Describe The Bluest Eye.

A key image in The Bluest Eye, one that takes on symbolic importance, is delivered at the outset of the novel and reinforced again at the end—the soil: “The soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain 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” (206). Choose an image or motif like the soil that takes on symbolic importance, trace it throughout the novel, and connect it to a major theme of the novel. Be sure that you develop a clear thesis about the image and support it with thoroughly analyzed textual evidence (using DIDLS and/or other analytical techniques).