Open Essay Questions: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

1990 Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a
parentalfigure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the
sourcesof the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of
thework. Avoid plot summary. You may base you essay...
In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the protagonist Pacola maintains an unhealthy relationship with her parents. The author narrates both of the parents' lives to help explain some of the reproach that they feel for their daughter. Both of the parents' childhood explain why they neglect and abuse Pacola. Another contributing factor to their conflicted relationship is Pacolas "ugliness." Pacola's crumbled relationship with her parents contributes to the theme of the necessity of feeling needed and wanted.


1995 Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using
characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender,
race, class, or creed. Choose a play or novel in which such a character plays a
significant role, and show how that character’s alienation reveals the
surrounding society’s assumptions and moral values. Do NOT write on a short
story, poem, or film. You may choose from the following...An American
Tragedy,The Awakening, A Doll House, The Grapes of Wrath, Great
Expectations, JaneEyre, The Merchant of Venice, Middlemarch, Othello, Wise
Blood....
In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the protagonist Pacula is alienated because of her race and her overall appearance. Pacula feels that she is not accepted because she is black and does not have the stereotypical blue eyes of an American. This goes on to show that in this particular part in history, blue eyes and blonde hair was considered beauty. Anything that was not that was considered "ugly." Pacula accepted blue eyes as beauty because it was what she had been exposed to as a young child through her doll toys. She felt that she lived in a society where you were only accepted if you were beautiful, this meant having blue eyes.
1971      The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry 
Finn is easy to discover.  However, in other works the full significance of the
title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually.  Choose two works and
show how the significance of their respective titles is developed through
the author's use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and
point of view.
Throughout the course of the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison it is constantly mentioned that having blue eyes was the "ideal beauty." This is not obvious throughout the beginning of the novel but by the end of the novel the title itself becomes the most prominent symbol in the novel. The bluest eye represents beauty and the key to being accepted into society. Morrison develops the significance of this title through the repetition of it as a symbol throughout the course of the novel and through the various points of view used throughout the novel.