Consider your own identity first. Consider your interests, dreams, values, and perceptions of people and things around you. Allowing literature to gain a sense of “self” and one’s own identity, you have developed skills to discuss the text, evaluate the text, and now, finally, use the text to gain a greater understanding of yourself. Review the use of point of view, style, and the use of tone in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

Essential Discussion Questions:

What or who gives us our identity? What happens when identities collide? What is the correlation between multiple critical lenses and our self or us? If language and literature shape our identity, how do they do so?

What statement does this novel make regarding relationships? Specific areas to consider: What happened to Pauline and Cholly's relationship? Why? Whom is to blame?

Winter/Spring

1.Why is fear of the “Thing” greater than the jealousy of Maureen?

2. Why does the descriptor of “black” hold such power as an insult to Claudia and Frieda?

3. In what way are the tender spring branches much like Claudia and Frieda?

4. Comment on any areas of feminism you have noted in the novel. Why do you suppose Morrison depicted females in this particular way?

Innocence/Fall from Innocence

1. Compare and contrast how Cholly was treated on the day of Aunt Jimmy’s funeral with the day after.

2. Describe the encounter between Cholly and Samson Fuller.

3. Who was this Reader, Advisor, and Interpreter of Dreams? Describe in detail his upbringing.

4. What aspect of married life dumbfounded Cholly and rendered him totally dysfunctional?

5. How did Soaphead Church ingeniously satisfy a personal whim through the pretense of justifying Pecola’s request?

6. To whom did Soaphead address his letter, and why do you suppose he wrote to this particular person?

7. What analogy did Soaphead use in his letter? What is he questioning? Does he view his behavior as bad, or wrong, or in any respect evil?

8. Read the section of dialogue found on pages 147 & 148. What implications does this have regarding feminism?

9. What sacrificial offering did the girl render to procure the miracle, and what was the reasoning behind it?