Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye Essay -- Toni Morrison Bluest Eye Essay

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye provides social commentary on a lesser known portion of black society in America. The protagonist Pecola is a young black girl who desperately wants to feel beautiful and gain the â€Å"bluest eyes† as the title references. The book seeks to define beauty and love in this twisted perverse society, dragging the reader through Morrison’s emotional manipulations. Her father Cholly Breedlove steals the reader’s emotional attention from Pecola as he enters the story. In fact, Toni Morrison’s depiction of Cholly wrongfully evokes sympathy from the reader. The sympathy for Cholly evoked in The Bluest Eye from the reader is not deserved. By definition, sympathy means feeling pity or sorrow for the distress of another, or compassion. The skillfulness of the author manipulates the reader into feeling a certain way towards particular characters. Sympathy for characters – Cholly being no exception – derives from an author’s ability to use words and the construction of the story to lead a reader into a certain emotional direction. The reader is the prime reason the author constructs a story. Because all authors are completely aware that an audience exists for their stories, authors are, in turn, completely aware that their words can manipulate their readers. It is this awareness that allows all sentence structures and idea portrayal to be the product of an author’s manipulation. Because there exists an audience, there exists someone to persuade or influence. Thus, an author, like Morrison, builds a textual relationship between the characters in her story and that of the reader digesting her story. Morrison, like all authors, understands that the reader searches for a... ...ror of Pecola’s first sexual experience: her father rapes her), and a difficult marriage situation (caused by his own drunkenness). The â€Å"bads† certainly outweigh the â€Å"goods† in his situation. Thus, the reader ought not to feel sympathy for Cholly. But, Morrison presents information about Cholly in such a way that mandates sympathy from her reader. This depiction of Cholly as a man of freedom and the victim of awful happenings is wrong because it evokes sympathy for a man who does not deserve it. He deserves the reader’s hate, but Morrison prevents Cholly covered with a blanket of undeserved, inescapable sympathy. Morrison creates undeserved sympathy from the reader using language and her depiction of Cholly acting within the bounds of his character. This ultimately generates a reader who becomes soft on crime and led by emotions manipulated by the authority of text. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye Essay -- Toni Morrison Bluest Eye Essay Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye provides social commentary on a lesser known portion of black society in America. The protagonist Pecola is a young black girl who desperately wants to feel beautiful and gain the â€Å"bluest eyes† as the title references. The book seeks to define beauty and love in this twisted perverse society, dragging the reader through Morrison’s emotional manipulations. Her father Cholly Breedlove steals the reader’s emotional attention from Pecola as he enters the story. In fact, Toni Morrison’s depiction of Cholly wrongfully evokes sympathy from the reader. The sympathy for Cholly evoked in The Bluest Eye from the reader is not deserved. By definition, sympathy means feeling pity or sorrow for the distress of another, or compassion. The skillfulness of the author manipulates the reader into feeling a certain way towards particular characters. Sympathy for characters – Cholly being no exception – derives from an author’s ability to use words and the construction of the story to lead a reader into a certain emotional direction. The reader is the prime reason the author constructs a story. Because all authors are completely aware that an audience exists for their stories, authors are, in turn, completely aware that their words can manipulate their readers. It is this awareness that allows all sentence structures and idea portrayal to be the product of an author’s manipulation. Because there exists an audience, there exists someone to persuade or influence. Thus, an author, like Morrison, builds a textual relationship between the characters in her story and that of the reader digesting her story. Morrison, like all authors, understands that the reader searches for a... ...ror of Pecola’s first sexual experience: her father rapes her), and a difficult marriage situation (caused by his own drunkenness). The â€Å"bads† certainly outweigh the â€Å"goods† in his situation. Thus, the reader ought not to feel sympathy for Cholly. But, Morrison presents information about Cholly in such a way that mandates sympathy from her reader. This depiction of Cholly as a man of freedom and the victim of awful happenings is wrong because it evokes sympathy for a man who does not deserve it. He deserves the reader’s hate, but Morrison prevents Cholly covered with a blanket of undeserved, inescapable sympathy. Morrison creates undeserved sympathy from the reader using language and her depiction of Cholly acting within the bounds of his character. This ultimately generates a reader who becomes soft on crime and led by emotions manipulated by the authority of text.

Elie Wiesel Essay

Directions: Choose one prompt below to respond to in a 4-5 paragraph expository essay. Be sure to develop a strong thesis statement that makes an argument and topic sentences for each body paragraph. Please follow these requirements to ensure yourself of maximum points: 1. Use MLA Format, including headers 2. It is important that you take time to organize your thoughts through prewriting/shaping. Ultimately, this saves you time in the long run. (Re: organize body paragraphs first!) 3. Create a clear and argumentative thesis statement and place it at the end of your introductory paragraph. 4. Organize two body paragraphs that contain at least two quotes each; begin each paragraph with a clear and argumentative topic sentence 5. Provide a smooth lead-in for each quote which gives contextual information 6. Include parenthetical citations with page numbers after each quote.   7.Make sure your Concluding paragraph is all commentary. Prompts: 1) One of the most tragic themes in Night is Eliezer’s discovery of the way that atrocities and cruel treatment can make decent people into brutes. Does Elie himself escape this fate? Use specific events to convey your opinion. 2) Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his championing of human rights around the world. How might his advocacy for human rights have grown out of his Holocaust experiences? What are the positive lessons of the Holocaust that Wiesel hints at in Night? 3) Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis reduced the Jews to little more than â€Å"things† which were a nuisance to them. Discuss how dehumanization occurred in Night (you can include events that occurred that dehumanized Eliezer, his father, or his fellow Jews) and how this helped Hitler achieve his ends. 4) Oftentimes in novels, authors write with a purpose to teach the reader

How to Avoid the Freshman 15

The Freshman 15 is one of the things incoming students hear about the most. Legend has it that the average student gains fifteen pounds during their first year in college. Urban myth or not, keep these tips in mind to ensure you eat and stay healthy as you adjust to eating on campus. Walk whenever and wherever you can on campus. Your campus may be big or small, hilly or flat, but regardless: its probably walkable. Do your best to take the long way when you can. Join an intramural sports team. Never played rugby or softball before? Who cares! Intramural sports can be a fun way to learn a new sport, meet people, and stay healthy during your time at school. Use the campus gym. Its most likely free, or very cheap. Make the most of it while you can. Get a workout partner. Not good at always making it to that 8:00 a.m. spin class? Find someone else who is interested in attending on a regular basis, and help hold each other accountable. Choose diet soda instead of regular. You might be surprised at how quickly all of those calories add up! Eat a salad (or a piece of fruit, or a healthy side veggie) with whatever else you grab for dinner. And do it every time. Eat a healthy breakfast. Your mom was right: your day does go better when you eat a good breakfast. Avoid the d onuts and grab some oatmeal to go. Keep healthy snacks in your room. Even if you dont have a fridge in your room, you can still keep pretzels, fruit (dried or fresh), healthy nuts, and energy bars on hand. Dont get dessert every time you eat. True, the dining hall may have unlimited self-serve ice cream, but that doesnt mean you should eat it every night. If youre going to order food late at night, make smart choices. Up late studying with your roommate and want to order pizza? Choose cheese only instead of loading up on toppings. Do something physical every weekend. Go for a run, join a pick-up game, play Ultimate Frisbee with some friends. Just get your body moving. Walk when you go off campus. Are your friends and you heading to a nice, neighborhood restaurant to get away for a while? If you can, try walking as a group instead of hopping in a car. Let yourself splurge every once in a while. Giving in to the self-serve ice cream machine is fine, as is the donut you are craving for breakfast, as long as you dont do it every day. But you do deserve a treat every once in a while! Drink water throughout the day. Do you go for 8 hours straight, from work to class to your club meeting to work again? Bring a water bottle with you to make sure you stay hydrated -- and healthy. Dont go long periods without eating. Running around all day, only to realize you havent eaten in a long time, isnt good for your body. It also may increase the likelihood that youll eat whats first available, instead of the food and nutrients your body needs. If you know you have a long day coming, pack some snacks ahead of time so your body has the fuel it needs to keep up with that big, college-educated brain of yours.