Excerpts from The Bluest Eye
- 章节名: Excerpts from The Bluest Eye
Excerpt One Outdoors was the end of something, an irrevocable, physical fact, defining and complementing our metaphysical condition. Being a minority in both caste and class, we moved about anyway on the hem of life, struggling to consolidate our weaknesses and hang on, or to creep singly up into the major folds of the garment. Our peripheral existence, however, was something we had learned to deal with…. (Autumn 18) Paraphrase: Outdoors was a remediless, physical fact and represented the conclusion of something. It defined and fulfilled our metaphysical condition. We were the minority both in caste and class in the society. We lived on the hem of life, and we fought against the cruel life to consolidate our weaknesses and hang on or to creep singly up into the center part of the society. We had learned to deal with this kind of life. Comment: It is Claudia’s narration. From a child’s view, it represented the racial prejudice towards black people---- minority in both caste and class in this society. People lived in the culture that whiteness was superior. So the blacks lived on the hem of life, being afraid of putting outdoors. They had to struggle to survive in this unfair society with no choice. They did not deny the standard of beauty. They could not change the society, what they could do was to adapt to the society, to endure what the society gave them. Excerpt Two There in the dark her memory was refreshed, and she succumbed to her earlier dreams. Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another --- physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion. In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by the heap. She forgot lust and simple caring for. She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. (Spring 97) Paraphrase: Her memory restored in the dark and she continued her earlier dreams. Except thought about the romantic love, she began to pay attention to another----physical beauty. These two ideas probably were the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both produced in envy, thrived in insecurity, and vanished in disillusion. She considered the physical beauty as virtue, and made herself self-contempt. She forgot lust and simple caring for. She considered love as self-owning, and romance as the aim of the spirit. Comment: This paragraph described Pauline’s inner heart activity when she was pregnant. “In the dark” meant that she was watching movies. She felt lonely at home. She chose to take refuge in the movies and developed destructive ideas about physical beauty and romance love. She thought the movie star who had white skin was beautiful, so she felt self-contempt about her ugliness. She forgot lust and simple caring for was also love. She paid too much attention to romance and possessive mating, which made her pathetic. This also suggested that the whiteness aesthetics was reinforces again by the movies to black people. Excerpt Three The damage done was total. She spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach---could not even see---but which filled the valleys of the mind. (Summer 158) Paraphrase: What she suffered was severe. She spent her delicate life on the street, walking up and down, up and down. Her head was jerking, as if she heard a distant drummer only she could hear. Her elbows bent and her hands were on shoulders. She flailed her arms like a bird but failed to fly. She wanted to fly to the blue void which beyond her reach and vision. This longing filled all her mind. Comment: This paragraph described Pecola’s madness. Pecola believed that she had bluest eyes, but nobody looked at her. She thought they were jealous. Pecola wandered the street jerking her arms as if trying to fly. She was mad. She cared nothing except her bluest eyes. Imagining Pecola’s small and delicate body, readers expressed sympathy to this little girl. She was like a grounded small bird. The bird wanted fly into the blue void while Pecola wanted bluest eyes. They could not make those things true which were dreams to the bird and Pecola. Even they could not reach the dreams, they thought about them day and night. Only in madness, could she have the bluest eyes. What a tragedy!
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