Friday, November 4, 2011

Geraldine, the Enigma


So far I’m enjoying “Winter” in The Bluest Eye much more than “Autumn,” for its multiple points of view, new plot developments, and especially for the introduction of this new character, Geraldine. In just a few pages Morrison maps out her life from young womanhood to marriage to lonesome wifery. It’s funny how this short narrative tells the story of so many repressed women in mid-20th century America, and especially those who have had to deal with race intersecting with their being women, positioning them as not second- but perhaps third- or fourth-class citizens.


Geraldine came up toeing the line in every respect, concentrating on upward social mobility. She excels in a number of things but one thing that stood out to me was the “learn[ing] how to do the white man’s work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul” (83). I’m trying to decide if Geraldine knows exactly what the implications of her work are; that is, doing work that arguably benefits the White community more than it does her own. Either this, or she engaged in it because she was pigeonholed into it. She is taught lessons in how to “behave;” how to get rid of the Funk of being distinctly Black. But I must wonder, who is she learning this from? These lessons were “begun in those soft houses with the porch swings and pots of  bleeding hearts,” but where did they end? Apparently, her upbringing had much to do with her current notions of Blackness. My speculation is that her lessons in etiquette were continued in the land-grant college she attended, and that here she learned how to hate what it is that makes her the “other.”

“Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud” (87). Geraldine (and the rest of her generation) really had ingrained in her the negative connotations of the N-word and the more polite associations made with the term Colored; even though both described the very same people. For her, the Funk manifested itself not only in demeanor and living standards, but in imposed aesthetic standards as well. She kept her hair straightened and curled, and had Junior’s hair cut down as low as possible so as not to give the appearance of wool. This passage stood out to me for the internalized racism that has always affected many Blacks. This accounted for what I knew was going to happen starting on page 91 but wanted to deny the whole time. I wanted Geraldine to recognize Pecola, to see how neglected and depressed she was as but a poor girl, to take pity on her and see in her eyes that she genuinely meant no harm and never intended to invade her household, but I knew it wasn’t going to be so.


This “fly” that settled in Geraldine’s house, even for this brief occasion, spoiled her vision of neat Colored life, and not just because Pecola killed the one thing in her household that couldn’t do wrong in her eyes. Geraldine’s words hurt to hear (or read) because she’s not just talking to Pecola but to Blackness in general. Or at least that’s just my speculation. Although after reading through the end of Winter I’m predisposed to hate Geraldine I still find her fascinating, and I want to see how her experiences as a Black middle class woman in this time period play out, especially in conjunction with Pecola, Frieda, Claudia, and other key characters in her city.

1 comment:

  1. I found the story of Geraldine really compelling as well. I feel like the entire book was made up of person after person (whether lower or middle class) who placed their prejudices upon Pecola not because of her as a person, but because of their belief that she represented the inability to socially "uplift" herself, and therefore her entire race. Even her mother, whose character, to me, was one of the most perplexing and fascinating in the entire book, seems to regard Pecola only as her own failures. Perhaps there's simply something I'm not seeing but it seemed to me that characters like Pauline and Geraldine only hated or abused Pecola because she reminded them of every limitation that they had faced or were facing in their lives. Like you said, their words aren't necessarily directed towards Pecola so much as they are towards Blackness. It makes me, as I'm sure it did everyone else, sad and angry, yet in a way that was oddly understandable (but not justifiable.)

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