Racism in The Bluest Eye Essay

“‘I can’t go to school no more. And I thought maybe you could help me.’ ‘Help you how? Tell me. Don’t be frightened.’ ‘My eyes.’ ‘What about your eyes?’ ‘I want them blue.’ … Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty” (174). Conversation is exchanged between Soaphead Church and Pecola about the longing of blue eyes. Soaphead Church gets angry because he can not help Pecola. The blue eyes symbolize beauty, and Pecola associates that with being loved and accepted. She believes that if she possesses blue eyes, people will disregard she is black, and the cruelty in her life will be replaced with respect and affection. This hopeless desire ultimately leads Pecola to complete madness.To summarize, beauty is a crucial piece of the racism that is displayed in the novel, and affects many different characters.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes place in Ohio in the 1940s. The novel is written from the perspective of African Americans and how they view themselves. Focusing on identity, Morrison uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, dictation, and symbolism to help stress her point of view on identity. In the novel the author argues that society influences an individual's perception on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove. Furthermore, the novel explains how society shapes an individual's character by instilling beauty expectations. Morrison is effective in relaying her message about the various impacts that society has on an individual's character through imagery, diction, and symbolism by showing that

Morrison wrote “His mother did not like him to play with the niggers. She had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. The colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud”. When writing this quote Morrison pointed out that the problem with racism in society is also the hypocritical and racist views that some African Americans see each other. A young black boy messes with the a girl named Pecola and thinks of her as someone who is lower than in him in status because she is looked as a “dirty nigger” to other people in the black community, despite being the same race as them. This boy is taught seeing her that way because his mother and also because of the way society looked at black people. Morrison also wrote, “The line between colored and niggers was not always clear; subtle and telltale signs threatened to erode it, and the watch had to be constant” . In the story, there are different ways to extinguish the difference between the “good” and the “bad” black people. If you were someone from the black community and were “bad” you would have been labeled as a nigger. The only reason some people were labeled as bad was because they were poorer and didn’t have the same education as the others. They were living in an world where everything was a cycle. Whites would be racist towards the African American community, treat them like they are second class citizens and keep them

If she had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines, people would not want to do ugly things in front of her or to her. The accuracy of this insight is affirmed by her experience of being teased by the boys—when Maureen comes to her rescue, it seems that they no longer want to behave badly under Maureen’s attractive gaze. In a more basic sense, Pecola and her family are mistreated in part because they happen to have black skin. By wishing for blue eyes rather than lighter skin, Pecola indicates that she wishes to see things differently as much as she wishes to be seen differently. She can only receive this wish, in effect, by blinding herself. Pecola is then able to see herself as beautiful, but only at the cost of her ability to see accurately both herself and the world around her. The connection between how one is seen and what one sees has a uniquely tragic outcome for

“White kids; his mother did not like him playing with niggers, they were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet, niggers were dirty and loud” (Morrison, 87). This racial slur stated in the book The Bluest Eye gives a great view on how racism took place all around the world, it explains how white people choose who them or there kids could play with etc in the 1940’s. “I think that this quote shows how her mother was racist and didn’t like her communicating with “different” people” (Felicia Wright, www.Blogspot.com). One would Agree with Felicia, its obvious that her mother was very racist, she choose who her kids could play with based on there race and the color of there

Racist ideology is institutionalized when how people’s interactions reflects on an understanding that they share the same beliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, their economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all.

Pecola Breedlove is one of the characters who constantly tries to consume whiteness. She first exhibits this behavior when she drinks three quarts of milk (Morrison 19). By drinking a large quantity of milk, Pecola attempts to absorb the whiteness of the milk, expressing her inner desire to be white. Moreover, she drinks the milk out of a Shirley Temple cup. During the 20th century, Shirley Temple epitomizes the cute, little white girl of the era. Hence, when Pecola drinks milk out of the Shirley Temple cup, Pecola attempts to be like Shirley Temple, a white girl adored by society. Another situation Pecola tries to consume whiteness is when she buys the Mary Jane candies (49). The wrapper of the Mary Jane candy depicts a girl with a “Smiling white face. Blond hair in gentle

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) takes place in Ohio towards the tail end of the depression. The story focuses on the character of Pecola Breedlove who wants to have blue eyes. Pecola becomes convinced that if she had blue eyes her life would be different. Through the eyes of our narrator, Claudia, and her sister Frieda we see the pervasive racism and abuse Pecola is subjected to. Claudia and Frieda act as witnesses to Pecola’s disintegration and as a result, they will spend the rest of their lives grappling with what happened to Pecola.

At this time black people weren’t treated with respect and were constantly discriminated against in all types of ways. Pecola grew up in a rough environment with her dad abusing her mother constantly and constantly getting in fights “Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove fought each other with a darkly brutal formalism”(Morrison 43). Pecola decided to surround herself with people that can help her like the Macteer’s. In addition Pecola believed she was ugly and reason for this was because she didn’t have blue eyes like the Shirley Temple doll that everyone adored. Pecola never tried to persevere through the tough times and make people believe that she isn’t ugly but had just settled to believing that she was granted blue eyes and just felt sorry for herself “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrision deals with the struggle of colored women in the 1930 's dealing with the ideals of beauty. The standard of beauty can be described as a community standard that if the women of this story do not live up too, they will be deemed ugly. This standard of beauty can be perpetuated through the treatment of certain characters based on how they look. There are three main symbols that the book and author convey. The first is the standard of beauty. The second is the concept of self-image that is warped to fit white standard of beauty, instead of cultivating a woman 's individuality. Self-image describes how a person perceives themselves through their own actions and internalized emotions. Many things can contribute to a person 's self-image such as, how they are treated by others, how their parents treat them, and how do they treat themselves through life experiences. The third concept of self worth and it is related to self-image. Self-worth is an understanding of personal satisfaction with who you are and the choices you make. For example, as we are first introduced to Pecola. We find that she moves into the Macteer 's house hold because her father is in jail for setting her house on fire. As she lives in this house hold, she falls in love with Shirley temple. This was the standard of beauty for young girls at the time. Pecola love to drink milk out of her Shirley Temple mug. I believe that Morrison added this detail to the story to symbolize her

Pecola is constantly labeled as inferior due to her ugliness and copes with her sorrow by conforming to society’s label. Throughout the novel, Pecola’s fascination with white girls is heavily expressed. It is first shown very early on when Pecola admires the Shirley Temple cup. Claudia narrates, “She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face” (19).

In doing so, she rejected the needs of her family entirely, not even her own daughter could call her “mother” instead she was forced to call her “Mrs. Breedlove”, a symbol of the unfamiliarity of the connection that should be filled with love, but was only filled with hatred and rejection. This increased when Pecola was raped by her father, followed by her mother beating her until the baby died. This final blow, the hopelessness of rejection caused by both the internal and external racism, was what drove Pecola insane, and would drive any person to madness, because the pain that this racism caused is the pain of being alone, a pain which no human can bear. The abuse from racism is never forgotten, it leaves a scar; the pain may recede after time, but the scar remains.

The novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is subjected on a young girl, Pecola Breedlove and her experiences growing up in a poor black family. The life depicted is one of poverty, ridicule, and dissatisfaction of self. Pecola feels ugly because of her social status as a poor young black girl and longs to have blue eyes, the pinnacle of beauty and worth. Throughout the book, Morrison touches on controversial subjects, such as the depicting of Pecola's father raping her, Mrs. Breedlove's sexual feelings toward her husband, and Pecola's menstruation. The book's content is controversial on many levels and it has bred conflict among its readers.

The social standards of beauty and the idea of the American Dream in The Bluest Eye leads Mrs. Breedlove to feelings of shame, that she later passes on to Pecola. The Breedloves are surrounded by the idea of perfection, and their absence of it makes them misfits. Mrs. Breedlove works for a white family, the fishers. She enjoys the luxury of her work life and inevitably favors her work over her family. This leads to Pecola struggle to find her identity, in a time where perception is everything. Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother perferis her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the shirley temple doll with blue eyes.

     In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison incorporates various techniques, such as her use of metaphors, the ironic use of names, and the visual images that she uses. The theme of The Bluest Eye, revolves around African Americans’ conformity to white standards. A woman may whiten her skin, straighten her hair and change its color, but she can not change the color of her eyes. The desire to transform one’s identity, itself becomes an inverted desire, becomes the desire for blues eye, which is the symptom of Pecola’s instability.