StylisticSkillWithSpacing

Toni Morrison is an extremely stylistic writer. She uses punctuation, sentence structure, and even spacing to enhance her writing in The Bluest Eye. For example, in her introduction Morrison alludes to the children's book "Dick and Jane." She begins with the characteristic very simple sentence structure and punctuation; then, she repeats the same passage without any punctuation just spaces. Finally, she repeats the passage a third time the same as the previous one just without any spaces: "seefatherheisbigandstrongfatherwillyouplaywithjane"(Morrison). The simplicity of the content allows the structure to shine through as a pertinent aspect. With each repetition of the initial passage, the tone gets more frantic and hurried. Also, the lack of space adds a trapped feeling because there is no space. The experience of the introduction acts as a microcosm of the general chapter formats: beginning slowly then developing in intensity often to something shocking. This use of space is repeated throughout the book like when Pecola is being picked on by the boys: "Black e mo. Yadaddsleepsnekked" (Morrison 65). The spacing around "black" brings attention to the word as one of the subjects, and the lack of space to describe Pecola's dad makes the words into a unit to be the other subject of the chant. In addition, the lack of spacing mimics the way Pecola is trapped within the circle of boys and cannot escape their words. Morrison's stylistic skill elevates her writing above judgement solely based on the plot.