The Blues in The Bluest Eye

The woeful voices of Blues singers are rhythmically parallel with the narrative voice of The Bluest Eye. In synchrony, are the story of Pecola, intertwined with those who led to her demise, and the songs of blues voicing harsh realities. Each is its own story of woe and suffering, more a rhythmic talk than a melody, but still expressing mourning, pain, and suffering.  Early blues took a form of a loose narrative, in a rhythmic talk more than a melody, the singer voicing personal woes in a world of harsh reality. Deriving from the work songs, spirituals, shouts, and chants of the African American communities in sufferable times, blues took on a meaning of more than just a song, but a live emotion, a live expression. Blues are mournful and melancholy; they express gloom and heartbreak, reality, and the harshness of life.  

Morrison’s voice, spoken through the various narrators throughout The Bluest eye, is like a Blues song. It is not a melody, but rhythmic talk, a loose narrative, which weaves the story of woe and melancholy, the story of the harsh reality of what happened to Pecola. Just as a Blues song does not give away the “why,” but only the how because why is too hard to handle, because the why of a breakup is too hard to handle, because the why of slavery is too hard to handle, because the why of death is too hard to handle, Morrison beautifully writes the story of Pecola’s woe, her destruction, even though it is hard to understand why it happened. The point Morrison tries to make is not why what happens, happens, but the moral behind what and how it happened.

Blues are loose narratives, they tell woeful stories of loss and pain, they try to make sense of their lives, about loves that left or death or suffering. Just as in Morrison’s novel, the characters each try to make sense of their own lives. Each of their stories is a collection of their misery, and the unnaturalness in which it happens that Morrison highlights. These stories told in both Blues songs and in Morrison’s novel express the misery gone through by the beholder.  Each main character in Morrison’s novel has their own story. Just as every blues song has a back story. Each character has a song to sing, a story full of woe to tell, each character has their Blues.

The color blue is associated with misery, loss, and woe. The name “Blues” fits perfectly, almost ironically, with the music itself. The woeful, almost whiny voices of Blues singer’s give off the tone and the feeling of sadness and strikes in the audience the same emotions. The same goes with The Bluest Eye. Morrison’s story is blue, the bluest hue of blues.  It is sadness, it is sorrow, and it is misery.  Hence, the name the “bluest” eye can also mean the saddest: Pecola’s. Once she determined that she wanted blue eyes, and acquired them, her life went even more downhill. Her eyes were the bluest, the saddest. She had the bluest story, the biggest woe in her eyes and in her life.

Advertisement Analysis- "Dolce & Gabbana"

This visual ad was created and distributed by Dolce & Gabbana, an Italian luxury industry fashion house. Dolce & Gabbana is a worldwide known high fashion brand famous among the rich and a-list, and is also known for its racy advertisements of fashion. This image was made to advertise the brand's high fashion clothes, both for men and women. Dolce & Gabbana's intentions are for this racy, sex appealing image to advertise their clothing to the "rich a-listers" that can afford to buy it.

The medium used in this advertisement is an image, with only the brand name "Dolce & Gabbana" in plain text dead center. The image itself is what attracts the eye to the advertisement, and then the text in the center, which is purposely put there so that viewers are aware that this is Dolce & Gabbana. The text in the center is only noticed after the viewer looks at the image in the dead center of a man pinning down a woman. Of course, the creator of the ad did this purposely to draw attention to the image, and then to the text, which is the name of the fashion brand. Once the viewer has their eyes on the image, it is inevitable to look at the name of the brand, "Dolce & Gabbana" in the center.

The image of a beyond gorgeous half naked man, pinning down an even more gorgeous and naked woman, with other equally gorgeous men surrounding them, with looks of hunger in their eyes, attracts everyone's eyes because of the sexuality of the image. The look of hunger in the other men's eyes is not of hunger, but of sexual hunger, as they watch the man dead center pin down the almost-naked woman. This almost seems like it was purposely made to look like a gang rape, but instead of portraying the woman as kicking and screaming, fighting back, the creator of this image made her look almost lifeless, willing to be controlled and used, at the men's advantages.

The creator of the Dolce & Gabbana advertisement did this purposely because they know the human mentality and how our minds can be sick and masochistic, how we hunger to see these sexual, perverse images even if we can’t admit it to ourselves, and how sick we are to actually buy into the game these advertisements make and buy their product. Advertisement creators know that it is human to not be able to help wanting to see these perverse, violent, and sexual images. We are drawn to them, although we may not know why, and this method of creating these images to advertise product actually works. If instead they used a mild image, of a man and woman maybe strolling in the streets, it wouldn't create such a desire in the viewer to look at it. It would be boring to us. So, the creators made an image of a discreet gang rape. At first, the viewer might not make this assumption, but once one looks closer at the image, they can assume this is exactly what it is; men surrounding a woman, waiting their turn, as one of them pins her down.

This image also brings in the helplessness of women, and how they are submissive and obedient to men. In the image, while the men look sexually hungry and ready to attack, the woman has a paralyzed look on her face, she looks indifferent, like she's lost life and has given in to the men. In a normal case of a gang rape, of course a woman would fight and scream, but this image is pushing that women might as well not, that they should be obedient and submissive, and basically let men do whatever they want to them. The way she is arching her hips towards him, shows too that she is also sexually giving in to him. She's fulfilling his desires, and all of the men's desires. This advertisement says that women should give in both physically and sexually to men, and let them take advantage of them without saying a word, moving a muscle, and with a blank expression on their faces.

Instead of upholding positive cultural values, this ad does the opposite. It upholds instead the obscene and perverse, the sexualizing of everything just to sell some expensive clothes that only rich people can afford. It conveys that women should be obedient and submissive, and instead it glorifies the scene of a gang rape waiting to happen. Although it sexually appeals to viewers, it also indirectly conveys that it’s OK to treat women this way. It downplays the act of gang rape and manhandling women by dressing the models (even though it’s scantily), but still emphasizes the act by making the pinned down woman the dead center of the image. It distracts the viewers with its sexuality, gorgeous models, and stylish clothes, but once one looks closely, it is evident what is actually going on in this image. It glorifies the act by making the models look extremely beautiful, and like it’s a normal, everyday thing to do this. They glorify it by making it seem that we should look up to these beautiful, rich and influential people in this ad, and to believe that we should do what they're doing only because they're better than us.

The purpose of this ad, of course, is to sell its clothes and make Dolce & Gabbana more facous than it already is. By making the image sexually appealing, it attracts more buyers. Because someone might see the image as "sexy,"they might go and purchase the shoes the woman is wearing, or the sunglasses on the man that's pinning her down, or the shorts one of the bystanders is wearing. That is always the intention of the creators of advertisements. They want people to buy their product, but they use our human weaknesses to draw us in, they glorify the most perverse and immoral things, they use our oblivion to draw us to their brand, like moths to a flame.