Q7. Discuss the opening lines of the novel

[[deleted user]]

The novel opens with an excerpt from an old-fashioned reading primer. The lines begin to blur and run together—as they do at the beginning of select chapters. What social commentary is implicit in Morrison's superimposing these bland banalities describing a white family and its activities upon the tragic story of the destruction of a young black girl?

[Eadie]

Morrison uses this reading primer to show how far removed fantasy is from reality, and to paint a cold, cruel world in which children cannot simply play with others.

[Kristel]

The use of Dick and Jane set against the difficulty of life for the characters of the book helped to set the stage and created the feel of racism.

[Lynn]

The passages from primer readers represent the antithesis of what the characters in the novel can expect to have.

[Anna]

This is the perfect life -- as show in the primer. Penola's life is far from it.

[Paula]

I agree.

[Patrick]

Just like Eadie said, it creates a cleavage between reality and fantasy. It also seems that each of the passages at the beginning of each chapter suggest one or many themes within that chapter.