May 24 A "The Bluest Eye" - Imitation of Life

Aim: Why does Peola turn against her mother?
Do Now: Imagine your parents (real or imaginary) just told you that your real grandfather was Donald J. Trump and that you have to write him a letter.  What would you say to him?

1. What does Delilah Johnson say to Bea Pullman that changes her destiny?
2. What gives Mrs. Pullman (Bea) the idea of opening a restaurant on the Atlantic City boardwalk?
3. How do Delilah and Bea get along?  Why?
4. How do Jessie and Peola get along?  Why?
5. What causes the break in Jessie's and Peola's friendship?
6. What causes the break in Peola's relationship with her mother, Delilah?
7. Why does everybody in the audience get nervous when Delilah goes to get Peola from school during the rain?
8. Why does Peola's mother ask the teacher if her daughter has been passing?
9. What does Peola have in common with her father?
10. What does the unemployed man (Elmer Smith)  say to Bea that changes her destiny?
11. Why is Peola angry?
12. How does the story Elmer tells Bea about Coca-Cola and the character's name, Peola, get mixed and produce Pecola in Toni Morrision's The Bluest Eye?
13. Both Delilah and Bea are close friends.  How do they see things differently?
14. What does Delilah say about the band that shows she is proud to be Black?
15. What does Peola say that shows she values money more than pride?
16. How does Peola's one wish resonate with the theme of The Bluest Eye?
17. Why is it significant that Jessie would fall in love with her mother's boyfriend?

Aim: Why is going to the movies important to Pauline? 
Shirley Temple, Bojangles, Page 67, 77, 107, 122, 123, 126, 
(Note the word Cinema is never used in the novel, only "movies" and "picture show"

Why does Toni Morrison mention this movie (Imitation of Life) in The Bluest Eye? (Page 67)

Do Now: Explain the differences and similarities between going to the movies and going to the park to read a book?

enough of a doom sound in it to be true of Bay Boy. While Frieda and I clucked on about the near fight, Maureen, suddenly animated, put her velvet-sleeved arm through Pecola’s and began to behave as though they were the closest of friends. “I just moved here. My name is Maureen Peal. What’s yours?” “Pecola.” “Pecola? Wasn’t that the name of the girl in Imitation of Life?” “I don’t know. What is that?” “The picture show, you know. Where this mulatto girl hates her mother cause she is black and ugly but then cries at the funeral. It was real sad. Everybody cries in it. Claudette Colbert too.” “Oh.” Pecola’s voice was no more than a sigh.

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https://youtu.be/kTDvCLAT8hg