breaks and splitting is common, as seen in the context of the war occurring in the time period of the story, the split nature of Pecola's family, and the watermelon that Cholly observes break open during a flashback. Page argues that breaks symbolize the challenges of African-American life, as seen in the rip in the Breedloves' couch that symbolizes poverty, or the break in Pauline's tooth that ruins her marriage and family. He goes on to identify how each of the characters are broken personally, since Cholly's former and present life is described as chaotic and jumbled, and Pauline both is responsible for her biological family as well as the white family she works for. The epitome of this, Page argues, is seen in Pecola at the end of the novel. The events of her life, having broken parents in a broken family, have resulted in a totally fractured personality which drives Pecola into madness. Genre/Style Toni Morrison's work The Bluest Eye breaks the long tradition of narratives that discuss the hardships of war and depression in the 1940s, as she brings forth a unique and untold point of view in American historical fiction. Morrison purposefully writes stories that defy the “American mainstream ideology” by focusing in on the realities of African-American life at the time. Thus, The Bluest Eye serves as a counter narrative, a method of the telling the accounts of people whose stories are rarely told and deliberately hidden. As Morrison once stated, “my job becomes how to rip that veil drawn over proceedings too terrible to relate. The exercise is also critical for any person who is black, or who belongs to any marginalized category, for, historically, we were seldom invited to participate in the discourse even when we were its topic.” In this novel, Morrison depicts a protagonist, Pecola, a young black girl who is a victim of this perpetual racism and denial that Morrison discusses. As the Civil Rights Movement began to decline in favor of conservative ideals and white power, American culture soon fostered a national identity that excluded anyone who was not white. One example of this is how historically racist ideologies influence the Soaphead Church in the novel. University of Oxford professor Tessa Roynon, who studies African-American literature, states that “the racial theories of Hume, Kant, Jefferson, and others, derived from innovations in classificatory systems by scientists such as Linnaeus, have