Beginning Of Autumn

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison starts out with a simple short passage written three times in different ways. He stresses the importance of punctuations through this passage because the text is harder to read with out the punctuations. Excerpts from this passage appear in the story as an indication of another chapter. I suppose it indicates the theme of each chapter because the first two times it appears its content has to do something the chapter deals with.

As I started reading the first chapter, I realized that the main character distances herself a little from her parents when she refers to them as “adults” not parents (10). She believes “Adults do not talk to us-they give us directions” (10). Even if she does not understand something, she does not feel free to talk to her parents. Her “mother’s anger humiliates me[her] (11). She shows little affection towards her parents because, from what she knows of, she hasn’t received any nice treatment from them. Instead she admires the “somebody with hands who does not want me [her] to die” who takes care of her while she’s asleep (12). However, it is most likely that the “somebody” is the mother who worries about her child (12). This reveals the main characters naïveté as a 9 years old child, because it is hard for her to understand why her parents act as they do despite their love for their children.

Another thing that grabbed my attention was the observations that the main character makes. She observes things in details whether it is useful or not. When she pukes on the bed, she describes it in detail and even asks herself “how…can it be so neat and nasty at the same time” (11)? She also “watch[es] their [peoples] faces, their [peoples] hands, their [peoples] feet” trying to understand what people say(15). She also has the drive to dismember the doll she got for Christmas. These observations reveal that she has interest in science and practical matter which is not very common for a 9 years old child.

So far, I am enjoying this book because it has some interesting statements that make me realize how some things that seem obvious could actually not be. For example, when she talks about how she does not want anything for Christmas and that no one really asks her what she wants I realized how we always assume little kids want either robots or dolls for Christmas. I also like how the storyline itself may become a little boring for it deals with the daily life of a rural kid, but Morrison’s writing makes it interesting and even captivating.