Discuss+the+incorporation+of+folklore+in+the+story.

Folklore is defined as the traditional beliefs, myths, tales and practices of people, mostly circulated through word-of-mouth. Within //The Bluest Eye,// Morrison combines fiction with folklore, mainly African-American folklore, is to help establish the characters and the cultural setting of the story.

One such instance is with Aunt Jimmy’s illness in ‘Spring’. Friends came to visit her with food and medicine, and they impart advice such as “don’t eat no whites of eggs”, “drink new milk” and “chew on this root.” These statements don’t really correlate to one’s physical well-being and therefore can be considered as commonly held beliefs of practices of people that don’t actually hold true. For the people within the community, fetching M’Dear is seen as a solution to cure “any illness that could not be handled by ordinary means.” (p. 136) M’Dear seems to be revered as a supernatural figure and it is a common practice for people within the community to approach her for help. Also relating to Aunt Jimmy, her death displays the superstitious beliefs held by people. The peach cobbler is believed to be the cause of Aunt Jimmy’s death, although there is absolutely no proof that there is a causal relationship between the two. At the funeral, people also think that Aunt Jimmy’s request for “black thread to patch some things” (p.140) was also a “sign” (p.141) of her impending death.

The folklore of inferiority and unworthiness is also incorporated within the novel. In the novel, the societal perception that “blacks” are inferior to “whites” is hardly taught to members within the “black community” by other whites, especially since there is a lack of Caucasian presence within the story. This belief of unworthiness is spread within the black community through word-of-mouth usage of words such as “ugly.” The feeling of unworthiness within the community is cyclic and spreads insidiously, so much so that even children are aware of this belief, though they might not fully comprehend the reason behind it.