11) Our last day:(

Wednesday was my last day with Sonja and my friends from ENG102 class. We had such a wonderful and also upsetting lesson together because we ate tiramisu and cookies. Thanks to Elif and Sonja :) They were tasteful. :) The sadness part of the lesson was saying goodbyes to each other.:( We took photos to remember this day for forever and fulfilled our daisies:)
If I must be honest, at the first time, I did not come to classes regularly but then I recognized that I missed a lot by not attending to the classes. Although I was late to join regulary, I had a great time with Sonja and my friends. In my opinion, we have a magical circle around us. This circle leads us to keep in touch;)
I learned lots of thing from Sonja and the course. We discussed a lot about important topics and did lots of work together. I had lots of good memories about this semester.:) I learned how to use wiki and blog. I like to write in blog and thanks to Sonja that she leads us to blogging. I am glad to use blog and wiki. When I wrote something to my blog page, I always looked forward Sonja's and some of my friends' comments. :) That's why, I do not give up to blogging. Besides, I will waiting for Sonja's and the other friends' comments.:)
Lastly, I wanted to thank to Sonja that she helps us a lot.
I am proud of being a member of class B2.
Thanks a lot Sonja,
Lots of huges and kisses.:))

10) Searching for LOVE

While I was reading the book, I did not see a lot of word for love. I deeply read something about love in the summer section at the last pages. My presentation topic was the same as this blog's topic, so I searched a lot about love.
Many of us blame on Cholly when we read the book. Because there was no excuse for his action. I guess everyone will agree with me. But while I was searching about love, I found different things about it.
Firstly, I wanted to use a quotation.
"Love is never any better than the lover. Wickled people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid love stupidly but the love of a free man is never safe."
This two sentence tells a lot about Morrison's point of view, I guess. If we evaluate Cholly's offence, firstly, we consider his past. He had a childhood. When he was 4 days old, his mother left him and ran away. His aunt Jimmy brang him up. When he found his father, he did not know him and his mother. When he was at his young ages, 2 white men saw him in a sexual relationship with a girl and forced him to continue. And this caused hating women, sex, white people... The became a violent man. Many of these reasons are considerable because all of them had an important role his life. Although there is no excuse for his offence but as Morrison wrote violent people love violently. As we can see in the book he was not a normal husband, father or man. He was alcoholic and in the past he killed 2 white men. Actually, he felt that he was free for everything and this freedom is not safe not only for himself, but also the others.

9) Summer

And this is the last part of the novel. However, in my opinion, the most important part is the summer part. Because we see goodwill, purity, innocence and gossip, blame, suspicion, charge at the same time.
Pecola was raped by her father and the other people from town wanted her baby to die. Although this was not her fault, people from town were insulting her. And Mrs. Breedlove's attitudes to her daughter was not good. But, Claudia and Frieda were trying to help her by their marigold seed money. They collected and sold marigolds to buy a new bicycle. They sacrificed their money to Pecola. Although Frieda and Claudia were too young to understand everything, only tried to help her and they were the only one who made the correct decision.
Experiencing awful things made Pecola to have an imaginary friend. I read a lot thing about children's psychology and I learned that if a child has an imaginary friend, she or he maybe had a trouble or maybe feel lonely or maybe be exposed to bad treatments from her or his family... And many of these reasons were suitable for Pecola. :(
At the end of the story Cholly ran away and Mrs. Breedlove and Pecola were moved to another place.
I do not understant the attitudes of the people. And there was an irony in this book. When Mr. Henry touched Frieda, one of the neighbour gave a gun to Mr. Macteer. They blamed on Mr. Henry. However, in Pecola's situation, no one though Pecola and they wanted her baby to die. Mrs. Breedlove did not believe her at the first time, beat her. I do not understant that how people become like that. It is not fair...

8) Spring

In this season, many important things were happened. Mr. Henry touched Frieda's breast. Mrs. MacTeer and Mr. MacTeer got angry and Henry ran away.
Second important event was, the conversation between Mrs. Breedlove, Pecola and the white rich girl. Mrs. Breedlove worked in a house whose owner was white and wealthy. The little white girl called Mrs. Breedlove to Polly and Pecola heard her calling. She shocked. Although Mrs. Breedlove was her mother, she never called her mother. And at that time, Pecola accidently burned herself and Mrs. Breedlove beated her but comforted the white girl.
There is an irony in this section and the summer section. In the last season, when Pecola was raped by his father, her mother didn't believe her at the first time and the community did not understand her and forced them to move and wanted her baby die. She was not the guilty one, she was innocent but the community's reaction was cruel and pointless to Pecola. However, in the Frieda's case, they made the correct decision because the guilty one was Mr. Henry.
Then we read Mrs. Breedlove's story.
I understand why she was so unhappy and loveless to her family.
She grew up in Alabama and when she was 2 years old she had an accident with nail and became lame. She grew up without any family love and charged to look after her siblings and household. She enjoyed arranging things but when she meets Cholly, she fell in love to him. They married and moved to Lorain due to job opportunity. But life is hard in Lorain too. She had cultural conflicts because of the other women's attitudes. They made fun of her country way. And she had arguments with Cholly because of money and alcohol . Then Pauline was pregnant. And because of the baby their marriage went in a good way in a short time. Cholly started to come home early but Pauline still felt lonely. One day, she lost her front teeth while she was chewing a gum. And this made her feel herself ugly.
One conversation was deeply affect on me in this part. When she gave birth in a hospital, a doctor said that black women don't feel pain, they just like horses. This sentence was awful. How could a person make a sentence like this. How can they say that kind of things. This is more than humiliation or racism. This is inhumane.
Moreover, the other chapter, Morrison wrote about Cholly's background and again I understand his agression and loveless actions. There is no excuse for this rape of course but he was not a normal man. And at the end of the story, in the summer part, Morrison told us her point of view. "Violence people love violencely." When he was 4 days old, his mother left him in a railroad and ran away. His aunt who was Aunt Jimmy rescued him. When he was little younger, he tried to find his father whose name was Samson Fuller. when he met him, he did not know not only his name, but also his mother's name. This was his 3th bad experience. The other bad experience was concerned about 2 white men. While he was making love with a girl, 2 white men forced him to continue. This cruel event made him violence and after this, he hated white people and women.

7) Winter

The weather changed and it became winter. In this section, a girl whose name was Maruen Peal came to the school. She had light skinned, brown long hair and green eyes. She was well-dressed because she came from a whealthy family. The boys from school liked her a lot and they made her feel to be the superior. Frieda and Claudia disliked her tried to find her fault. Boys taunted Pecola about her father's nakedness. They said that, he sleeps naked. And they started to argue but when Maruen came to the place, all the boys' interest gone through Maruen. Claudia said that; she was a boy-crazy and Maruen said that; girls are black and ugly.
Another important issue was Mr. Henry and Miss Marie and China's relationship. When they were having sex, girls came to the home and saw them. Because of Mrs. Breedlove's hatred of Mr. Henry, they decided to keep the secret.
Moreover, the writer wrote about another family which was Geraldine's family. Geraldine was a black woman who came from the South. She gave importance to her physical apperance and clothes a lot. She had a different relationship with her cat. She loved her cat more than her son Junior. She refused to giving importance to her family. Thus, he hated the cat and tortured the cat. She made fake orgasims and she did not enjoy having sex with her husband Louis. Although she was a black woman she catagorised people into 2 sections which were the upper class colored people and the lower class niggers. She thought that colored people were quite and neat , black people were loud and dirty. She wanted to Junior play with the colored children not the black children. One day, when Pecola and Junior at Geraldine's home, an accident occured and the cat died. But Junior blamed on Pecola that killed the cat. In reality, he killed the cat. When Geraldine saw the cat, she called Pecola "nasty little black bitch".

6) Autumn

I wanted to write about the chapters in the book. Toni Morrison was divided this book into 4 seasons. The book began with the autumn. The narrator of the book is Claudia. The book consists of black people's hardship because of rasicm and the effects on them.
The MacTeer family's members were Claudia, Frieda, Mrs. MacTeer who was known as Big Mama and Mr. Macteer. They were black so they were insulted by white people and lived in Lorain, Ohio. The sisters' ages were 9 and 10 and they felt like they were ugly because of their skin color.
Moreover, the other family was Breedloves. The mother of the family was Pauline and the father was Cholly. Their daughter's name was Pecola and son's name was Sammy.
Mr. Henry was another character of the book. He was MacTeer's roomer. The sisters liked him very much because he teases them.
In the book, the main beauty was being blonde and having blue eyes for the girls. Therefore, they hate white babydolls, Shirley Temple and Mary Janes. Their all common features were they were beautiful because they were blonde and blue eyed. Pecola prayed for blue eyes which will make her beautiful and change all her life in a positive way.
There were 3 whores in the book who were China, Poland and Miss Marie.
In this section, the writer wrote about Cholly's early experince with 2 white men. When he was having sex with a girl, 2 white men forced them to continue while they were watching. Thus, he became violent, agressive and alcoholic man and hated women and white people. Furthermore, other effects were he experienced a bad childhood. His mother left him at a railroad when he was 4 days old. And his father did not know not only his name, but also his mother's name.

5) Toni Morrison's life

Last two weeks we read a book called The Bluest Eye which was written by Toni Morisson. If I should be honest, in the first place, I didn't like this book very much maybe because of the language. Or it is my fault that I did not understand the context widely . However, now I am reading the Spring part, I get really enjoy this book. Due to the attraction of book, I started to search some details about the writer. And I want to share some information about her.
Toni Morrison was born in Lorian, Ohio. And The Bluest Eye takes place at the same region. Her real name is Chloe Anthony Woffard. She is a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner writer who was born in 1931. She grew up in a black community in Lorian. In 1949, she went to Howard University which is a black collage in Washington D.C.. At this collage, she changed her name to Toni because of the difficulty of her name's pronunciation. She continued her education in Cornell University which is located in New York. Then she start to work in universities.
In 1958, she married Harold Morrison. They have 2 children but they divorced in 1964. She firstly, wrote a short story about a black girl who prayed for blue eyes. Then it changed to a book called The Bluest Eye. The book which is her first book published in 1970. The Buest Eye was chosen for Oprah's Book Club.
Her second book is Sula and the third one is Song of Solomon which was selected of Book of The Month Club. And this is important because Morrison is the second black person who is chosen for this club. Moreover, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1987, she published Beloved which lead her to won Pulitzer Price and American Book Award. In 1993, she won the Nobel Prize. By the way, she wrote many other books and won lots of other prizes.
In her books, there are mostly black women and because of this, she seems like a feminist writer but she commented something about her point of view.
She said that: "it is off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I am involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I do not subscribe to patriarchy, and I do not think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it is a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things."
I just want to give some information about her career and life. My writing is not cover everything.:/