The Music and Silence of The Bluest Eye

Among Toni Morrison's works, "images of music pervade her work, but so also does a musical quality of language, a sound and rhythm that permeate and radiate in every novel" (Rigney 8). This rhythmic style of writing is particularly evident in The Bluest Eye. There is a struggle between musical language and silence throughout the novel. Song is a part of the instruction of Blackness and femaleness that Claudia and Frieda learn from their mother. Pauline can not find comfort in song. Cholly's life is like a musician where he feels dangerously free. The conversations with the prostitutes are the only things that give Pecola a sense of laughter, instead of her continuous silence. Even the town has a rhythmic language. Through the language of music, Morrison is able to convey the complexity of the Black way of life.

Morrison can "move beyond language, even while working through it, to incorporate significance beyond the denotation of words, to render experience and emotion, for example, as musicians do" (Rigney 7). Music can be an important part of a text because it gives a sense of a rhythmic pattern that a reader can follow along with. Music is a style, a sound, a feeling, and an expression. Music can be a remedy for the blues or a sound for joy. Morrison wishes to insert something that has only been fully expressed in music into her writing. It is through this musical language that an understanding can be reached about the characters and their musical languages and silences.

First, Claudia and Frieda experience music from their mother, who often finds comfort by singing the blues. Claudia describes a conversation between her mother and one of her friends as a "gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires" (The Bluest Eye 15). The sounds of their voices in crescendo and decrescendo are like music and words on a page. Even though Claudia and Frieda are only nine and ten years old and do not know the meanings of all their mother's and friend's words, "we watch their faces, their hands, their feet, and listen for truth in timbre" (TBE 15). They try to listen to the way they say things through the tones of their voices. They hear laughter and excitement. By listening, they are learning about life and how grown-ups act toward people and certain situations.

In addition, Claudia hates Shirley Temple. She watches Shirley dance with Bojangles "...giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels" (TBE 19). According to Naomi R. Rand, this dance is a "dance of denial rather than sensual pleasure" (44). This could mean that although white, Shirley is dancing with a black man and because of the racism that pervades in Claudia's life, she feels this rage toward Shirley Temple.

Next, Mrs. MacTeer is able to find solace and a way to work things out through a musical language. She sings the blues in order to get through the bad times. "Song becomes a signal for many things unexpressible by action direct or indirect" (Holloway 39). Mrs. MacTeer resorts to soliloquies that are often insulting, although not directly. She tells everyone off, then bursts into song for the rest of the day (TBE 24). Music becomes a way to deal with hardships. Taking her frustrations out on others doesn't necessarily help her feel better; song gives her a new light.

If my mother was in a singing mood, it wasn't so bad. She would sing about hard times, bad times, and somebody-done-gone-and-left-me-times...Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet. (TBE 25-26)

Claudia and Frieda understand that music can be therapeutic. They learn from their mother of their Blackness and their femaleness by listening to her singing. The dialogues teach the girls about life, how to think, and how to question things. It is their mother's "fussing soliloquies" that are instructive. Her soliloquies are teachings of how the world is and how some people can be cruel and unloving. Sometimes a problem can be understood only when it is thought out loud. Through their mother's daily soliloquies, "linguistic structuring of emotion, image, and thought became, for Mrs. MacTeer and her children, magic words and song that brought grace" (Holloway 45). Music is a way to release emotions for the MacTeers'. Song brings love and rids all the hate. It creates a light when the darkness seems unbearable.

In contrast, Pauline Breedlove uses her voice to quarrel with her husband, Cholly. They had not fought the night before, because Cholly had come home drunk. But as soon as the morning breaks, a fight erupts. These fights are a routine for Pauline because "she could display the style and imagination of what she believed to be her own true self. To deprive her of these fights was to deprive her of all the zest and reasonableness of life" (TBE 41-42). Arguing is a way for Pauline to survive and to be heard. Unlike Mrs. MacTeer, she does not know how to find comfort in song or soliloquy. All of Pauline's time is consumed by her efforts to argue with Cholly and plead with God to help her punish him. When they did fight, "they did not talk, groan, or curse during these beatings." There was only the muted sound of falling things, and flesh on unsurprised flesh" (TBE 43). It is this inarticulateness that Pauline displays that makes it hard for her to survive. Silence and words pervade her life, making it hard for her to cope. Perhaps if she had been more like Mrs. MacTeer, song could get her through her fights with Cholly. Sometimes through music, a person is able to express themselves in ways they never even imagined. However, Pauline does not realize this. She is only aware of the silence that hovers over her like a dark cloud.

Cholly's life can only be made sense through an imitation of music. He has had no model for parenting or positive images for his children. White men shame Cholly and his helpless rage forces him to turn against women who accept him.

The pieces of Cholly's life could become coherent only in the head of a musician. Only those who talk their talk through the gold of curved metal, or in the touch of black-and-white rectangles and taut skins and strings echoing from wooden corridors, could give true form to his life...Only a musician would sense, know, without even knowing that he knew, that Cholly was free. Dangerously free. (TBE 159)

Morrison shows how Cholly is deeply hurt by his mother abandoning him and his father rejecting him for a crap game. Cholly's loss of manhood haunts him. He is alone with his own perceptions of things, and it is this feeling of being alone that frees him. He is free to drink, live his fantasies, have a job, and feel guilt, shame, and fear. Freedom is like a song and a dance for Cholly because he can go back and forth in his own manner in order to live his life. Drinking is the only way for him to feel free, free from guilt and his childhood memories. When he is drunk he doesn't have to think about his life; he is numb to the pain.

Another aspect of silence is seen through Pecola. The prostitutes' language allows Pecola to break her silence. In one instance, Pecola could hear the "sweet and hard, like new strawberries" (TBE 51) voice of Poland, one of the prostitutes. The prostitutes and their stories provide laughter in Pecola's life, and "that laughter is yet another primal sound which transcends language" (Rigney 13). Laughter is a distinct sound that Pecola is able to recognize and familiarize herself with. However, in another instance, silence is where Pecola finds her element. Pecola does not tell her own story or even speak much. For example, when she is in the candy store, she confronts the owner and can only point and nod in the direction of the Mary Jane's she wants. This "muted condition" displays the powerlessness she has, and the powerlessness that all the women of this novel feel (Rigney 21). Women in this novel are like the singing teachers. They sing or convey language in a way to be heard and to teach others about life and emotion. "Perhaps it is the fluidity, the jouissance, in black women's speech that is so musical, so erotic..." (Rigney 11). Morrison is able to express women's speech through a musical language and even through all of the silence. Sometimes silence is able to say much more than words can, but music is an indescribable measure of expression and feeling.

Similarly, the sounds of the towns in the novel even echo a rhythmic style.

They come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Meridian. And the sound of these places in their mouths make you think of love...You don't know what these towns are like, but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out. (TBE 81)

The consonance of the names of the towns produces a musical effect that roll off one's tongue. The words make a person feel alive, like they are floating on air. It is not just a singing voice that can express music; words can also provide a musical language.

In conclusion, musical language and silence are portrayed throughout The Bluest Eye. This is evident through the conversations Claudia and Frieda have with their mother, Cholly's life, Pecola's muteness and laughter, Pauline's quarrels, and the names of the towns. Music is a way to convey the deepest of emotions and the deepest of situations. Although music is a form of expression, sometimes silence can say just as much. It is clear that music has a great impact on a person's life. Sometimes music can teach a person about life and the world around them. Sometimes music can be a way to get through the bad times. Morrison has the ability to not only create scenes and characters so vividly, but through one of the most powerful muses: song.