Rohan Samanta
Period 5
The Bluest Eye – Chalk Talk Questions
1. Morrison has written about a young black girl's obsession with a concept of beauty established by a white culture.
•	How is the concept of "beauty" is created—and how subjective is it?
Beauty is a beautiful or pleasing thing or person. Beauty is entirely subjective and is created by the social norm in society. In my opinion, beauty comes down to personal preference and this comes from one’s values. Values are spread within families and society.
•	What are the parameters of beauty—for men and women, black and white. Do those parameters change across cultures or through history?
For men and women, black and white, the parameters of beauty come from the differences between them. For example, women show an interest toward manly features and men tend to have an interest for feminine features. Black and white people perceive beauty as the color of physical attributes. This is shown in the Francis Galton’s study on the normal image a human’s face with the baby dolls of different skin tone and telling subjects which one they would prefer. Humans are attracted toward people who have the least number of abnormalities in their genes throughout evolution. Society decides these abnormalities in the human body. It is rare in society to determine beauty from within.
•	How pervasive is the "culture of beauty" in modern society—and to what extent are all of us prisoners of "beauty"?
The “culture of beauty” is extremely pervasive in modern society. An individual strives to become a certain image of beauty. We are all prisoners as we suffer from the implication and the negative aspects of beauty. We try to become beautiful in the modern view of society.
2. Pecola's connects the idea of beauty with being loved. To what extent are we all guilty of making that connection?
We are guilty of the conviction to a great extent. Individuals try to appear socially acceptable in society. We do this in a way that people will admire us. In this book whiteness stands for beauty. This is a standard that the black girls cannot meet who has darker skin than the rest. Pecola connects beauty with being loved and believes that if she would just have blue eyes all the bad things in her life would be replaced with love and affection. This hopeless desire leads her to madness at the end of the novel.
3. What is Claudia's role? You should also talk about the power of storytelling to create a reality.
Claudia is a medium for Morrison to portray her themes and purposes. She is an observer with unique viewpoints of being an adult and child. Claudia drives the storytelling to how Morrison intends it to head. In the beginning of the novel, Pecola is first introduced to Claudia and Freida, Claudia is the one out of the three that resists the white culture that they have attributed to being against Shirley Temple and white, blue-eyed dolls that are given to her as child. Morrison chooses to tell this story from a child’s perspective to show the impact the society has on young black children.
4. Discuss the role of racism in this work – how does the internal racism contribute to the perpetuation of stereotypes in this country? What is it like to be Black in America according to Morrison? According to you?
In Morrison’s view, internal racism in society is an issue that is present. If people conceive racism to be bad, then it will be perceived to be bad as it is the norm. Racism is a constant driving force that is present throughout the novel. Internal racism and oppression act to perpetuate stereotypes by diminishing efforts to try to change or prove stereotypes wrong. Black people have become accustomed to racism. In my point of view, being black in America is a struggle. Racism is still present in society.  Racism in increasing and it seems nearly impossible that it will cease to exist. Racism has built up from the past which has gotten worse.
6. What is the nature of poverty?
Poverty is the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. It is to unsatisfied with one’s position in society and unable to change that position. People in poverty are lazy and have not strived for success. One can be successful if they are at the right place at the right place. Pecola first comes to stay with the MacTeers because her family has been put "outdoors" owing to her father's drunken violence and carelessness. The threat of "outdoors" focuses families like the MacTeers on upward mobility. "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 folds of the garment."
7. What role do magical realism and religion (or God or the church) play in this novel?
The magical realism aids Morrison in expressing her themes. This also expands orality and lyricism to make the themes easier to convey. Claudia’s story more as a story and less as a recollection of events. The characters who are oppressed put their faith in religion and God. Religion gives hope to the black community to live for something and strike to overcome oppression.
8. Is there a “weaker sex”?
Both have their weaknesses but women are considered the weaker sex in society. The men work at the factories to make money and the women stay home and tend to the household and children. This is exemplified in the pg.117, “We moved into two rooms up over a furniture store, and I
set about housekeeping. Cholly was working at the steel plant, and everything was looking good.” This is the stereotypical middle class family lifestyle. Maureen and Freida are examples of female looking to fit in and conform to society. Soaphead Church and Cholly are examples of males having completely irrational thought with self-created justifications and lack of morality.
9. What does Morrison imply about our children? Child abuse? Safety and security?
Morrison implies that our children of age are going to have to overcome more obstacles to become successful and discrimination.  Children are abused and that the world is a dangerous place for them especially if they are poor or a minority. Child abuse can also be the neglect of parents which turns them the child evil. This happens with Cholly when his Aunt dies and there is no one to support him. The rape scene occurs with the lack of knowledge of how to express love and affection as Cholly has never expressed this with anyone. The children who are discriminated face more challenges in the world.
10. Discuss the implications of language in this book.
The language Morrison uses tries to imply the social condition of African Americans in American society. She uses African American slang to develop the discrimination and racism the blacks faced. At the time Morrison was writing the novel, the racist society that condemned Pecola Breedlove was still very much in place and Morrison took great risks-both within the black community and American society as a whole—to tell this important story. While advances in civil rights and racial attitudes have been made in the intervening years, it is arguable that many of the core issues so vividly evoked in the novel remain.