Claudia destroys the white baby dolls because she is so curious to figure out what specifically makes these white dolls so special ,desirable, and loved by everyone. She also destorys the baby dolls as a source of empowerment.
Why does Claudia want to destroy the white dolls?
She enjoys destroying the white dolls because as she does so, she is satisfying her resentment of white girls and white values that would label her as black and ugly. Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, have learned their life lessons from their mother.
What does Claudia say about the doll in the Bluest Eye?
This in some cases would affect minoritys, who would come to think that their features such as dark skin, and nappy hair were ugly. In The Bluest Eye, Claudia a little girl receives a little white doll for Christmas. In receiving this doll Claudia shows that receiving one of these dolls does not make every little girl happy.
How does Claudia feel about temple and the baby dolls?
Claudia's only desire is to dismember the dolls in order to understand what makes them so desirable to those around her. Over time, this urge to dismember the dolls transforms into a desire to harm little white girls. Claudia explains that she feels guilty about these urges, so she hides them behind a fabricated love for Temple and the baby dolls.
What does Claudia do to save Pecola's baby?
When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it. When she finds a group of boys harassing Pecola, she attacks them. When she learns that Pecola is pregnant, she and her sister come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby from the community’s rejection.
What do the baby dolls symbolize in The Bluest Eye?
The white baby dolls of course represent not only the white standard of beauty but also the white domination of society and the black community. The values and spirit of the black community have been corrupted by the dominating white society.
How does Claudia react to her baby dolls Why?
Claudia destroys the white baby dolls because she is so curious to figure out what specifically makes these white dolls so special ,desirable, and loved by everyone. She also destorys the baby dolls as a source of empowerment.
Who destroyed the doll in The Bluest Eye?
Self-Hatred 2: Claudia receives a white baby doll for Christmas one year. Instead of adoring and cradling the new gift, as most other children would have done, Claudia, in a fit of rage, dismembered and destroyed the doll.
Why does Claudia want a baby alive?
Claudia and Frieda want Pecola's baby to live in order to validate their own blackness and to counteract the universal love for white baby dolls, Shirley Temple look-alikes, and the black community's flawed-but-Anglicized beauty, Maureen Peel.
What did Claudia do to the doll?
Whereas Pecola is passive when she is abused, Claudia is a fighter. When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it.
Are Claudia and Frieda black?
Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, have learned their life lessons from their mother. They have learned how to be strong black females who can fight back and not be overwhelmed and brainwashed by standards of beauty imposed on them by white and black women.
What happens to Claudia at the end of The Bluest Eye?
At the end of the novel, Claudia and Frieda spend the entire summer selling marigold seeds in order to buy themselves a bicycle. Once they learn of Pecola's pregnancy, they sacrifice their seed money as a payment to God, in the hope that he will allow Pecola's baby to survive.
What does Claudia want in The Bluest Eye?
Claudia appears to be the only one who has hope for Pecola's baby. Since she does not worship the white standard of beauty, she wants people to see that blackness can be beautiful as well and believes that Pecola can raise a beautiful black child.
Why did Pecola go crazy?
Pecola, a little black girl who thirsts for a pair of blue eyes, finally goes mad because of her never achieved wish. She can only live in her fantasy, persuading herself that she has a pair of beautiful blue eyes. She believes that only when she has a pair of blue eyes can she be loved.
What happens to Pecola's baby?
Meanwhile, Pecola converses with an unidentified person—presumably, herself—about her new blue eyes, which she still thinks “aren't blue enough.” In the final moments of the novel, the adult Claudia tells the reader that Pecola gave birth prematurely and the baby did not survive.
What sacrifice do Claudia and Frieda make for Pecola?
Claudia and Frieda decide to help Pecola by praying and by giving a sacrifice; they will give up their seed money and plant the rest of the marigold seeds. They will bury the money by Pecola's house and bury the seeds in their own yard so that they can tend them.
Who is Pecola talking to at the end of The Bluest Eye?
She asks her imaginary friend where she lives, and the friend rebuffs her. Pecola worries that her mother does not see her new friend. The imaginary friend begins talking about Cholly.
How do dolls affect children?
Playing with dolls encourages children to talk more about others' thoughts and emotions, a study has found. The research suggests that playing imaginary games with dolls could help children develop social skills, theory of mind and empathy.
Why do kids love dolls?
“It gives children the opportunity to be empathic, emotional, and show caring and attention toward others.” Along with social-emotional benefits, playing with dolls can also promote skills that help prepare a child for preschool. Learn more about what children gain from this sweet, fun form of imaginative play.
What is the Baby Think It Over program?
The program gives students a chance to get a small taste of what it might be like to be a teen parent. Students learn this and other consequences of premarital sexual behaviors.
What happens when Claudia is given a white doll?
When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it. When she finds a group of boys harassing Pecola, she attacks them. When she learns that Pecola is pregnant, she and her sister come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby from the community’s rejection.
How does Claudia relate to the bluest eye?
Claudia narrates parts of The Bluest Eye, sometimes from a child’s perspective and sometimes from the perspective of an adult looking back. Like Pecola, Claudia suffers from racist beauty standards and material insecurity, but she has a loving and stable family, which makes all the difference for her. Whereas Pecola is passive when she is abused, Claudia is a fighter. When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it. When she finds a group of boys harassing Pecola, she attacks them. When she learns that Pecola is pregnant, she and her sister come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby from the community’s rejection. Claudia explains that she is brave because she has not yet learned her limitations—most important, she has not learned the self-hatred that plagues so many adults in the community.
Why is Claudia so brave?
Claudia explains that she is brave because she has not yet learned her limitations —most important, she has not learned the self-hatred that plagues so many adults in the community. Claudia is a valuable guide to the events that unfold in Lorain because her life is stable enough to permit her to see clearly.
Why is Claudia's perspective important?
Claudia’s perspective is also valuable because it melds the child’s and the adult’s points of view. Her childish viewpoint makes her uniquely qualified to register what Pecola experiences, but her adult viewpoint can correct the childish one when it is incomplete. She is a messenger of suffering but also of hope.
Why does Claudia destroy the white dolls?
She enjoys destroying the white dolls because as she does so, she is satisfying her resentment of white girls and white values that would label her as black and ugly.
Why do Claudia and Frieda fight back?
Because of their mother's strengths and examples , both Claudia and Frieda are able to fight back against the forces that threaten to destroy them psychologically. Both girls resent the fact that not only white society but also black society values the Maureen Peals of the world.
What did Claudia and Frieda learn from their mother?
Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, have learned their life lessons from their mother. They have learned how to be strong black females who can fight back and not be overwhelmed and brainwashed by standards of beauty imposed on them by white and black women.
What does Claudia do when her mother finishes?
When her mother finishes, Claudia goes to look for Frieda. She finds her upstairs in bed, crying. Claudia asks her... (full context)
Who is assigned the locker next to Claudia's?
Maureen is assigned the locker next to Claudia's. Claudia knows she is about to become friends with Maureen, but knows it will be... (full context) ...of the boys in the head with a book.
What does the Maginot Line tell Claudia and Frieda?
The Maginot Line tells them Pecola is at her... (full context) Claudia and Frieda find Pecola sitting on the stoop in front of a beautiful white house.... (full context) ...the family's little white girl walks into the room. When she sees Pecola , Frieda and Claudia, a look of fear dances across her face.
What does Claudia say when Maureen says "you"?
Claudia responds by asking whom she is calling black. When Maureen says "you", Claudia yells, "You... (full context) After an afternoon of relaxing in a field, splitting milkweed stems, Claudia heads home. When she enters the house, she finds her mother acting strangely.
What company do Claudia and Frieda go to in the evening?
School has just started for Claudia and Frieda. In the evening, grown-ups take them to Zick's Coal Company to collect coal... (full context)
How old is Claudia MacTeer?
Claudia MacTeer. The narrator of parts of the novel, Claudia is a strong-willed and passionate nine-year-old black girl. Still young, Claudia has not experienced overt racism and violence to the extent many of the novel's other characters have.
Who asks Frieda if their mother whipped her after the incident?
Claudia asks Frieda if their mother whipped her after the incident. When Frieda tells her that... (full context)
Why does Claudia destroy the white dolls?
Claudia destroys the white baby dolls because she is so curious to figure out what specifically makes these white dolls so special ,desirable, and loved by everyone. She also destorys the baby dolls as a source of empowerment.
Why does Claudia hate the baby dolls?
Claudia sees everything that she is not in these barbie dolls, and it makes her feel very ugly, angry, and secretly jealous, because she knows she will never have these traits.
What happened to Cholly and Pauline's teeth?
When Cholly and Pauline first started their relationship, it was like a white, healthy tooth. As time went on however, their relationship became more and more rotten and harmed. Eventually, their relationship (tooth) became so rotten, that it could not be fixed. There was always something wrong with their relationship at the root of the tooth and underneath it, it was just a matter of time before that rot took over the whole tooth... and it did as her tooth came out.
What happens when Pecola tries to become invisible?
When Pecola tries to become invisible and rid herself of her black body and identity, everything except her eyes disappear. This is significant bc it it proves that her eyes hold memories and an understanding of the world around her and herself, that cannot disappear. If her eyes were to disappear, she would loose knowledge of society and the world around her.
What does it mean when Pecola has blue eyes?
Blue eyes represent the ultimate definition of what it means to be beautiful for Pecola. Pecola prays for blue eyes bc she believes that if she has blue eyes, her life will be much easier and everyone in society, including herself will see her as beautiful. She also thinks that having blue eyes will cause her to receive the love and care that is missing in her life and family. She thinks that if she has blue eyes, everything that is wrong with her life right now, and family will be resolved and better
Why do black boys bully Pecola?
The black boys at the playground are filled with internalized racism bc they bully Pecola who is of their same race. The boys, like Pecola, are also filled with SELF HATRED FOR THEMSELVES that they take it out on Pecola. As African Americans, they have no power. the only people that African American boys have power over, is african American girls. So they bully her bc it makes them feel in control and like they have power over something.
What does Geraldine transfer to her son?
Geraldine transfers her resentment for blackness to resentment of her own son.
What doll did Claudia hate?
Claudia explains that she has always hated Shirley Temple and also the blonde, blue-eyed baby doll that she was given for Christmas. She is confused about why everyone else thinks such dolls are lovable, and she pulls apart her doll trying to discover where its “beauty” is located.
What are the challenges of Claudia?
First of all, she experiences the universal powerlessness of being a child. Raised in an era when children are to be seen, not heard, she and her sister view adults as unpredictable forces that must be watched and handled carefully. Next, Claudia experiences the powerlessness of being black and poor in the 1940 s. She and her family cling to the margins of society, with the dangerous threat of homelessness looming. Finally, Claudia experiences the powerlessness of being female in a world in which the position of women is precarious. Indeed, being a child, being black, and being a girl are conditions of powerlessness that reinforce one another so much that for Claudia they become impossible to separate.
What does Frieda say about Pecola?
Frieda understands that Pecola is menstruating (though she calls it “ministratin’”) and attempts to attach a pad to Pecola’s dress. Meanwhile, Rosemary, who has been watching from the bushes, yells to Mrs. MacTeer that the girls are “playing nasty.”.
Why does MacTeer offer the children a penny?
When Henry arrives, the children adore him because he teases them and then does a magic trick: he offers them a penny but then makes it disappear so that the girls must find it hidden on his person. There is also a second addition to the MacTeer household, Pecola Breedlove.
Why is Pecola in custody?
There is also a second addition to the MacTeer household, Pecola Breedlove. She is temporarily in county custody because her father burned down the family’s house. Pecola is the object of pity because her father has put the family “outdoors,” one of the greatest sins by community standards.
Why did Miss Jones' husband run off with another woman?
MacTeer also explains that Miss Jones’s husband ran off with another woman because he thought his wife smelled too clean. Henry has never married and has the reputation of being a steady worker. Mrs. MacTeer says the extra money will help her.
How does racism affect Claudia?
Though Claudia is careful to point out that fear of poverty and homelessness was a more prevalent day-to-day worry in her community than fear of discrimination, racism does affect her life in subtle yet profound ways, especially in the sense that it distorts her beauty standards.