Sunday, October 25, 2015
Dialogue in The Bluest Eye
We've talked a lot about the voices of this novel. The way it shifts from the school primer voice to a third person narrator to Claudia's narration. However, we haven't spoken about the way that Morrison uses dialogue in the book. The Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin writes about what he calls the heteroglossia, the many, sometimes conflicting, voices of a novel. Often these voices come in the form of dialogue. Let's look at the dialogue on pp 140-142. What is Morrison doing with the dialogue in this scene? How does it play out in this chapter? Do you have a sense about the way Morrison uses dialogue more generally?
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Despite the po-mo qualities of this novel, there are some aspects that strike me as being very traditional or at least aware of the history of literature. In this segment, the two women--I imagine them as peers of Aunt Jimmy, old women who are also alone w/ maybe a small child or two to look after, but no men. But they're also like the Greek chorus out of Ancient Greek plays (Oedipus, etc.) wherein a group of anonymous people will make commentary on the action on stage, giving us information in conversation format like this.
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ReplyDeleteI think Morrison is creating this dialogue with anonymous characters because it would be a common conversation between people in the story/scene. I also think it's more enjoyable to read when there's a dialogue as opposed to reading that in a long, monotonous paragraph where you won't be able to grasp much information and would have to constantly look back to remember what is being spoken about. This dialogue also makes the characters and story more relatable to the reader because it's engaging the reader to feel personally connected to the conversation.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage of dialogue on page 140, Morrison has a technique up her sleeve. The dialogue is very realistic. You feel as if you are there. Listening to them talk about Aunt Jimmy's funeral. Morrison has a good way of capturing the history of this dialogue, how people used to talk during those times. Morrison was also able to introduce us to many details and a back story on things in this back to back dialogue. Using the stories and details about Aunt Jimmy gives you a clear picture of her and the relationships she had. The voices in her novel quickly change and shift. In this chapter and scene, its fast moving dialogue with lots of information.
ReplyDeleteThe use of Toni Morrison's dialogue in this part of the novel I think is to express how a typical funeral would be. His use of dialogue in this scene seems very natural and realistic to as if a funeral in real life. Everyone is happy, and saying oh how she was a good person, and how she said this, it was a sign, and just like basically faking it all. Like let me put a smile on my face that someones dead and talk about only good things that they did, and keep repeating how she was a good person. I think Morrison's use of dialogue is to show this traditional view of how life is. Like its a tradition to be nice and say that the person who died at a funeral was a good person. So his dialogue brings up this idea of the word tradition and things being original.
ReplyDeleteI believe the purpose for this dialogue was to get a point across through conversation instead of just getting straight to the point. Morrison uses this specific dialogue to help the readers understand the characters point of view
ReplyDeleteMorrison definitely uses dialogue to take her readers to the exact scenes as they are happening. I feel as though she makes me imagine being in a room with these people, and over hearing their conversations about Aunt Jimmy in her last few days. It's kinda like how any wake would be, everyone sitting down discussing the small details they remember and know about their beloved, friend, family member, etc. I feel like she tried her best to describe how the loved ones of Aunt Jimmy felt and give us a sense of their understanding about her and how she died. They compared her death and how it happened to many others as well so I guess here, she tried her best to make it seem very realistic for the readers.
ReplyDeleteI believe the dialogue on page 140-142 between the two unknown women gives us an idea of who Aunt Jimmy was. Cholly's feelings about Aunt Jimmy were not really expressed. I don't really know how he felt about his aunt. the two unknown women gave me a better understanding about who aunt jimmy was and what she represented. She seemed like a caring and helpful women. She was a strong women, most people can't raise a child that's not their own but she did, well she tried too.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't much talk about Cholly's history like how there was for Junior's mother. Character's backgrounds are essential to figuring out why they act a certain way. Morrison uses dialogue on pages 140 to 142 to show this history. The people speaking remain anonymous but they give you a sense of who raised Cholly and how his life was prior to Peccola's Cholly. This dialogue could be included because Cholly was too young to know what was actually happening. Morrison writes "Nobody talked to him; that is, they treated him like the child he was, never engaging him in serious conversation; but they anticipated wishes he never had: meals appeared, hot water for the wooden tub, clothes laid out. " Which shows that the events that happened were not explained to him and he must have been confused with what was going on. Dialogue is key in figuring out where the story is going and helping the readers understand who the characters are.
ReplyDeleteThe dialogue on pages 140-142 is about the different voices in narration because in the story, there is a constant shift between narrations in the book. In this section of the book, a third person is talking about Cholly's life and how he was rescued by Aunt Jimmy. This narrator talks about how Cholly felt after his aunt passed away, as if they knew what Cholly was thinking about. The different voices in this novel make it so that you see the book from many different perspectives. This allows the reader to see characters differently in each chapter from each narrator's thoughts. The dialogues conflict with each other because each of the narrators tells the different scenarios differently and it is up to reader to interpret each scenario for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI believe Morrison uses the dialogue on pages 140-142 to show the constant shift between narrations. At first it seems like a dragged section of the novel with meaningless characters but it's clear that the purpose of it was to explain what has been going on with Cholly. Having these different points of view helps to get a better understanding of how the dialogue in the story works since it at first seemed like it randomly jumped from points but Morrison wanted to give more perspectives and in this case, it was about Cholly and the dialogue can make you feel sorry for him after being saved by his aunt, especially after his mother abandoned him at birth. Overall, these dialogues can be open for interpretation but their true meaning is to give different points of view on characters to have a better understanding of them.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the dialogue on page 140-142 I can say that Morrison purpose of doing this dialogue in this scene is to allow us to judge the characters in different ways. This chapter shows Morrison’s ability to shifts from the school primer voice to a third person narrator with each characters and a more specifically portray black life. Aunt Jimmy is an individual but is also a representative of elderly black women……
ReplyDeleteI strongly feel that Toni Morrison's dialogue was to help her readers feel as if they were there sitting at Aunt Jimmy's funeral. She made each scene as realistic as it c an possibly be. People were talking about her and events and experiences that they were able to witness with her. That is something that you would see at any type of funeral. At funerals many people like to talk about things that occurred with their lost one. This image is exactly what Morrison did in the dialogue. She made the feel of being part of it. Also i feel that Morrison wanted to show the relationship between Aunt Jimmy and Cholly.
ReplyDeleteWith a change of dialogue you get to see a different perspective and how different characters are affected by the same scenario. From a child’s point of view they don’t worry about what these women are talking about. They’ll probably just fidget or fall asleep until the service is over. When Morrison switched voices it shows the struggles of that time. You can pay insurance all your life and it still wouldn’t put a dent in the dues you have, who is going to take on her responsibilities, and what was her role in their community.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage of dialogue on page 140, Morrison has a technique up her sleeve. The dialogue is very realistic. You feel as if you are there. Listening to them talk about Aunt Jimmy's funeral. Morrison has a good way of capturing the history of this dialogue, how people used to talk during those times. Morrison was also able to introduce us to many details and a back story on things in this back to back dialogue. Using the stories and details about Aunt Jimmy gives you a clear picture of her and the relationships she had. The voices in her novel quickly change and shift. In this chapter and scene, its fast moving dialogue with lots of information.
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