common themes

The common theme between American Born Chinese and The Bluest Eye is the struggle for self acceptance.  Yang's characters of Jin Wang and the Monkey King, and Morrison's character of Pecola, all struggle to fit in with their peers.  The noticeable difference is that American Born Chinese ends with the characters coming to terms with who they really are, while The Bluest Eye ends with Pecola being driven mad by seemingly relentless affirmations of her worthlessness.

The experience of reading Morrison's novel, as well as viewing the doll video, left me with a knot in my stomach.  At times I feel embarrassed to be white.  Have I ever, unknowingly, done something to promote our society's view that white skin is somehow superior to black?  My response to this literature about culture and identity is to become more aware of the prejudice that people deal with and the impact it has on their lives as well as our culture as a whole.

While I've  never been knowingly discriminated against because of my skin color, I can relate to being treated as inferior based on my gender.  This knowledge gives me compassion to others who suffer because of not fitting in based on something that is out of their control.

One passage that I found to be particularly powerful was Morrison's account of Pecola at the local sundries shop.  She encounters Mr. Yacobowski, the owner, and "at some fixed point in time and space he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance.  He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see"  (48).  This passage bothered me so much because I cannot imagine treating a child as though they were worthless, and yet I know that this kind of behavior goes on every day.  I wanted so badly for the character of Pecola to receive some form of love throughout the book:  a hug, a word of encouragement, a new dress or an ice cream.  But the story reads like a stoning, pelting the character to death.

Another passage I found to be especially difficult was the rape of Pecola by her father.  Morrison does such a wonderful job of forming  Cholly's character that the reader doesn't want him to perform the act, not just for Pecola's sake, but for his as well.  I felt sorry for Cholly, for his life was also difficult.  But the thought of a little, innocent girl being raped by her own father was almost more than I could take.  Maybe because I have two daughters of my own.  Since I am a mother myself, the fact that Pecola's mother didn't come to her defense made the passage challenging to digest.

While I enjoyed my first experience with a graphic novel, American Born Chinese didn't influence me the way that The Bluest Eye has.  One only has to pick up the newspaper or turn on the local news to hear similar stories of people on the fringe of society being victims of or performing heinous acts.  In other words,  Morrison's work of fiction could very well be someone's biography, and that's what makes her story so haunting.