"The Bluest Eye," Vocabulary from "Summer"
May 9, 2013
By Vocabulary.com (NY) 
The characters in "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison escape into fantasy to avoid the miseries of their real lives. Morrison expertly shows us how dangerous believing such a fantasy can be.
Learn this word list that focuses on grim reapings. Here are links to our word lists for the novel: Foreword, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer
Learn this word list that focuses on grim reapings. Here are links to our word lists for the novel: Foreword, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer
Read more...
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parched
dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlightThe parched days and sticky nights are undistinguished in my mind, but the storms, the violent sudden storms, both frightened and quenched me.
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incomprehensible
difficult to understandAnd we did not dwell on the fact that the baby’s father was Pecola’s father too; the process of having a baby by any male was incomprehensible to us—at least she knew her father.
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overwhelming
very intenseWe thought only of this overwhelming hatred for the unborn baby.
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devious
characterized by insincerity or deceitWe had defended ourselves since memory against everything and everybody, considered all speech a code to be broken by us, and all gestures subject to careful analysis; we had become headstrong, devious and arrogant.
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meddle
intrude in other people's affairs or businessWhy are you so busy meddling me?
I just wondered. You don’t talk to anybody. You don’t go to school. And nobody talks to you.
How do you know nobody talks to me?According to the chosen definition, one usually meddles in another person's business; one does not meddle someone else. But Pecola's use of the verb that way emphasizes her passive victimization (as well as her shortened education); it is also heartbreaking because she could have benefitted from more meddling by concerned friends and adults. But the conversation is actually one Pecola is having with herself, because she has gone mad. -
yearn
desire strongly or persistentlyA little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.
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exceed
be or do something to a greater degreeA little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.
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tendril
slender structure by which some plants attach to an objectShe spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear.The use of the word "tendril" emphasizes Pecola's tender (vulnerable and easily crushed) nature and youth. But while a tendril would attach itself to an object for support, Pecola is alone and jerking to the beat of her own drummer.
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flail
thresh aboutElbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly.
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futile
producing no result or effectElbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly.
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sloven
a coarse obnoxious personOur flowers never grew. I was convinced that Frieda was right, that I had planted them too deeply. How could I have been so sloven? So we avoided Pecola Breedlove— forever."Sloven" is a noun but the narrator is using it as an adjective. While Claudia could be seen as coarse and obnoxious for ignoring a hurting Pecola, in the example sentence, she was wondering how she could have been so slovenly in her planting. She had believed that God would grant her wish to help Pecola's baby live, if she gave up the money from selling the seeds. But Pecola's baby died; thus, Claudia assumed that her planting had been done poorly.
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astride
with one leg on each sideWe were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness.
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sanctify
make pure or free from sin or guiltHer simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor.
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eloquent
expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectivelyHer inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent.
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hone
refine or make more perfect or effectiveWe honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.
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frailty
the state of being weak in health or bodyWe honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.
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compassionate
showing or having sympathy for another's sufferingAnd fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved.
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simulate
give a false appearance ofWe substituted good grammar for intellect; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.
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matrix
an enclosure within which something originates or developsBut his touch was fatal, and the something he gave her filled the matrix of her agony with death.
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neutralize
make ineffective by counterbalancing the effect ofThe loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.
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volition
the act of making a choiceCertain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.
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acquiesce
to agree or express agreementCertain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.
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