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Motifs
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
The Bluest Eye is set in Lorain, Ohio, in the early 1940s. Beyond the town and decade in which the novel is set, Morrison intimately explores themes of home and family, both of which she ties to physical place settings. Homes reflect the values, circumstances, and attitudes of those who keep them; as such, they form stable ground upon which character analysis can be built. Social injustices, philosophical dilemmas, spiritual revelations—all these, and more, are made lucid and tangible through contemplation of the idea of home.
Housing is a contentious issue in The Bluest Eye: to be "outside," as the homeless are, is regarded as a fate worse than death. Renters exist only one tier higher in the caste system, topped by Black people who own their own homes. Morrison juxtaposes renters and homeowners in The Bluest Eye through descriptions of the homes themselves, often reflective of the emotional, financial, and spiritual state of their residents.
The Breedloves, a renting family, live in an old abandoned storefront. The interior of their apartment is shoddy and sad, emblematic both of the family's poverty and its collective, self-inflicted mentality of "ugliness." Geraldine's house, on the other hand, is orderly—each item in its proper place. She is a property-owning Black person (or, rather, her husband is the property-owner). Her house represents the attitudes of a class of Black Americans that have adopted White, middle-class perspectives and apply these perspectives to their own lives. Geraldine's house represents the White, middle-class, suburban ideal omnipresent in post-WWII America. Much like the White people whose customs she adopts, Geraldine is more than willing to police the behavior of poor Black people—including an unsuspecting Pecola.
Related Themes:
