Good and Evil in Toni Morrison Essay

He makes a big show of keeping his hand soft to caress her, yet also visits the local whorehouse on Saturday night. While he may strut around the ranch because of his position as the boss' son, he obviously cannot satisfy his wife and is mean, or perhaps simply detached from her. Curley beats up any man who dares to talk to her, but ironically, he rarely talks to her himself, and they spend the majority of the book looking for each other.

The first example of cruelty is through Cholly, being a perpetrator towards Pecola, but after being victimized by his parents. In the beginning of the novel, Cholly refuses to get the coal for the fire, as ordered by Mrs. Breedlove. The Coal symbolizes the love in the family, which he is failing to bring into the household. This relationship between Pecola’s parents is paralleled to Cholly’s parents. His parents “Wrapped [Cholly] in two blankets and one newspaper and placed him on a junk heap by the railroad” (132). He was recovered by his aunt,

Illegitimate child, Jewel has a different father than the rest of his siblings and Darl believes that “[he] cannot love [his] mother because [he has] no mother. Jewel’s mother is a horse” (Faulkner 95). Both Darl and Jewel have the same mother, but because Addie cheated and Darl is full of anger, he blames Jewel, the product of the affair. Not only does this worsen their relationship, but it makes it difficult for them to properly grieve. Faulkner defends the idea that placing blame on others within your family will only complicate situations more and restrict the ability for connections to flourish. While Dewey Dell, the only daughter, does not blame Darl for knowing about her pregnancy, but she does despise him for having knowledge of it and once said she had thoughts where “[she] killed Darl” (Faulkner 121). Struggling to feel a sense of belonging, Dewey Dell looks for anyone to be the victim of her anger and embarrassment. She resents her brother and breaks a possible alliance with him; meanwhile, Faulkner uses this situation to point out that one must take responsibility when one does something wrong in order for love to shine through the tough moments in life.

In one instance Dally explained to Johnny that his father didn’t care about him at all and he didn’t care one bit. On page 88 it says “No,” snapped Dally, “they didn’t. Blast it, Johnny, what do they matter? Shoot, my old man don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don’t bother me none.” It is apparent that Dally doesn’t care what his family thinks about him which shows the hard side of Dally. In another event Dally could not handle Johnny’s death so he robbed a grocery store and then shot himself. On page 149 it says”Damnit, Johnny…” he begged, slamming one fist against the wall hammering it to make It obey his will. “Oh damnit, Johnny, don’t die, please don’t die…” He suddenly bolted through the door and down the hall. Therefore Dally could not handle Johnny’s death because Johnny was the only person Dally loved. So it is clear that Dally is a hard person and he does not give in easily but Johnny’s death took him hard and he could not handle the pain so he killed himself because he has nothing left to live

“Cholly was free. Dangerously Free. Feel to free whatever he felt---fear, guilt, shame, love, grief, pity. Free to knock her [a woman] in the head…free to live his fantasies, and free even to die…Abandoned in a junk heap by his mother, rejected for a crap game by his father, there was nothing more to lose. He was alone with his own perceptions and appetites, and they alone interested him.” [This quote shows the catharsis Cholly Breedlove’s peers and the readers have towards him. Although Cholly is an impulsive character who is abusive towards his wife and daughter, the people surrounding him and the readers would have a difficult time hating him because of his past. Cholly has been through numerous situations in his life where he has been tormented, so for that reason, every harsh thing he has done in his life is acceptable and his tragic past is the one to be blamed for.] (159)

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

After the death of his parents, Darry ineptly takes on the responsibility of raising his brothers, yet Ponyboy Curtis does not understand why he is so hard on him. Soda attempts to convince Ponyboy that Darry loves him, but Ponyboy simply thinks “Darry thought I was just another mouth to feed and somebody to holler at. Darry love me? I thought of those hard, pale eyes. Soda was wrong for once, I thought. Darry doesn’t love anyone or anything, except for maybe Soda. I didn’t hardly think of him as being human. I don’t care, I lied to myself, I don’t care about him either”(18). Ponyboy simply sees Darry as a brother who is unhappy with being forced to raise him when in reality, Darry is attempting to take on a responsibility that he’s not ready for yet, but is trying to do his best with it.

Delaney was clearly shaken up by this incident, feeling guilty and questions swarming through his head. Delaney and Candido part ways after he gives Candido 20$. He begins thinking about how the man did not sue, if his insurance will be okay, and overall just being hard on himself. The then starts wandering how Candido was there to begin with and what he was doing with the shopping cart. Convincingly enough, Delaney’s shifts his guilty conscious to anger and points out the negatives in this situation to relieve himself. He stresses himself out thinking about Candido’s safety that he stops to pin his anger, assumptions, and confusion on him instead, especially since he is Mexican. When he calls his wife, Kyra, about the incident, he specifically points out his race in hopes of getting the same anger and distraught from

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the interactions between Dally and Cherry, two characters with opposing beliefs, illuminate how when a person judges others, relationships cannot grow, and the verdict limits the one being criticized. Prior to the death of Bob, Cherry tells Ponyboy, “ ‘Dallas Winston [...] looked hard as nails and twice as tough. And you two don’t look mean’ ” (26). When Cherry met Dally she found him heartless, hateful, and reckless looking and she could not love him because of it. After that one encounter she made a decision that destroyed what could have been a relationship. She “could fall in love”(46) with him, but she avoided every chance she had because he was “tough” and “mean looking”. Their relationship could

The concept of morality plays an important role in human society. Through the discovery of what, exactly, determines that which is “good” and that which is “bad”, humans develop mechanisms that determine how they respond to or judge any given situation. What remains a mystery, however, is what, exactly, is the basis of morals. It is commonly believed that morals are learned through lived experiences, as well as, from those who act as each person’s individual caretaker(s). Even though these factors do play a significant role in determining morality, these factors alone neither create nor determine a person’s moral compass. In Paul Bloom’s work, Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil, we are introduced to the idea that morality, while partly learned, is something that is ingrained in humans from birth. Through multiple studies, performed both by Bloom as well as other psychologists, it is revealed that not only are babies able to perceive what is right and what is wrong, but also, from birth, babies are instilled with the innate knowledge of empathizing, valuing fairness and status, and valuing those who look similar versus those who look different. In spite of previous ideas, Bloom proves that babies are smarter than previously thought, while simultaneously recognizing the shortcomings of this “elementary” form of morality. Bloom’s finding prove to be revolutionary, in that they allow for the examination of different social structures, their shortcomings, and what

In the Breedlove family, Charles (“Cholly”) was an alcoholic who had a tendency to physically abuse his wife Pauline whenever he would become enraged regardless of how trivial the situation may have been. For instance, there was a time when Cholly refused to go outside and bring Pauline some coal that she had asked for so she threw a dishpan full of cold water in his face, Cholly leaped out of the bed and attacked her first by tackling her to the ground then picking her up and knocking her down again with the back of his hand. When she fought back, he put his foot on her chest and then continued to strike her a few more times in the face. At one point, she was able to duck, which caused him to hit his hand on the metal bedframe and gave her

Celie also values her sister Nettie greatly and protects her when it comes to their step-father, Alphonso raping the girls. Celie says “I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy was sick.” the casual tone of the preceding line adds to Celie's lack of self-worth; she is so used to being raped by Alphonso that it no longer makes any difference to her. As Celie transitions to the Mister’s household, she is still treated with disrespect by the Mister himself and even one of his sons. In a letter to God, she writes “I spent most of my wedding day running from the oldest boy… He picks up a rock and laid my head open.” Celie grows older in this household and submits to more abuse from her new husband.

Mr. is controlling and self centered without showing any regards to how Celie is feeling. He beats and conditions her to be submissive. For this is how he was led to believe to treat women by his father viewing them as objects. At the end of the movie he has a turn around. After Cellie left he realized without her every thing falls apart. ‘until you do right by me

" The narrator states that they (except for Cholly) "wore their ugliness---although it did not belong to them." This ugliness had everything to do with the fact that they were black, especially for Mrs. Breedlove and Pecola. Mrs. Breedlove wanted to look like a movie star and Pecola wanted blue eyes, both cases were unrealistic and

Because Celie seeks to protect her younger sister Nettie from being degraded by Pa, Pa frequently targets Celie to be the subject of his physical and sexual abuse. Pa constantly rapes Celie and eventually impregnates her twice. Pa also physically abuses Celie. In one letter, Celie references an incident where Pa punches her because she accidently winks at a boy in her church (12). On top of the physical and sexual abuse that Celie suffers from, Pa also verbally abuses her. He frequently tells Celie that she its ugly and unwanted. Eventually, Celie internalizes these words and begins to think view herself as though she is ugly and unwanted, so she believes that the things that happen to her must be normal. All of the abuse that Celie suffers from at the hands of Pa causes her to characterize all men as violent and