simple references of the Dick and Jane reading primers are quoted then the words run together as the chapters reveal more and more of the abuse and social unrest of those in the story.
The meaning of the Dick and Jane opening is to deconstruct a traditional American family norm. The Dick and Jane primer represents to most a 'traditional' white middle class American family, and yet Morrison's novel is about poor blacks. The mania that happens to the language in the opening suggests a chaos beneath the calm, pleasant veneer of Dick and Jane. There is ugliness and trouble underneath what we assume is a perfect world. Beneath the American veneer is the sad ugly truth that Dick and Jane know nothing about.
