The Bluest Eye Quiz 2

1. Describe Maureen Peal both physically and psychologically. What happens after school?

Maureen Peal was the new girl in Claudia and Frieda’s school she was a high-yellow dream child
with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back. And according to
the girls, they saw Maureen Peal as a rich girl as the richest of the white girls who swaddled in
comfort and care. With her pale green eyes and glowing skin, she walked like a wealthy young
lady. She wasn't treated the same as the other girls; for instance, the teachers supported her, black
boys didn't trip her in the hallways, white boys didn't stone her, and white girls didn't mistreat
her. She won over everyone at the school, with the exception of Frieda and Claudia, who were
jealous of her. She had a charming dog tooth and was born with six fingers on each hand and that
there was a little bump where each extra one had been removed, psychologically, at first Frieda
and her sister sees Maureen as someone frustrating, irritating and they are envious of her because
she is admired with almost everyone in the school including teachers and later on after they
saved Pecola who was being harassed by some men after school and offered to buy some ice
cream to the girls, Frieda and her sister changes how they view her they start to think that maybe
she is not a bad girl after all

2. From where does Pecola get her name?

After Pecola introduces herself to Maureen, she tells her that her name is like the name of the
character in movie "Imitation of Life." Pecola inquiries about it, and Maureen answers that it is a
movie about a mulatto girl who despises her mother because she is black but weeps at her
mother's funeral.

3. What happens when Pecola goes to buy Mary Janes from Mr. Yacobowski? Why is she
angry at the dandelions afterwards?

Pecola sees the same look she normally gets from white people on Mr. Yacobowski and she
knows that they look at her like that because she is black. Mr. Yacobowski, tells Pecola that she
will pay 3 pennies for Mary Janes. Pecola bends to get the money however, Mr. Yacobowski
stares at Pecola and makes her very uncomfortable. When Pecola gives money to Mr.
Yacobowski, he hesitates to take the money because he never wanted to touch her hands. The
Dandelions were outside, and Pecola sends a dart of affection to them but they do not send love
back, she feels that the dandelions are weed, ugly and preoccupied with that revelation, she trips
on the sidewalk crack and anger stirs up in her.

4. Describe the Clark Doll Experiment (from the Module). How might we guess that Toni
Morrison knew about the experiment? What scene does it remind you of from the book?

The Clerk Doll Experiment involves a study where children respond to several questions that
express how they feel about white and black dolls. All the dolls are the same except for the color
of the dolls. The questions dig into the racial feeling of the children, and some of the questions
they are asked include "which one is the bad doll?", "Which one is the good doll?" and "which
one is the doll that looks like you?" the children answer these questions by choosing from similar
dolls but of different colors. The majority of the children believes that white dolls are pretty, nice
and which they would play with just because they are white in color. On the hand, black dolls are
ugly, bad and mean just because they are black. The experiment demonstrates how race defines
what society thinks about a person. In the book, Toni Morison expresses Pecola's feelings and
treatment by other people because she is black. People think that Pecola is ugly just because she
is black. For instance, Pecola is mistreated in school by a group of boys who chant "Black" just
because she is black. Morison also uses Dolls as the special Christmas gift to represent interest in
motherhood. The Dolls are always big-blue eyed which is one of the desired qualities of typical
beauty. The Dolls represented the fondest wish of people just like in Doll experiment

5. Please include your five vocabulary words and definitions.

A. Inexplicable- unable to be explained or accounted for

B. Grotesque- comically or repulsively ugly or distorted.

C. Inert- unable to take any action

D. Misanthrope- a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.

E. Ocular- relating to the eye or vision

6. Please give one example of each of the following literary terms (from "Intro to Literary
Terms" In The West Guide) from The Bluest Eye:

Setting-- provide a quote from the novel that gives setting.

"It was a dead place, a place without kindness or love or mercy" (Page, 9). This quote from the
novel shows the setting of the novel, which is a poor, inner-city neighborhood.

"Geraldine, Louis, Junior, and the cat lived next to the playground of Washington Irving School"
(page, 86).
Simile-- provide a quote from the novel that shows Morrison using a simile.

"The two girls looked like two brown wizened apples on toothpicks" (page, 12). This simile is
used to describe the appearance of the two girls.

"The puke swaddles down the pillow onto the sheet—green-gray, with flecks of orange. It moves
like the insides of an uncooked egg. Stubbornly clinging to its own mass, refusing to break up
and be removed" (Page 11).

"So, when Mr. Henry arrived on a Saturday night, we smelled him. He smelled wonderful. Like
trees and lemon vanishing cream, and Nu Nile Hair Oil and flecks of Sen-Sen" (Page 15).

Metaphor--provide a quote from the novel that shows Morrison using a metaphor

"We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola's father had dropped
his seeds in his own plot of black dirt" (page 6).

"The world was a place where babies died and mothers went mad and fathers killed themselves"
(Page, 9). This metaphor is used to describe the world as a place of suffering and despair.