Part Two of Study Questions for Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (Spring & Summer) Some of the questions apply more generally.

1. What do you think it means to say that "gravity and humour are close neighbours"?

2. What do you think of Toni Morrison’s receiving the Nobel Prize in literature?

3. What do you think of the school systems that ban the book from the library and from the curriculum?

4. What accounts for Pecola’s mental breakdown? (193 ff.)

5. What other kinds of suffering does Pecola endure? Why does Pecola have to suffer so much?

6. Pay close attention to the narrative order of the episodes. We know of the rape/incest from the beginning. Morrison’s placement of Cholly’s background as well as the charm he brought to Pauline’s life offer what stands as explanatory elements for his later behavior. Not causes; just layers of complexity.

7. Who is Maureen Peel?

8. What is "The Imitation of Life"? Why is it important in this novel?

9. Cholly Breedlove’s extreme mental effort to hold himself together after his search for his father comes to such a disastrous end (156-57) might be compared with Pecola’s effort to control her body and make it disappear (45). Would such a comparison be useful to you in interpreting this novel?

10. We can use both interiorization and internalization to think about this novel. How can you explain the usefulness of each?

11. What does "trauma" mean? Who in this novel suffers trauma?

12. Could we use the principle of "thinking against" as we read The Bluest Eye?

13. At certain points, especially in the case of Pecola’s madness, the novel resorts to fragmentation. What do you think about fragmentation as a means of narration?

14. Morrison is not only telling a story; she is creating a critique. Find something that seems to you to be the basis of a critique.

15. In the last chapter, the narrator lays blame on everyone who knew Pecola. What do you think of Morrison’s location of responsibility?

16. Morrison uses the word "free" several times: Cholly’s freedom (159); the "we" who "were not free, merely licensed" (205).

17. What does the narrator mean when she says that Cholly loved Pecola (205)?

18. If The Bluest Eye were an argument, what would its thesis be?

19. Who is Soaphead Church?

20. What question would you like to add?