she is poor, and hence she is ugly. One of the first heinous acts that society presents to Pecola is lust. That being, the desire for “whiteness” or as everyone else in the book believed, the desire for beauty. Pecola is taught from a very early age that beauty is one of the values that she will be held up to. In addition, society expresses to her that the crucial part to being beautiful is being...
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...Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing, Sell Websites Education - ADHD, Learning, Philosophy of Education, Privatization, Public Schools, School Violence, School Vouchers, Teaching, Technology and Education, Test and Testing, Writing English Composition Essays - Analitical, Autobiographical, Argument, Cause/Effect, Classification, Compare/Contrast, Comparison, Conversation, Creative+Writing, Critical, Deductive, Definition, Descriptive, Description, Dialog, Division, Exploratory, Expository, Informative, Interview, Inquiry, Journalistic, Narration, Observation. Personal Narrative, Place, Profile, Process, Proposal English Literature and Literary Analysis - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A & P, Antigone, Apocalypse Now, Araby, The Awakening, Barn Burning, Beowulf, Beloved, Bible, Birthmark, Blade Runner, The Bluest Eye, Candide, Canterbury Tales, Catcher in the Rye, Cathedral, Chrysanthemums, A Clockwork Orange, The Color Purple, Comparing Literary Works, Crime and Punishment, Death of a Salesman, Death in Venice, Desiree's Baby, A Doll's House, Dr. Faustus, Epic of Gilgamesh, Everyday Use, A Farewell to Arms, Frankenstein, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, Glass Menagerie, Gulliver's Travels, The Handmaid's Tale, Heart of Darkness, The Iliad, Invisible Man, Jane Eyre, The Joy Luck Club, The Lottery, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Metamorphosis, My Antonia, My Papa's Waltz, Neuromancer, The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, On the Road, Oresteia...
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...Lau, Cheuk Hak AFAS 342-03 2013/11/30 How is history ever present in black women’s lives? 'When I reflect on Black women and images, the first thing that enters my mind is the portrayal of them through media images as self-hating, angry, miserable, and vindictive. All of those characterizations are fictitious and derive from Western America’s foundation of White supremacy, as the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has so clearly demonstrated and proven.' —Dr. Ava Muhammad, attorney and Nation of Islam student minister The lives of black women in the early centuries were always tough. They were frequently the victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. After Columbus first discovered America, Queen Isabella of Spain saw an opportunity to make a huge profit by sea trading. Her men bought black people in Africa, and sailed to America. People in America bought black people and put them all into farms, mines, and other places to do hard work. This was called triangular trade, and this is how black people first got into America. Whites treated black people like animals; they gave them the worst food, minimal breaks, and the worst dwellings. Black people had absolutely no rights back then. They were property of their owners. Most of the black women became slave girls. After they were bought by their masters, they became the easiest target for sexual harassment from their white masters. Almost every black woman had been sexual violated. For example, we have read a novel...
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...Synopsis Born on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. Morrison has won nearly every book prize possible. She has also been awarded honorary degrees. Early Career Born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison was the second oldest of four children. Her father, George Wofford, worked primarily as a welder, but held several jobs at once to support the family. Her mother, Ramah, was a domestic worker. Morrison later credited her parents with instilling in her a love of reading, music, and folklore. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens. "When I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only black in the class and the only child who could read," she later told a reporter from The New York Times. Dedicated to her studies, Morrison took Latin in school, and read many great works of European literature. She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949. At Howard University, Morrison continued to pursue her interest in literature. She majored in English, and chose the classics for her minor. After graduating from Howard in 1953, Morrison continued her education at Cornell...
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...According to Milton C. Albrecht, sociologists have not given due attention to the role of art and literature in societies; rather, they have relied on the more traditional measures in examining society. Nevertheless, many people would agree that literature has had considerable influence on society and vice versa. In academia, there are three widespread theories regarding the relationship of literature and society: the "reflection," "shaping," and "social control" theories. The reflection theory suggests literature provides a fair representation of society. The shaping theory, which essentially complements the reflection theory, suggests ideas present in literature shape the behaviors of individuals. And finally, the social control theory suggests literature is used to maintain and stabilize society. Though all base their arguments on different evidence, Baldwin, Morrison, and West share the premise that literature provides an accurate reflection of society. Many experts studying the relationship have suggested that the reflection theory is the most plausible theory present. Estorick, a prominent scholar in this discipline, contends that the type of literature present in a society is ultimately reflects the type of ideology that society embraces in Literature and Democracy. Estorick discusses the evolution of muckraking literature into reform literature. Upon analyzing the social conditions of the day, Estorick draws a connection between reform literature, through which...
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...Senior English Curriculum Map: 2010-2011 School Year English IV * Note: “Sacred Book List” Addendum is at the end of this document Quarter #1 August 23 to October 22 Essential Questions: 1. How do writers and artists organize or construct text to convey meaning? 2. What does it mean to be a stranger in the village? Unit Goals 1. To understand the relationship between perspective and critical theory. 2. To apply critical theories to various texts studied and created. 3. To control and manipulate textual elements in writing to clearly and effectively convey a controlling idea or thesis. Student Published Portfolios: For each of the first three quarters, students are required to complete three to four published writing portfolio products. Quarter 4 is devoted to completion of the Laureate Research Project. . Pacing: This map is one suggestion for pacing. Springboard pacing guides precede each unit in the “About the Unit” sections and offers pacing on a 45-minute class period length. Prentice Hall Literature – Use selections from Prentice Hall throughout the quarter to reinforce the standards being taught as well as the embedded assessments within the SpringBoard curriculum. QUARTER #1 SpringBoard Curriculum Pacing Guide August 23 – October 22 Standards and Benchmarks | Unit Pacing Guide | SpringBoard Unit/Activities | Assessments | SpringBoard Unit 1Literature * The students will analyze and compare significant works of...
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...Composition Pedagogy, Race, and the African American Student: An Annotated Bibliography Bernstein, Susan Naomi. “Writing and White Privilege: Beyond Basic Skills.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 4.1 (2004): 128-31. Evaluating the relationship between white, middle-class privilege and both standardized testing and standard conventions of writing, Bernstein offers a classroom strategy for underprivileged students (either from racial or class position or both) to counter the negative effects of academic standards in relegating them to remedial positions in order to acquire basic writing skills before being granted access to the university at large. Encouraging her students to explore their previous educational experiences related to both testing and writing through a workshop format, as well as to evaluate their own imaginative writing and the reading of creative texts, Bernstein found that these can be used as means of critical resistance to their remedial designations. Ultimately, though, she concludes that it is not the student’s responsibility alone to resist relegation but also educators as well, who need to address and seek to resolve the conditions that produce “basic writers” even before their arrival at the university, and this, according to the author, will produce an awareness and restructuring of white privilege in determining academic success. Campbell, Kermit E. “ ‘Real Niggaz’s Don’t Die’: African...
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...The SAT Essay: Building a Repertoire of Examples The SAT essay is intended to measure your writing skills, not your knowledge of any specific subject. Therefore, the essay prompts given on the SAT must be fairly open-ended, so that anyone with a highschool education and life experiences common to all teenagers can respond to them. Most of them deal with basic philosophical, psychological, moral, or social issues. In my experience as a teacher, I’ve seen that the biggest challenge students face in writing the SAT essay is coming up with rich and relevant examples to discuss within the twenty-five minutes you’re given for the essay section. Quite often, students end up using examples that are inappropriate or superficial, or they don’t know enough about the examples they’ve chosen to write about them in detail. The way to combat this problem is to create your own repertoire of examples that you are well prepared to write detailed paragraphs about. Then, when you read the prompt you’re given on the day of the test, you can simply choose the examples from your repertoire that are most relevant to that particular topic. (Of course, this method isn’t fullproof; it may happen that you are unfortunate enough to get a topic that your prepared examples aren’t really appropriate for. If that’s the case, don’t try to force your examples to fit the topic. The process of coming up with these examples and writing several practice essays will also help you learn how to come up with new examples...
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...Specimen Papers and Mark Schemes for English Literature For first AS Examination in 2009 For first A2 Examination in 2010 Subject Code: 5110 Contents Specimen Papers Assessment Unit AS 2 Assessment Unit A2 1 Resource Booklet Assessment Unit A2 2 1 3 9 15 25 Mark Schemes Assessment Unit AS 2 Assessment Unit A2 1 Assessment Unit A2 2 29 31 61 95 Subject Code QAN QAN 5110 500/2493/0 500/2421/8 A CCEA Publication © 2007 Further copies of this publication may be downloaded from www.ccea.org.uk Specimen Papers 1 2 ADVANCED SUBSIDIARY (AS) General Certificate of Education 2009 English Literature Assessment Unit AS 2 assessing The Study of Poetry Written after 1800 and the Study of Prose 1800-1945 SPECIMEN PAPER TIME 2 hours INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES Write your Centre number and Candidate Number on the Answer Booklet provided. Answer two questions. Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B. Section A is open book. INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES The total mark for this paper is 120. All questions carry equal marks, ie 60 marks for each question. Quality of written communication will be assessed in all questions. 3 Section A: The Study of Poetry Written after 1800 Answer one question on your chosen pairing of poets. Heaney: Opened Ground Montague: New Selected Poems 1 John Montague and Seamus Heaney both write about the Irish past. Compare and contrast the two poets’...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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...Chapter1 Introduction Feminism is not one unitary concept; it is instead diverse and multifaceted grouping of ideas and indeed, action. The basis of all strands of the concept may be stated as that it concerns itself with women’s inferior position in society sand with the discrimination encountered by women because of their sex. “Feminism is a doctrine suggesting that women are systematically disadvantaged in the modern society and advocating equal opportunities for men and women.”(The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, second Ed). The term includes many loose like liberal feminism, Marxist and socialist feminism, radical feminism. Liberal feminists work for equal rights for women within the framework of the liberal state; they did not question the structure –economic or political-of the state but they demand the rights and privileges given by the state should be equally shared by man and women. Marxist and socialist feminists’ link gender inequality and women’s oppression to the capitalist system. Women suffer a double exploitation as women and as members of the working class. Radical feminists disregard all questions of political and economic dispensation to concentrate on the roots of the problem. The central root of the problem is the system of patriarchy which leads to all kinds of discrimination against and devaluation of women. Politico-economic questions are not the roots but only auxiliaries. The concept of gender is the real villain and has to be demolished. Lately...
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...[Transcriber's Notes] Original "misspellings" such as "fulness" are unchanged. Unfamiliar (to me) words are defined on the right side of the page in square brackets. For example: abstemious diet [abstemious = Eating and drinking in moderation.] The blandness of contemporary (2006) speech would be relieved by the injection of some of these gems: "phraseological quagmire" "Windy speech which hits all around the mark like a drunken carpenter." [End Transcriber's Notes] BY GRENVILLE KLEISER HOW TO BUILD MENTAL POWER A book of thorough training for all the faculties of the mind. Octa cloth, $3.00, net; by mail, $3.16. HOW TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC A practical self-instructor for lawyers, clergymen, teachers, businessmen, and others. Cloth, 543 pages, $1.50. net; by mail, $1.615. HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCE IN SPEECH AND MANNER A book of practical inspiration: trains men to rise above mediocrity and fearthought to their great possibilities. Commended to ambitious men. Cloth. 320 pages, $1.50. net; by mail, $1.65. HOW TO DEVELOP POWER AND PERSONALITY IN SPEAKING Practical suggestions in English, word-building, imagination, memory conversation, and extemporaneous speaking. Cloth, 422 pages, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.65. HOW TO READ AND DECLAIM A course of instruction in reading and declamation which will develop graceful carriage, correct standing, and accurate enunciation; and will furnish abundant exercise in the use of the best examples...
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...ALSO BY JOHN GREEN Looking for Alaska An Abundance of Katherines Paper Towns Will Grayson, Will Grayson W ITH DAVID LEVITHAN DUTTON BOOKS | An imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. DUTTON BOOKS A MEMBER O F PENGUIN GRO UP (USA ) INC . Published by the Penguin Group | Penguin Group (USA ) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A . | Penguin Group (C anada), 90 Eglinton A v enue East, Suite 700, Toronto, O ntario M4P 2Y3, C anada (a div ision of Pearson Penguin C anada Inc.) | Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC 2R 0RL, England | Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a div ision of Penguin Books Ltd) | Penguin Group (A ustralia), 250 C amberw ell Road, C amberw ell, V ictoria 3124, A ustralia (a div ision of Pearson A ustralia Group Pty Ltd) | Penguin Books India Pv t Ltd, 11 C ommunity C entre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India | Penguin Group (NZ), 67 A pollo Driv e, Rosedale, A uckland 0632, New Zealand (a div ision of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) | Penguin Books (South A frica) (Pty ) Ltd, 24 Sturdee A v enue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South A frica | Penguin Books Ltd, Registered O ffices: 80 Strand, London WC 2R 0RL, England This book is a w ork of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously , and any resemblance to actual persons, liv ing or dead, business establishments, ev ents, or locales is entirely coincidental. C opy right ©...
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