"Elbows bent, hands on shoulder, [Pecola] flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach-could not even see- but which filled the valleys of the mind" (Morrison 204).
Morrison uses imagery in this passage to illustrate the strong desire that consumes Pecola to achieve her dream-to be a part of the white standards.Usually, when you see a kid acting like a bird, you would think that they're just fooling around and laugh it off. The imagery is recognized to challenge this thought- process as Pecola is not just playing, she's desperate. Pecola desperately flaps her arms so that somehow she could miraculously fly and reach the blue sky. The blue sky symbolizes white beauty. In a culture where white beauty is dominant and black beauty is ignored, it is impossible for Pecola to live her dream.
A simile is used to compare Pecola to a bird. A bird symbolizes freedom, which is exactly what Pecola strives for. She wants to be free from the "ugliness" and obtain blue-eyes. Unfortunately, even when she thinks she finally has blue eyes, society does not see any difference and because of this she is driven to madness as the pressure becomes to overwhelming.
Furthermore by contrasting the situations of Pecola and Cholly, Morrison is able to elaborate on the dangers of too much freedom. Cholly ended up becoming free to the point where he could do anything he wanted and get away with it. In the end, his freedom drove him to insanity.
Cholly's cause of madness was too much freedom whereas Pecola's was the opposite.
In this animated image, the birds (symbol for freedom) are frantically flying, having no sense of direction. This shows how to a certain extent, some sort of guidance is necessary as too much freedom is harmful.
SHWETA MA GURL
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you showed us that freedom is a privelage and too much or too less of it can harm someone emotionally and socially. I also like the birds comparison very nice very nice ;))
Woah Shweta, I liked that last sentence a lot. Very powerful and connects with the entire piece you wrote today. The connection you made about birds with the simile used in the novel is very accurate, i totally agree that birds are a symbol for freedom, precisely what Pecola craves! Nice job XD (guess you didnt need any help after all!)
ReplyDeleteI liked how you encorporated the analysis of freedom into your blog!
ReplyDelete