Culminating Essay Questions Over THE BLUEST EYE

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The following questions will act as a final test. You will answer these in class and they will be due at the end of the period.

Write in complete, grammatically correct answers. Thoroughly answer the questions and use evidence from the book to support your answers.

Final Questions for The Bluest Eye:

1.    How does Morrison use bird imagery to describe Pecola? Cite specific sentences Morrison uses to describe Pecola.

2.    What was the reaction of the people of Lorain to Pecola after her breakdown? Be specific. Cite specific sentences as evidence to support your answers.

3.    A scapegoat is someone that other people blame for the mistakes a community makes.  It comes from the Old Testament where the Israelites would send a goat, symbolically burdened with the people’s collective sins from the previous year, from the village into the desert – symbolically removing the village’s sins. How is Pecola the scapegoat for Lorain, Ohio?

4.    How did the people of Lorain use the defects, the flaws, the deficiencies of Pecola to make them feel better about themselves?

5.    According to Morrison, what kind of people did the community of Lorain become as a result of their abuse and neglect of Pecola?

6.    Marigolds represent grief and cruelty. Why does Morrison use the seeds of marigolds in this story?

7.    What does Morrison mean when she writes, “Love is no better than the lover.”

8.    Read the next the last paragraph on page 206, starting with, “Oh, some of us loved her.” What does Morrison mean when she writes, “The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.”