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About the The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Discussion category
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1
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24
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April 9, 2025
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Overall, what did you think of The Bluest Eye? (no spoilers, please!)
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27
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359
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April 9, 2025
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Is there a quote or scene in The Bluest Eye that stood out for you? Why do you suppose it resonated?
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18
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128
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April 9, 2025
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Did learning about Cholly’s and Pauline’s pasts help you develop any sympathy for either of them?
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15
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60
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April 9, 2025
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What advantages do you see in telling Pecola's story from a child's point of view? How would the story’s impact be different if narrated by an adult?
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12
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38
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April 9, 2025
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In her forward, the author states that she was concerned readers would be led “into the comfort of pitying her rather than into an interrogation of themselves.” She feels she failed. Do you agree? What emotions did you feel on finishing the novel?
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12
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45
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April 9, 2025
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Were you familiar with The Bluest Eye before your recent reading of it? If you’d read it before, how has your interpretation or opinion of the novel changed since you first encountered it?
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11
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31
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April 9, 2025
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How did you see beauty standards impacting the different girls in the novel? How are things different today, and how are things the same?
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11
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45
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April 9, 2025
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Morrison says of the women who move from the South: “[T]hese girls soak up the juice of their home towns, and it never leaves them.” What do you suppose she means? Do you agree? Do you feel you're someone who “soaked up the juice” of your home town?
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11
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32
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April 9, 2025
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What audience would you recommend The Bluest Eye to? Is there another book or author you feel has a similar theme or style?
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9
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44
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April 9, 2025
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The novel opens with an excerpt from an old-fashioned reading primer. The lines begin to blur and run together -- as they do at the beginning of select chapters. What do you think Morrison is trying to say or achieve by starting her book this way?
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9
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51
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April 9, 2025
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Frieda loves her dolls while Claudia preferred to dismantle them. Did you play with dolls as a child, or were you more of the “dismantling” type?
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9
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31
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April 9, 2025
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What evidence is there that racial self-hatred continues to ruin lives today? What present-day cultural factors could contribute to tragedies like Pecola's?
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8
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33
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April 9, 2025
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The title of the novel refers to Pecola's intense desire for blue eyes. How do you feel racial self-loathing corrodes the lives of Pecola and her parents? How does this manifest itself in characters like Maureen Peal, Geraldine, and Soaphead Church?
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6
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36
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April 9, 2025
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Claudia feels her and Frieda’s sorrow for Pecola’s predicament “was the more intense because nobody else seemed to share it.” Why do you think others in the town were less than sympathetic to her to Pecola's situation? Why did no one offer to help?
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6
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34
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April 9, 2025
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Pecola approaches Soaphead about obtaining blue eyes. Why do you think the author included this story? How would it have been different, in your opinion, if it had been relayed from Pecola’s point of view rather than Soaphead’s?
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6
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23
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April 9, 2025
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The narrator states that romantic love and physical beauty are "probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought." What did you think of this statement?
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6
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35
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April 9, 2025
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How does Morrison set up comparisons between a Northern Black community and the Southern Black way of life? What values do you think have been gained or lost in the migration north?
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5
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24
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April 9, 2025
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Is the conversation at the end of the book a real conversation?
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5
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30
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April 9, 2025
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At first, Maureen defends Pecola from the schoolyard bullies, but later Maureen insults Pecola, Claudia and Frieda (“I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly…”). What did you think of this scene? How did this interaction affect each of the girls?
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5
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25
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April 9, 2025
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What role does social class play in the novel? What do you see as some of the results of the upward striving Claudia describes?
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4
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23
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April 9, 2025
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The author clearly condemns Cholly's actions but resists dehumanizing him. If rape of one's daughter is an "unimaginable" crime, can one at least trace the events (and resulting emotions) that made it possible for Cholly to commit this brutal act?
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2
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17
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April 9, 2025
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Reminder messages re Book Club posts
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1
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12
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April 9, 2025
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