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The Society And The Girl Child In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrisonand Kaine Agarys Yellow Yellow
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Writers are mostly influenced by their environment and circumstance in
history which helped to shape their society. We should agree that Toni
Morrison and KaineAgary portray their society through their work. With
reference to Morrison‟s The Bluest Eye and KaineAgary‟s Yellow Yellow,
it will be just to state that the oppression and hardship faced by the
girl child is as a result of the dreadful and traumatizing encounter
between Africans and the white racists. It is believed that the
encounter between the whites and Africans has left Africans in the
continent and the diaspora with disconcerting problems. These issues are
as a result of the dreadful means in which the encounter occurred:
Slavery, colonialism. A short detailed review on the historical
background of both authors will be the peg to tie the goat as Achebe
would put it. Toni Morrison is the pre-eminent African-American female
writer, while KaineAgary is one of Nigeria‟s leading contemporary
writers.
Toni Morrison: Biography and Historical Background
Toni
Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio in 1931. Her
father, George Wofford, was a shipyard wielder and her mother, Ramah
Willis Wofford, raised the family. Her family migration from the south
& North is much like the migration of the Breedloves in The Bluest
Eye. Morrison was the second of four children. She grew up listening to
folktale in her family and community: tales of slave times, emancipation
tales dealing with racism of the white majority and tales of
supernatural elements. Morrison married a Jamaican architect, Harold
Morrison.
The setting of The Bluest Eye is Lorain, Ohio in 1941, and
the rural south in the early 20th century. The novel begins after the
great depression. Economic security was of importance for
African-Americans, who have fewer opportunities than the majority of
their white counterparts. (www.cliffnotes.com).
In the early 19th
century, after the abolition of slavery, the blacks suffered great
dehumanization. They were then the descendants of Africans captured and
bundled into America as slaves. These captured slaves were forced to
till the plantation of the white land owners. They farmed and produced
crops such as sugar, cotton, indigo, and other tropical products. After
the abolition of slavery, they were given the rural region of the
society. Their environment lacked the basic amenities to survive and
coupled with their slave background, life was unbearable and their
region was marked by poverty. The blacks were racially discriminated
upon; having no work to do in the white environment which was urban and
had all the basic amenities. Competition for survival became extremely
difficult and heightened, leaving their occupants with no alternative
means of survival, forcing them to resort to diverse forms of crimes as
over drinking prostitution, incest, wife beating, as a means for relief
from the unremitting harsh condition.
KaineAgary: Biography and Historical Background
KaineAgary
was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She lived most of her life in
Port-Harcourt and then moved to the United States of America. She lives
at present in Lagos, Nigeria, where she is the editor of Takai magazine.
Agary holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in sociology and economics from
Mount Holyoke College, U.S.A
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The research work reviews the historical encounter between the whites and Africans and argues that the challenges or problems evident in the black society at present are as a result of the white man‟s racism, exploitation and imperialism. It also looks into the social values and system of meaning that promotes male dominance and demeans the woman ... Continue reading---
