The Bluest Eye

Early Life of Morrison

Morrison’s parents, George and Ramah Wofford, left Greenville, Alabama traveled to Kentucky and finally settled in Lorraine, Ohio, before Morrison or her siblings were born, in order to offer their children a better education as well as escape the poverty, racism, and violence that manifested itself into the lives of black families in the South. Toni Morrison, herself, whose birth name was Chloe Anthony Wofford, was born on February 18th, 1931, in Lorraine, Ohio a few years after the advent of the Harlem Renaissance. However, due to the Great Depression in 1929, Morrison and her family, struggled financially for several years; as a result of the inevitable economic hardship faced by many African Americans of the time, her father worked three jobs for a majority of Morrison’s childhood. Along with her two younger brothers and older sister, Morrison, her father, who was primarily a welder, and her mother, who was deeply religious, were bonded through their struggle to survive poverty. In addition to this, Morrison’s writing is heavily influenced by her family. In fact, according to Morrison, her father left her with “a strong sense of her own value” (McKay 414) while her mother greatly impacted her writing abilities by telling her stories as a young girl. Moreoever, Morrison was also influenced by her grandfather who indoctrinated the important unique characteristics of the rich, African American culture she was born into. For example, in her most famous novel, Beloved, the setting is on a plantation in Kentucky which is where her parents moved from to escape racial prejudice and discriminaton. Morrison's work today has certain autobiographical elements which allow her to portray a universal theme of black oppression while also critcizing the white supremacist attitude that was inherent within African American communities. 

 

Although she lived in poverty, Morrison grew up in a family that appreciated the black culture and exhibited an intense love for the African American community. That being said, it is important to note that Morrison's father, George, worked extensively to ensure that his chidlren were given an equal opportunity to achieve their dreams; he also held a great distaste for the white Americans in the United States because of the discrimination and racism he faced first-hand. One important aspect of African American culture that Morrison's family cherished was story-telling. Morrison’s family took pride in not only their various stories of adventure but also the supernatural world while attempting to centralize  these ideas into familial life through music (McKay 414). Morrison’s mother, who was deeply religious, would often sing to her while her grandfather would play the violin; her mother sang about the various historical and fictional narratives she had been told throughout her life which influenced Morrison's love of writing and reading (Duvall 244).

 

This story-telling charcteristic, specifically, is evident in Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, when she relates the story of Claudia and Freida MacTeer, Pauline, Cholly, and Pecola Breedlove to emphasize the various detrimental effects of white standards of living, racial discrimination, and oppression. Moreover, her family's overall emphasis on African American culture as well as education played a major role in influencing Morrison's decision to write. With this said, considering that Morrison had a fascination with the supernatural and the unknown, Morrison’s world was characterized by the various symbols that she would later try to uncover in her works. For example, in The Bluest Eye, it is evident that Morrison attempts to suggest that an object as simple as marigolds or a pie even is capable of representing more than just itself; in fact, in her novels, she suggests that objects have the capacity to determine internalized racism and break the bond between a mother and a daughter. She believed that an individual should be aware of  the context it is in. It is important to note, though, that Morrison did not begin writing till after she graduated from graduate school with a master's and got married. In 1970, she published The Bluest Eye which was recieved well by critics but was not fully acclaimed because of its simplicity and narrative. That is, in this novel, Morrison writes from the perspective of a young child who observes the self-inflicted racism within the black community she lives in.