At a conference in London in 1924 to settle the Franco-German crisis caused by the Ruhrkampf, the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald successfully pressed the French Premier douard Herriot to make concessions to Germany. Frieda is uncertain how to describe what has happened to her. She says they can wait on the porch until Pecola gets home but they are too scared of her. First-person narrative by Claudia MacTeer. At fifteen, she meets Cholly; they marry and move far up to the North. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. The main construction was largely completed by 1939, at the cost of around 3 billion French francs (around 3.9 billion in today's U.S. dollars worth). The girls both admire her and are jealous of her. Pecola, already showing signs of pregnancy, comes to him and asks for blue eyes. [20] Faced with a manpower shortage, French planners had to rely more on older and less fit reservists, who would take longer to mobilise and would diminish the French industry because they would leave their jobs. Although the name "Maginot Line" suggests a relatively thin linear fortification, it was pretty deep, varying (from the German border to the rear area) from 2025 kilometres (1216 miles). Attacking on 10 May, German forces were well into France within five days and they continued to advance until 24 May, when they stopped near Dunkirk. If the animal eats the meat and behaves strangely, her wish will be granted. Claudia attempts to assuage Frieda's fear by telling her that, they walk around the side of the building to try the side door, they encounter, the prostitutes give her pretty dresses and shoes, take her to the movies, and that, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. His active response contrasts with Pecolaspassivity. Their father's reaction, while violent, demonstrates the love he has for his family, which is contrasted later when Cholly rapes Pecola, simultaneously failing to protect her and acting as the aggressor. Purchasing The line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.[1]. Miss Marie is overweight and kind, China is skinny and sarcastic, and Poland is taciturn. [35] The idea was shelved. [55] It was also frequently referenced in wartime films, notably Thunder Rock, The Major and the Minor (albeit as a comedic metaphor) and Passage to Marseille. Claudia's response reveals the injustice she feels with regard to the little girl's gesture, and the violent tendencies such feelings inspire. While the accommodations weren't luxurious, the barracks and mess halls were a tremendous improvement over the mud, freezing cold and disease of WWI trenches. This points toward a source of Pecola's suffering: she cannot see herself, because she is invisible to so many. These are large reinforced buried concrete bunkers, equipped with armoured turrets containing high-precision optics, connected with the other fortifications by field telephone and wireless transmitters (known in French by the acronym T.S.F., Tlgraphie Sans Fil). Petrol-engined armoured locomotives pulled supply trains along these narrow-gauge lines. They live above the Breedlove apartment and befriend Pecola. Having light eyes marks a character as different. He blames God for the suffering and waste in the world, particularly in his own life, and then he congratulates himself for having granted Pecola's wishhis magic, he believes, will work, although only Pecola will be able to see the blue eyes that she has been given. March 1, 2023, SNPLUSROCKS20 Claudias father, who works hard to keep the familyfed and clothed. Her differing reactions to Pecola and the little white girl further this idea. "The Maginot Line was meant to stop a World War I-style attack of infantry and artillery, and it did what it was supposed to do," says Kirchubel, who's written multiple books on World War II military campaigns. The French strategy was already set in millions of cubic feet of concrete. Both of the girls think that being ruined means becoming fat like Marie, and believe that Poland and China aren't fat only because they drink whiskey. Both static and mobile artillery units were assigned to defend the Maginot Line. Look up his videos for some good strategy. 15. They say they aren't allowed to be around her. Struggling with distance learning? [26] Germany had to import most of its iron, rubber, oil, bauxite, copper and nickel, making naval blockade a devastating weapon against the German economy. [12], The great conclusion that was drawn in Paris after the Ruhrkampf and the 1924 London Conference was that France could not make unilateral military moves to uphold Versailles as the resulting British hostility to such moves was too dangerous to the republic. The MacTeers boarder, who has a reputation for being a steady worker and a quiet man. Furious, Mrs. Breedlove sends the girls away and comforts the little white girl, who has begun to cry. "They cashed in their chips. The hot pie filling burns Pecola's legs painfully, but when Mrs. Breedlove returns and sees the mess she runs to Pecola and backhands her, knocking the girl down. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Bluest Eye! As the water table in this region is high, there was the danger of underground passages getting flooded, which the line designers knew would be difficult and expensive to overcome. for a customized plan. Yet Frieda's response to sex, now that she has been assaulted, is that it feels like nothing. World War I absolutely devastated France. When the bigger plan went to crap, the Maginot Line went along with it.". Yet at the same time the girls sense is also the communities sense of the prostitutes. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. In the following days, infantry divisions of the 1st Army attacked fortifications on each side of the penetration, capturing four petits ouvrages. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. 10. [4] J.E. Renews March 8, 2023 You can view our. Wed love to have you back! During peacetime, fortresses were only partly manned by full-time troops. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. The narrator of parts of the novel. Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? How do colorism and classism cause this status? Frieda equates being "ruined" to being like the Maginot Line, because she heard her mother say that the Maginot Line was a "ruined" woman. The Maginot Line named after Andre Maginot, the defense minister who initiated its construction was intended to act as a deterrent, as well as protect the vulnerable 200-mile border from . Built at a cost that possibly exceeded $9 billion in. In Did you have a question about the first chapter of Bluest Eye. She invites the girls upstairs for a soda, but Frieda tells her that they are not allowed to visit her because she is "ruined." $24.99 Dont have an account? They realize the other prostitutes are not fat, and based on their mother's gossip about the prostitutes believe the reason for this is because they drink whiskey. You'll also receive an email with the link. As the line was surrounded, the German Army attacked a few ouvrages from the rear but was unsuccessful in capturing any significant fortifications. Teachers and parents! By the eve of WWII, the French had constructed a string of fortifications stretching from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel, but the heaviest defenses were along the 280-mile (450-kilometer) border with Germany. Read an in-depth analysis of Cholly Breedlove. Their purpose was to locate the enemy, direct and correct the indirect fire of artillery, and report on the progress and position of critical enemy units. [15] The German statement following The Manchester Guardian's article that Germany did not feel bound by the terms of Versailles and would violate them as much as possible gave much offence in France. on 2-49 accounts, Save 30% There are hints that his mother was insane. Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan! Ouvrage Rochonvillers was retained by the French Army as a command centre into the 1990s but was deactivated following the disappearance of the Soviet threat. THE MAGINOT LINE I31 ernment.I As a result, much of the spirit of the reform was quietly nullified, though the law, including the two-year service, remained on the statute books. [30] The entire French crew of 107 soldiers was killed during the action. Then another neighbor, Miss Dunion, came in and suggested that they take Frieda to the doctor because she might be ruined, a fear that now makes Frieda weep. The largest guns were, therefore 135mm (5.3in) fortress guns; larger weapons were to be part of the mobile forces and were to be deployed behind the lines. [13] From 1871 forward, French elites had concluded that France had no hope of defeating Germany on its own, and France would need an alliance with another great power to defeat the Reich. [25] Besides the demographic reasons, a defensive strategy served the needs of French diplomacy towards Great Britain. They understand that China and Poland are ruined as well but think that they are not fat because they drink whiskey. The MacTeer family does not have light eyes. "The Maginot Line would have done just fine against a German army with no tanks, airplanes or heavy artillery," says Kirchubel, all of which were banned inside Germany after WWI. The dog devours the meat and dies almost immediately, and Pecola flees in terror. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." For the girls, their mother's word is law: they dislike Marie based on their mother's dislike of Marie. One Saturday afternoon in spring, Cholly, while totally drunk, rapes his daughter. Their crew consisted of between 100 and 200 men. In contrast, Pecola spills blackish blueberries all over the floor, underlining the connection between blackness and mess. He goes from being the young lover to the naked black boy, forced to go on with sex while two bigger and stronger men watch. All these troops wore distinctive uniform insignia and considered themselves among the elite of the French Army. She is lonely and imaginative. [19] Part of the rationale for the Maginot Line stemmed from the severe French losses during the First World War and their effect on the French population. He feels that is right for a black girl like Pecola to long to "see the world with blue eyes," but a thoughtful reader will note that eye color does not have an effect on vision. It is the Maginot Line. They nerfed breaking through the line to the nth degree honestly. Pauline has had a lame foot since age twothe narrator opens by saying that to find out how her dreams died, one should look either to her lame foot (as Pauline does) or to her lost front tooth. [18] Given the diplomatic situation in the late 1920s, the Quai d'Orsay informed the government that French military planning should be based on a worst-case scenario that France would fight the next war against Germany without the help of Britain or the United States. The Germans then broke through the fortification line as defending French forces retreated southward. Pecolas father, who is impulsive and violentfree, but in a dangerous way. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. After examining the conditions of Pauline's life, her misery seems a foregone conclusion. The line included the following retractable turrets. She is surprised to see them, and they ask her why she is not afraid of the Maginot Line. Claudia and Frieda run away and decide that even though Pecolas mother works on the other side of town, Friedas situation is dire enough that they should go find her. During the German offensive Operation Nordwind in January 1945, Maginot Line casemates and fortifications were utilised by Allied forces, especially in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est, and some German units had been supplemented with flamethrower tanks in anticipation of this possibility. "Maginot Line" has acquired a secondary meaning: a defensive barrier or strategy that inspires a false sense of security, according to Merriam-Webster. The petits ouvrages were generally made up of several infantry bunkers, connected by a tunnel network with attached underground facilities, such as barracks, electric generators, ventilation systems, mess halls, infirmaries and supply caches. They go to Pecolas house, but no one is home. Today the Maginot Line has become a metaphor for expensive efforts which offer only a false sense of security. They find Pecola at the back of one of the prettiest houses. She treats the girls with some kindness, telling them that Pecola is with Mrs. Breedlove at the house where Mrs. Breedlove is a servant. She lies to Claudia and Frieda, claiming that the prostitutes give her pretty dresses and shoes, take her to the movies, and that China is going to take her to Cleveland to see the square and Poland is going to take her to Chicago to see the Loop. France's birth rate had actually been declining since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Read an in-depth analysis of Claudia MacTeer. The passage is written with poetic tone, turning Blue Jack into something like a figure of myth, male and strong and holding up the watermelon so that it blocks out the sun. Morrison Deconstructs White Standards of Beauty in The Bluest Eye, The Unexamined Other: Confronting the Social Hypocrisy of Maureen in The Bluest Eye. She finds a permanent job working for a wealthy and warm-hearted white family called the Fishers. The serpent, constructed over a period of 11 years at a cost of some seven billion prewar francs, was France's last, best hope to avert another German invasion, another devastating war. A rapid advance through the forest and across the River Meuse encircled much of the Allied forces, resulting in a sizeable force having to be evacuated at Dunkirk leaving the troops to the south unable to mount an effective resistance to the German invasion of France.[3]. Principal line of resistance: This line began 10km (6mi) behind the border. It breaks and the girls run away, scared. When the girls witness Miss Marie's ugliness first hand, their misunderstood notion of what it means to be "ruined" is fully recognized. Breedlove. From upstairs, the little girl calls for Polly, and Pecola accidentally pulls a freshly baked berry cobbler off the counter. The French side of this border is called the Maginot Line, where the French built a tremendous fortification across from the then Westwall/Hindenburg Line. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images, Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. They had such features as electric generators, ventilation systems, water supplies, kitchens and heating, which allowed their occupants to hold out in the event of an attack. The fortifications were built as a result of experiences from the . He tortures the family cat and harasses children who come to the nearby playground. As an ally of France, they got advice on the Maginot design and applied it to Czechoslovak border fortifications. Indeed, Belgium feared it would be sacrificed in the event of another German invasion. Some of the larger ouvrages were converted to command centres. Complete your free account to request a guide. . French military chiefs were dubious about their ability to win another war against Germany on its own, especially an offensive war. The family does not pay Pauline the last bit of money they owe her. She learns that Mr. MacTeer has beaten up Mr. Henry and kicked him out of the house. The infantry casemates often had one or two "cloches" or turrets located on top of them. Not according to Robert Kirchubel, a military historian with the FORCES Initiative at Purdue University. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. She has a deformed foot and sees herself as the martyr of a terrible marriage. Breedlove. She is pretty, playful andaffectionate. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. Born Elihue Micah Whitcomb, he is a light-skinned West Indian misanthrope and self-declared Reader, Adviser, and Interpreter of Dreams. He hates all kinds of human touch, with the exception of the bodies of young girls. How did this happen? The last line of defense was the Maginot Line's massive ouvrages, each large enough to hold 500 to 1,000 permanent troops. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Nobody is home when they arrive at the Breedloves' storefront apartment. It was composed of an intricate system of strong points, fortifications and military facilities such as border guard posts, communications centres, infantry shelters, barricades, artillery, machine-gun and anti-tank-gun emplacements, supply depots, infrastructure facilities and observation posts. ", "Opinion The difficult truths behind 'Dunkirk', The Maginot Line (French/English/German/Italian), Fortress of Schoenenbourg, (French/English/German/Italian), The U.S. Army vs. Refine any search. The main fortifications of the line were still mostly intact, many commanders were prepared to hold out, and the Italian advance had been contained. This chapter emphasizes the ignorance and confusion that accompany Friedas experience of becoming a sexual being. You'll be billed after your free trial ends. Stewart, Amber ed. These outposts covered the main passages within the principal line. And like any trench, it belonged to the . Renews March 8, 2023 A quiet, elderly woman who serves as a doctor in the community where Cholly grows up. (including. The German Army, having reformulated their plans from a repeat of the First World War-era plan, became aware of and exploited this weak point in the French defensive front. Still, Cain said that the location would be challenging to light and film inside and that artificial sets could be constructed at the studios for a fraction of the cost. She finds meaning not in her own family but in romantic movies and in her work caring for a well-to-do white family. The word cloche is a French term meaning bell due to its shape. The Maginot Line (French: Ligne Maginot, IPA:[li maino]), named after the French Minister of War Andr Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force them to move around the fortifications. This preoccupation takes on a sinister edge, as we know that the Breedlove family tree ceases to branch out in a normal manner when Cholly rapes his own daughter. The playground for whites only lets the girls know that they are in a place where they are not welcomed based purely on the color of their skin. Static defensive positions were therefore intended not only to buy time but to economise on men by defending an area with fewer and less mobile forces. He rents from an old woman with a nasty, aging dog named Bob. Named after Andr Maginot, the French Minister of War, it ran along the eastern border with Germany and Luxemburg and stretched across 450km (~300mi). As a mature women, she has a different understanding of the word from that of the innocent girls, which makes it more painful and triggers her violent reaction. Andr Maginot finally convinced the government to invest in the scheme. The quest for whiskey and the girls' disdain for the Maginot Line show, once again, the esteem the girls have for their mother's opinion and her wisdom. Such accusations are unfounded". Read more about sexual initiation as a theme. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. Want 100 or more? Humiliated but also powerless, Cholly keeps at it until the hunters grow bored and leave. [47][48] More seriously, historians have noted rather than the Germans doing what the French had envisioned, the French played into the Germans' hand, culminating in their defeat. The original construction did not cover the area ultimately chosen by the Germans for their first challenge, which was through the Ardennes in 1940, a plan known as Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), due to the neutrality of Belgium. These GFM cloches were sometimes used to emplace machine guns or observation periscopes. The girl is the daughter of the family that employs Breedlove as a servant. This passage foretells the sexual violence and oppression experienced by the female characters of The Bluest Eye. The Maginot Line laughs and throws her root-beer bottle at them. Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools. The community knows Miss Marie as the Maginot Line. on 2-49 accounts, Save 30% [42], Marc Romanych and Martin Rupp highlight that "poor decisions and missed opportunities" plagued the line and point to its purpose of conserving manpower: "about 20 percent of [France's] field divisions remained inactive along the Maginot Line". Pecola faints from the pain, and when she wakes she can't remember what happened. Keep in mind, says Kirchubel, that the French didn't believe that the Maginot Line alone could win another war with Germany. She returned with her parents to the house, but Henry was gone. When the Allied forces invaded in June 1944, the line, now held by German defenders, was again largely bypassed; fighting touched only portions of the fortifications near Metz and in northern Alsace towards the end of 1944. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Contact us The moment where she loses her tooth in the movie theatre is painful: juxtaposing Pauline as an awkward, gap-toothed, pregnant black woman to the idealized (and illusory) image of Jean Harlow on the screen shows the power of these images to destroy a black woman's belief in her own beauty. But when Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in the early 1930s, they quickly backed out of the Treaty of Versailles and began equipping for a much different kind of war. (one code per order). She loses the job because Cholly shows up at her workplace drunk. These anti-tank obstacles extended from end to end in front of the main works, over hundreds of kilometres, interrupted only by extremely dense forests, rivers, or other nearly impassable terrains. By early June, the German forces had cut off the line from the rest of France, and the French government was making overtures for an armistice, which was signed on 22 June in Compigne. This section shows the powerful deterministic forces that have shaped Pauline. They also misinterpret Mrs. MacTeer's words and attempt to avert Frieda's "ruin," misunderstanding the words of adults. The Maginot Line was impervious . During the advance to the English Channel, the Germans overran France's border defence with Belgium and several Maginot Forts in the Maubeuge area whilst the Luftwaffe simply flew over it. Dunion. An independent and strong-minded nine-year-old, Claudia is a fighter and rebels against adults tyranny over children and against the Black communitys idealization of white beauty standards. [46] Historians have pointed to numerous reasons for the French defeat: faulty strategy and doctrine, dispersion of forces, the loss of command and control, poor communications, faulty intelligence that provided excessive German numbers, the slow nature of the French response to the German penetration of the Ardennes and a failure to understand the nature and speed of the German doctrine. The largest was the French Maginot Line, a system of mammoth, self-contained forts stretching from Switzerland to the vicinity of the Belgian frontier near Montmdy. 5. However, when the Germans attacked . [18] The French assumption was always that Germany would not go to war without conscription, which would allow the German Army to take advantage of the Reich's numerical superiority. "The Maginot Line fit perfectly with this kind of thinking.". [18], After 1918, the German economy was twice as large as that of France; Germany had a population of 70 million compared to France's 40 million, and the French economy was hobbled by the need to reconstruct the enormous damage of World War I, while German territory had seen little fighting. Mr. MacTeer chased Mr. Henry off, beating him first and then firing a gun at him. High-voltage Transmission Lines, initially above-ground but then buried, and connected to the civil power grid, provided electric power to the many fortifications and fortresses. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. GradeSaver, 27 August 2019 Web. Infantry Reserve Shelters: These were found from 5001,000m (1,6003,300ft) behind the principal line of resistance. What does the word "festers" mean? We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country. [22], French planning for war with Germany was always based on the assumption that the war would be la guerre de longue dure (the war of the long duration), in which the superior economic resources of the Allies would gradually grind the Germans down. The Maginot Line was the brainchild of Marshal Joseph Joffre, a French WWI general, but it was hardly a new idea. (one code per order). Although the alliances with Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia were appreciated in Paris, it was widely understood that this was no compensation for the absence of Britain and the United States. The women live together in an apartment above the Breedloves. 20% The prostitutes tease each other affectionately and treat Pecola with kindness, while the rest of the community treats her cruelly. From front to rear (east to west), the line was composed of: 1. Continue to start your free trial. French strategy, therefore, envisioned a move into Belgium to counter a German assault. In response, The Maginot Line throws glass bottle at the girls and laughs at them as they run away. Once the French forces left the Rhineland in 1930, this form of leverage with the Rhineland as collateral was no longer available to Paris, which from then on had to depend on Berlin's word that it would continue to abide by the terms of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, which stated that the Rhineland was to stay demilitarised forever. The old women of the community, matriarchs described with great reverence by the narrator, take care of Aunt Jimmy and she seems to get better. The false sense of security contributed "to the development of the "Maginot mentality". They could also be used as a local headquarters and counterattack base. Constructed on the French side of its borders with Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, the line did not extend to the English Channel. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. Of the roughly 8.5 million French soldiers mobilized in 1914 to fight Germany and the other Central Powers, more than 6 million became casualties, either killed, wounded or declared missing during four years of grueling trench warfare. ouvrages to be ready at their battle stations. "The Maginot Line was never meant to fight the war by itself. The community knows. The girls walk all the way to the rich part of town where Mrs. Breedlove works. In 1968, when scouting locations for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, producer Harry Saltzman used his French contacts to gain permission to use portions of the Maginot Line as SPECTRE headquarters in the film. By the time Germany invaded Poland in 1939, it was clear to French military leaders that they had greatly underestimated the speed and ruthless efficiency of the German blitzkrieg. Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership. This was impossible elsewhere as the other parts of the line were located in civilian areas.[10]. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. But this may not be a fair characterization. Even as an adult, Mrs. Breedlove is inferior to the little white girl, as shown when the little girl calls her by the nickname "Polly." The first girl that Cholly likes. The World War II German invasion plan of 1940 (Sichelschnitt) was designed to deal with the line. France lost about 1.4 million dead and 4.2 million wounded, while . Friedas experience is frightening and confusing, but she is quickly defended by her protective parents, and Henry is a foolish rather than a threatening figure. She becomes pregnant. Outpost and Support Point line: Approximately 5km (3mi) behind the border, a line of anti-tank blockhouses that were intended to provide resistance to armoured assault, sufficient to delay the enemy to allow the crews of the C.O.R.F. He is a religious hypocrite. While most of the giant underground fortresses of the Maginot Line were abandoned or destroyed, you can visit a few of them, still in working order.