While exploring these various emotions, Toni Morrison also changes the styles in each novel. In The Bluest Eye, the main character, Pecola Breedlove, feels as though she is not beautiful as society says she should be. “The American culture of the early 1940’s defines beauty in terms of such actors as Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple” (Magill 243). Morrison “uses the contrast between Shirley Temple and Pecola… to underscore the irony of black experience” states Phyllis R. Klotman (Metzger 413). Racism is an everyday issue for Pecola. She faces the problem from whites, and blacks as well. Pecola assumes that by having blue eyes she will be accepted in society. “She wants the bluest of the blue, the bluest eyes” (McEwen 1).

The Bluest Eye consist of four section that make up the novel. These sections are: ““Autumn,” “Winter,” “Spring,” and “Summer”” (Magill 243).

Claudia MacTeer, the nine year old narrator, starts the story off by taking a chilly look at her lifestyle and begins to concentrate on Pecola

Milkman returns to Michigan telling everybody about the things he has learned while in Virginia. “He shares his stories of the places, songs, and stories dedicated to his people” (Magill 2148). After Pilate realizes the bones she is carrying are her father’s, her and Milkman go to Solomon’s Leap, a flat overlooking a valley, to bury them. Guitar, Milkman’s best friend, shoots Pilate, thinking she took his share of the gold. “Empowered by his discovery of ancestors and himself, Milkman surrenders “to the air” and leaps toward Guitar’s arms” (Magill 2148).

Soon the women in the community gather to exorcise the ghost from Sethe’s house. Confronted by a chorus of thirty singing women, Beloved vanishes. Paul D. comes back to see Sethe and tries to inspire in her a will to live and an ability to realize her own worth (Magill 197).

’s stay with her. Pecola is staying with Claudia because her father dishonors the Breedlove name. “Autumn ends with a sketch of three misanthropic “whores” who, unsentimentally, provide Pecola with the little warmth that she experiences” (Magill 243).

Toni Morrison lets the characters add their own bits and pieces to the stories, as it contributes to the narrative.

“Set in Reconstruction-era Cincinnati, Beloved centers on characters who struggle fruitlessly to keep their painful recollections of the past at bay” (Metzger 415). They are constantly reminded of the tormenting emotions that slavery has left upon them. “According to Snitow, Beloved “staggers under the terror of its material-as so much holocaust writing does and must”” (Metzger 415). The mysterious secret of Sethe, the main character, becomes known as the stories are told. “Sethe’s dark secret: her murder of her baby daughter eighteen years ago” (Magill 196). Sethe tries to escape but gets caught. She kills her child so it will not have to endure the pain of slavery. She thinks the master of the property will impregnate her daughter in order to have enlarge the number of slaves that work for him. Coming back twenty years old, Beloved, Sethe’s dead baby’s spirit, wants an apology for not having a childhood. Beloved goes to the home of Sethe and Denver, Sethe’s daughter.

Some topics in this essay:
Sula Nel, Pilate Macon, Sweet Home, Louis Geraldine’s, Denver Soon, Bottom” History, Snitow Beloved, Macon Dead, Toni Morrison’s, Jimmy Cholly’s, metzger 413, “the bottom”, magill 244, magill 197, song solomon, toni morrison, magill 2214, blue eyes, magill 243, bluest eye, community “the bottom”,