In their eighth grade year, students read Fences by August Wilson and were introduced to the idea of authors as social commentators. Specifically, through juxtaposing Claudia and PecolaРІР‚в„ўs lives, we see how a loving and supportive home can strengthen a childРІР‚в„ўs response to these pressures, while for the most vulnerable (Pecola) they can be devastating. The role of authors as change agents in our society is a question that students will address towards the end of the unit, and by the time they complete the novel, students should be able to express in some way that through her novel, Morrison is commenting on the impact of notions of beauty and love (as defined by the culture of power) on black Americans. Symbols: the house, blue (est) eye, marigolds/flowers/seeds.Motifs: seasons and nature, Dick and Jane story, color/whiteness, vision and seeing, cleanliness and dirtiness.Thematic topics: racism, love, community, power, beauty.In addition to racism and its impact on the individual and society, students will also explore the additional thematic topics, symbols, and motifs that Morrison employs in the novel to convey her powerful message. 210) The impact of racial stereotypes on the identity development of young black women and men plays a central role in both the novel and the paired texts.

In her novel, The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison explores what she describes in her own words as РІР‚Сљhow something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child the most vulnerable member: a female.РІР‚Сњ (Morrison, p. In this second unit of the year students will continue to investigate the thematic topic of identity, focusing specifically on how societal influences such as racism impact the development of an individualРІР‚в„ўs sense of self. Due to the mature nature of the topics and themes of the book (race, class, identity, exploitation, sex) the teacher should prepare, along with his/her instructional leader, how s/he will address these topics with sensitivity in an academic setting prior to beginning the unit. The novel contains explicit descriptions of sexual encounters and sexual violence including rape and incest. We substituted good grammar for intellect we switched habits to simulate maturity we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.Important Note: This novel is both on the Common Core suggested text list and has been banned in a number of school districts around the country. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.Р”Р„nd fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive we were not free, merely licensed we were not compassionate, we were polite not good, but well behaved. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. Even her waking dreams we used-to silence our own nightmares. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. All of us-all who knew her-felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. РІР‚СљAll of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed.

Racism in the bluest eye