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?

Book Clubs The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Discussion
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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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I believe that Morrison intentionally and creatively set up her contrasts without ever saying so. “Here is the house” leads us to many of the socioeconomic issues surrounding housing. Dick and Jane, primarily thought of as white but never named so, contrast with most of the young people in The Bluest Eye. Both contrasts weave their way through the story and encourage observation and thought.

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I think Morrison cleverly sets the stage for the normal (White) standard of living during this time. I was a Black girl growing up in this same time period and remember well the Dick and Jane books because my mother was a teacher. In fact, we named our new puppy Spot. My sister and I loved saying: “See Spot run. Run Spot run.”

At first I didn’t get why Morrison started running the words together as you proceed through the book. Now I think it’s because Pecola was gradually getting obsessed with her appearance and falling out of reality. Very sad.

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I appreciate your idea that the words running together in the Dick and Jane descriptions could very well be because Pecola was getting obsessed with her appearance and falling out of reality. I recall that in the end she was walking up and down, her head was jerking and her arms swinging wildly as if she was trying to fly. Everything seemed to be running together just like the words from the Dick and Jane books.

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I was confused by that. Joyce Montague’s answer above makes sense to me. I can see the running together of the words as a mechanism for conveying the obsession of the various characters with the standards established by others in the community, and the “Dick and Jane” elements of the titling corresponding to the "white " standard as the norm.

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I think she was showing how the idea of the perfect family was first shown in early reading books. It was perpetuated in their daily lives, by the neighborhoods in which they were allowed to live, the schools they could attend, and other forms of discrimination. Television shows portrayed only white families for years. History books told little of the contributions of blacks. Repetition told they were unable to have the perfect house, perfect and beautiful parents and loved pets. This ideal was often denied blacks at that time, and there is still discrimination today, but to a lesser degree.

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When I was growing up I never thought about the inherent racism that was perpetuated by books, movies, or television. The Dick and Jane books were one way of promoting societal values. Gender roles, beauty, family structures and lack of diversity were represented by standards of whiteness. In The Bluest Eye these standards get blurred and more complicated as the non-white characters attempt to be accepted or are continuously rejected from this cultural norm.

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I am an educator so I look at things differently. Those words were written into reading primers to learn the written words. As children no one noticed that the words were just strung together. Words were taught in isolation. If you learned “sat” you could read and learn rat,pat, etc. Memorize the word and substitute the consonants.
Hidesight…racial definitely! Image controlled…yes!
Barbie/Ken/ what an American family should look like! Absolutely. Reinforced again and again. It all becomes a blur

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I love everyone’s thoughts so far - especially regarding how “keeping up with the Joneses” expectations were harmful and discriminatory. Without being able to peek behind the curtain of a perfect family, one wouldn’t know it’s often a facade. Despite having all the elements of the American Dream, people might still feel self-consciousness in their skin.

While trying to chase what society tells her to aspire to, Pecola seems trapped in an anxiety-ridden thought loop. As the book continues and she goes further down this path, the same thoughts ring in her head. As @Arlene_Iannazzi mentioned, it becomes a blur, and Pecola loses sight of her individuality in hopes of blending in.