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Essay / Music and the Silence of the Bluest Eye
Among Toni Morrison's works, “images of music permeate her work, but also a musical quality of language, sound and rhythm that permeate and radiate in every novel” (Rigney 8). This fast-paced writing style is particularly evident in The Bluest Eye. There is a struggle between musical language and silence throughout the novel. Singing is part of the teaching about blackness and womanhood that Claudia and Frieda learn from their mother. Pauline does not find comfort in the song. Cholly's life is like that of a musician where he feels dangerously free. Conversations with prostitutes are the only things that make Pecola feel like she's laughing, instead of her continued silence. Even the city has a rhythmic language. Through musical language, Morrison is able to convey the complexity of the Black way of life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Morrison can "go beyond language, even working on it, to incorporate meaning beyond the denotation of words, to render experience and emotion, for example." example, as musicians do” (Rigney 7). Music can be an important part of a text because it gives the impression of a rhythmic pattern that the reader can follow. Music is a style, a sound, a feeling and an expression. Music can be a cure for the blues or a sound of joy. Morrison wants to insert something into his writing that has only been fully expressed through music. It is thanks to this musical language that we can understand the characters, their musical languages and their silences. First, Claudia and Frieda experience the music of their mother, who often finds comfort in singing the blues. Claudia describes a conversation between her mother and one of her friends as a "sweet and wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtseys, shimmers, and retreats" (The Bluest Eye 15). The crescendo and decrescendo sounds of their voices are like music and words on a page. Even though Claudia and Frieda are only nine and ten years old and do not know the meaning of all the words of their mother and their friends, “we observe their faces, their hands, their feet and listen to the truth in the tone” (TBE 15). They try to listen to the way they say things through the tone of their voice. They hear laughter and excitement. By listening, they learn about life and how adults behave towards people and certain situations. Also, Claudia hates Shirley Temple. She watches Shirley dance with Bojangles "...give a beautiful dance with one of those little white girls whose socks never slip under their heels" (TBE 19). According to Naomi R. Rand, this dance is a “dance of denial rather than sensual pleasure” (44). This could mean that although white, Shirley is dancing with a black man and that due to the racism that permeates Claudia's life, she feels this rage towards Shirley Temple. Then Mrs. MacTeer is able to find comfort and a way to make things right. through a musical language. She sings the blues to get through bad times. “Song becomes the signal of many things inexpressible by direct or indirect action” (Holloway 39). Ms. MacTeer resorts to soliloquies that are often insulting, but not directly. She scolds everyone, then starts singing for the rest of the day (TBE 24). Music becomes a way to cope with difficulties. Taking out one's frustrations on others doesn't necessarily make one feel better; the song gives it a new light. If my mother was in the mood to sing, it wasn't so bad. She sang about the momentsdifficult times, bad times, and times when someone had gone and left me... The misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took away all the sorrow from the words and left me. with the conviction that the pain was not only bearable, it was sweet. (TBE 25-26)Claudia and Frieda understand that music can be therapeutic. They learn from their mother about their darkness and their femininity by listening to her song. The dialogues teach girls about life, how to think and question things. It is their mother’s “agitated soliloquies” that are instructive. His monologues teach how the world is and how some people can be cruel and unloving. Sometimes a problem can only be understood when thought out loud. Through their mother's daily soliloquies, "the linguistic structuring of emotion, image, and thought became, for Mrs. MacTeer and her children, magical words and songs that brought grace" (Holloway 45) . Music is a way to release emotions for MacTeers. The song brings love and rids you of all hatred. It creates a light when the darkness seems unbearable. In contrast, Pauline Breedlove uses her voice to argue with her husband, Cholly. They hadn't fought the night before, because Cholly had come home drunk. But in the morning, a fight breaks out. These fights are routine for Pauline because “she could display the style and imagination of what she believed to be her true self. To deprive her of these fights was to deprive her of all the taste and reasonableness of life” (TBE 41-42). Arguing is a way for Pauline to survive and make herself heard. Unlike Mrs. MacTeer, she cannot find comfort in songs or soliloquies. All of Pauline's time is spent trying to argue with Cholly and beg God to help punish him. When they fought, "they did not speak, moan or curse during the beatings." There was only the dull sound of things falling, and flesh on flesh without surprise” (TBE 43). It is this lack of expression that Pauline shows that makes her survival difficult. Silence and words permeate her life, making it difficult for her to survive. Perhaps if she had been more like Mrs. MacTeer, the song could help her get over her arguments with Cholly. Sometimes, through music, a person is able to express themselves in ways they never imagined. However, Pauline does not realize this. is only aware of the silence that hangs over her like a dark cloud. Cholly's life can only have meaning through an imitation of music. He did not have a parental role model or positive images for his children. White men shame Cholly and her impotent rage. forces him to turn against the women who accept him. The pieces of Cholly's life could only become coherent in the head of a musician. Only those who speak speak through the gold of curved metal, or in the touch of black and white rectangles. and the stretched skins and strings echoing in the wooden corridors could give true form to his life... Only a musician would feel, would know, without even knowing that he knew, that Cholly was free. Dangerously gratuitous. (TBE 159) Morrison shows how Cholly is deeply hurt by his mother abandoning him and his father rejecting him for a crap game. Cholly's loss of virility haunts him. He is alone with his own perceptions of things, and it is this feeling of being alone that frees him. He is free to drink, live out his fantasies, have a job, and feel guilt, shame, and fear. Freedom is like a song and dance for Cholly because he can go and..