Toni Morrisons, The Bluest Eye, Alice Walkers , The Color Purple , andRichard Wrights autobiography , Black Boy , all represent prejudicy . Thepreceding novels show the characters were typical victims, not understading thedivision of power amongst races. The Bluest Eye , a heart breaking story of alittle back girl living in Lorain, Ohio during the 1930s, manifest thelonging of Pecola Breedloves obsession for love. In order to achieve love shewould have to deny herself of her true identity and surrender to what is thoughtto be beautiful and superior: little white girls “gifted” with blond hairand blue eyes.
The novel procalaims the nations love for little white girls. Sadly, Pecola wishes every night to abolish her ugliness: her blackness. If shecould only become “beautiful” she would be loved , rather then become thesubject of hatred ranging fom people like her mother tro her teachers to herclassmates. Recounting the story of a black girls hardships in the worldof prejudice, Alice Walkers , The Color Purple presents a moving story oflove, ill-treatment, and growth. Celie, the main character, advances towardinner growth changing from a abused and submissive wife to an independent andconfident black women.
The story is written in Celies journal addressed toGod. This is because the only person she thinks she can trust is God I with hersecrets. From Celies journal the reader finds out about other characters inthe novel such as Alfonso, Mr. _____, Shug, Nettie, and Harpo. The theme of thenovel is straightforward and simple. Like many of the other novels devoted tothe mistreatment of blacks and black women especially.
Much of the novel reflectpoints in the authors life. The novel is derived from Alice Walkers ownpersonal experience, growing up in the rural south as an abused and uneducatedchild. Black Boy is an autobiography about Richard Wright. He was born in therural Mississippi, the grandson of slaves.
Richard Wright overcame every socialobstacle including poverty, racism and limited education to achieve theregonition as the creator of Americas most powerful literature. Black Boy,Richard Wright’s autobiography, covers his childhood and early adulthood. Itopens with four-year-old Richard’s rebellion against authority. In order tooccupy his time Richard accidently burns down his grandfathers house. “My ideawas growing.
Now I was wondering how the long fluffy curatians would look if Iheld the burning straws under them( pg 11). ” All throughout the entire novelRichard has some type of hunger. His hunger gets him into trouble. At the time,Richard was and resentful of his mother’s command of silence. After his motherdetermined that he was unharmed, she beat him so badly that he lostconsciousness. When Richard and his brother were very young, Nathan Wright,their father, a sharecropper , abandoned the family, plunging them into poverty.
Richard’s constant hunger made him extremely bitter toward his father. Over thenext few years, Ella, Richard’s mother, would desperately attempt to feed,clothe, and shelter her children. Her long hours of work often meant leaving herchildren with little supervision. When Richard was six years old, he beganbegging drinks in a nearby saloon where the customers plied him with nickels ifhe would repeat various curse words and offensive phrases.
When beatingsdidnt work helpfully with his growing obsession with alcohol, Ella engagedthe babysitting services of an older black woman in the neighborhood who watchedevery move. Ella moved in with her sister, Maggie, and Maggie’s husband, SilasHoskins. Hoskins was the owner of a successful saloon, so there was always morethan enough food to eat. Nevertheless, Richard was unable to lose the fear thathis hunger would return anew, so he hoarded food all over the house. Unfortunately, the newly found stableness was not destined to last.
The localwhites were jealous of Hoskins’s profitable business, so they murdered him andthreatened to kill the rest of his family. Maggie and Ella fled with the twoboys to live in another town. Maggie and Ella’s combined wages proved adequateto feed and clothe Richard and his brother, but Maggie became involved with”Professor” Matthews, a wanted man. Matthews, being a wanted man gavethe children valued things and a puppy. Shortly after Richard desired to sell thedog for money to sooth his hunger. The lady only having 97 cents was denied newownership of the puppy.
A week later the dog was run over and killed. Ella andthe children fled to the North after Mathews killed a white woman; Ella onceagain had to work alone to provide for herself and her children. Ella’s healthbegan to deteriorate. Because she didnt have money for rent she and her sonswere forced to move several times. A paralytic stroke disabled her, so Richardwas forced to write to his grandmother for help.
Ella’s siblings gave hat helpthey could, but none of them could take on the responsibility for both of herchildren. Richard’s grandmother took on the responsibility for caring for Ella. Maggie took Richard’s younger brother to raise in Detroit, while Richard choseto live with his Uncle Clark, who lived close to Richard’s grandmother. However,Richard ultimately could not get along with Clark and his wife Jody, so hereturned to Jackson to live with his mother in his grandparents’ home.
Richard’sgrandmother was a strict Seventh Day Adventist, but Richard was an atheist froman early age. He also had a yearning to be a writer, a profession that hisgrandmother distrusted as “wrldly. ” His relationship with hisgrandmother was therefore a never-ending battle. His Aunt Addie eventuallyjoined the crusade to save his soul, and Richard was enrolled in the religiousschool where she taught. One day, she beat Richard in class for an offense thathe did not commit. He was accused of eating in school.
She tried to beat himagain after school, but Richard fought her off with a knife. In the followingyears, Richard would have to defend himself against the violence of variousmembers of his family. Despite his random schooling, Richard managed to graduatefrom the ninth grade. He tried to work to save money in order to move to theNorth, but he found himself unable to assume the role of humble inferior to hiswhite employers and co-workers. During this time, he suffered numerousfrightening, often violent confrontations with white racism. He moved to Memphiswhere the atmosphere was less dangerous.
He insulted the attempts of his kindlylandlady, Mrs. Moss, to marry him to her daughter, Bess. Meanwhile, he begansaving for his escape to the North. His mother, brother, and Aunt Maggie joinedhim in Memphis, and later moved with him to Chicago. Chicago urged new desiresand dreams in Richard, but he was still too afraid to fully acknowledge them. Mired in the sadness and chaos of the great depression, Richard found anideology that appealed to him in Communism.
He felt that he could aid theCommunists in spreading their message via his writing, but to his horror anddismay, he soon discovered that petty rivalries and paranoia ran deep among hispeers. He found himself he object of suspicion and distrust because he wasbranded an “intellectual. ” After a series of political battles and agreat deal of persecution, Richard became like an alien from the Party. He wasousted by several Communist when he tried to march in a May Day parade, but hedid not let this rejection defeat him. Instead, he resolved to find his ownforms of expression and self-realization through his writing.
One of the factorsthat influenced the novels was the setting. The Color Purple takes place in thesouth during the early 1900s. It is not usual that predjudicy against womenand blacks took place. The Bluest Eye also takes place during the early 1900sin Lorain , Ohio. Similar to the Color Purple black boy takes place in thesouth; arond the 1930s in Mississipi. This time in civilization is ideal forpredjudicy.
This was the time during the civil war. Black were not slave butthey were still treated with little respect. Racist whites were extremelyhostile to black literacy, and even more so to black Americans who wanted tomake writing a carreer. During these times blacks were highly mistreated. Without the setting it would be doubtful for the plot in the novel to takeplace.
All of the novels portray prejudicy toward the characters. The theme ofthe Color purple is straightforward and simple. Like many other novels devotedto the mistreatment of blacks and black women espescially, The color purple isdedicated to black womens’ rights. Much of the narrative in Walker’s novel isderived from her own experience, growing up in the rural south as an abused anduneducated child. Richard seems to be a mere reflection to Alice Walker, in hisautobiography, Black Boy.
Similarly to Richard and Alice Walker, Pecola is alittle black girl who is also abused. Pecola’s dreams represented the allAmerican dream. In Pecola’s eyes hiteness represents beauty, middle-classaffluence, popularity, and happiness. Throughout the novel, lines from Dick andJane preface several chapters. The perfect white world of the reading contrastssharply with the poverty and suffering of the black characters in the novel.
Apattern of rebellion and punishment last all throughout Black Boy. Aftersearching and searching Richard refused to give up his individuality to provehis loyalty to himself and others. He decide, as he always had, to go his ownway. The characters in The Bluest Eye, Black Boy, and The Color Purple arevictims of social obstacles such as being the vistims of racism, poverty andpoor education.
The characters deal with their obstacles differently. Pecolahides away wishing everyday to terminate her blackness. Soon later, due toherself and people around, she goes mad thinking she is actually gifted withblue eyes more beautiful than anyone elses. Celia stays a submissive wife untilShug comes along to boost her self-esteem to where it has never gone before. Atfirst Richard , in Black Boy, does not understand any of his obstacles. Therefore that was his hunger to go searching for more knowledge.
