Existentialism, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye Essay -- comparison compar

Existentialism, earnest, and The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison has written several novels, many of which show the stoop of existentialist thinking however, Belove and The Bluest Eye both strongly deck tout ensemble of the major existential themes. Beloved is a novel roughly a woman, Sethe, who escapes from slavery with her children. She is haunted both physically and psychologically by her experience, as evidenced by the scars she carries on her back from a stark beating, and the scars she carries in her mind from the horrible treatment she suffered. A few weeks later on her escape, Sethes owner hunted her down to reclaim her as his property. Under the precaution of capture, Sethe decided that for her children, death would be better than slavery. She killed her second-to-the-youngest child before she was stopped. Beloved is the story of Sethe, and how she must live with the ramifications of her terrible, necessary decision to kill her deflower girl. The Bluest Eye is a simila rly haunting novel. It is the story of Pecola, a puny ugly black girl trying to grow up in rural Ohio during the 1940s. She is despised by unobjectionable golf-club because she is ugly, black and female, and because she is the antithesis of all that white western culture idolizes white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. On a disastrous parallel, Pecola is also despised by black society the society whose support she needs desperately to counter white negativeness towards her. Instead of receiving that life-giving support, Pecola is regarded as an ugly, passive, pitiful girl. Her mother, herself twisted by the ideals of white society, loves a young, white, blond child she cares for more than her own daughter. Her father loved her so much, he r... ...son. Michigan Gale Research Inc., 1994. 215-273. Eiermann, Katharena. Themes of Existentialism. http//members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/ Philo/Existentialism/extheme.html. 1996. 16 March 1997. Existentialism http//www.sound.net/meli ngl/existme.html (16 March 1997) Morrison, Toni. Beloved. brisk York, New York Plume, 1988. ---. The Bluest Eye. New York, New York Plume, 1994. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Literature & Existentialism. New York, New York Carol Publishing Group, 1994. Steiner, Wendy. The Clearest Eye. Draper 239. Stone, Joanna. Morrison proves to be piteous and eloquent. The Tech, April 24, 1992 11. Massachusetts. America OnLine. http//the-tech.mit.edu/V112/N22/morrison.22a.html. Online. 6 March 1997. Trosky, Susan, M., ed. Contemporary Authors. Michigan Gale Research Inc., 1994. 319-328