Essay about Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye - Female Childhood Icons

At a time when blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple is idolized by white and black alike,

Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

Toni Morrison, the first black women Nobel Prize winner, in her first novel, The Bluest Eye depicts the tragic condition of the blacks in racist America. It examines how the ideologies perpetuated by the dominant groups and adopted by the marginal groups influence the identity of the black women. Through the depictions of white beauty icons, Morrison’s black characters lose themselves to self-hatred. They try to obliterate their heritage, and eventually like Pecola Breedlove, the child protagonist, who yearns for blue eyes, have no recourse except madness. This assignment focusses on double consciousness and its devastating effects on Pecola.

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, is a story about the life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is growing up during post World War I. She prays for the bluest eyes, which will “make her beautiful” and in turn make her accepted by her family and peers. The major issue in the book, the idea of ugliness, was the belief that “blackness” was not valuable or beautiful. This view, handed down to them at birth, was a cultural hindrance to the black race.

The desire to feel beautiful has never been more in demand, yet so impossible to achieve. In the book “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the story of two black families that live during the mid-1900’s. Even though slavery is a thing of the past, discrimination and racism are still a big issue at this time. Through the whole book, characters struggle to feel beautiful and battle the curse of being ugly because of their skin color. Throughout the book Pecola feels ugly and does not like who she is because of her back skin. She believes the only thing that can ever make her beautiful is if she got blue eyes. Frieda, Pecola, Claudia, and other black characters have been taught that the key to being beautiful is by having white skin. So by being black, this makes them automatically ugly. In the final chapter of the book, the need to feel beautiful drives Pecola so crazy that she imagines that she has blue eyes. She thinks that people don’t want to look at her because they are jealous of her beauty, but the truth is they don’t look at her because she is pregnant. From the time these black girls are little, the belief that beauty comes from the color of their skin has been hammered into their mind. Mrs. Breedlove and Geraldine are also affected by the standards of beauty and the impossible goal to look and be accepted by white people. Throughout “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison uses the motif of beauty to portray its negative effect on characters.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and “Junior,” and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home.

In Toni Morrison’s novels, The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child, the main characters, Pecola and Bride, both display elements and the fetishization of whiteness within the black community. Pecola and Bride’s propensity to embrace whiteness and mask their blackness speaks to the pervasive nature of white culture over that of others. The use of masks, disguises, and dreams of being more white to attain society’s view of what is beautiful is a major theme that two texts share and the primary characters strive to achieve, while one character questions the infatuation with whiteness and its pervasive dominance over all other cultures within the United States. The fetishization of whiteness by those in minority communities within the U.S. damages minority’s in many ways, from many sides, and has traditionally forced the black community into compliance with white standards at their own expense.

The topic of racism is one of the most important social issue of the past and present world. Racism will always be a subject matter in which people will be divided in separate corners of opinions. The subject of racism has become deeply rooted into society as an ideology that affects people on many levels, both externally and internally. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, she heavily emphasizes the damaging effect of internalized racism creatively within an infrastructure of an African American community. This essay aims to demonstrate the result of having racism become internalized, how it is implemented by the standard of beauty and it deconstructs African Americans by preventing them to develop a healthy self-identity.

Although Rosemary is viewed as white, she is still part of the working class. Yet Rosemary looks down on Claudia and Pecola because her father owns a store as well as a car. Although Rosemary is their next door neighbor, material ownership as well as white features sets her apart from them. Rosemary's superiority complex is fostered by a society which views ownership and race as symbols of success.

In a time where racial hierarchies were deemed as the standard of moral law, segregation, discrimination, and inequality was seen on every corner of industrial America. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison centers around the life of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl who lives in an abusive, broken home desperately yearning for blue eyes. Morrison’s novel is able to provide a clear depiction of how racial prejudice and idealized standards of white beauty contribute to the demoralization and subjugation of African American women in an era of deep racial divides. Characterized by allusion, symbolism, dialectical language, and a plethora of other literary devices, Morrison is able to display the unfortunate plague of self - hatred in the

There are many themes that seem to run throughout this story. Each theme and conflict seems to always involve the character of Pecola Breedlove. There is the theme of finding an identity. There is also the theme of Pecola as a victim. Of all the characters in the story we can definitely sympathize with Pecola because of the many harsh circumstances she has had to go through in her lifetime. Perhaps her rape was the most tragic and dramatic experience Pecola had experiences, but nonetheless she continued her life. She eliminates her sense of ugliness, which lingers in the beginning of the story, and when she sees that she has blue eyes now she changes her perspective on life. She believes that these eyes have been given

For decades there has been an ongoing discussion on society’s standards of beauty and what makes someone beautiful. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye she challenges white standards of beauty. Just like today, the society in Loraine, Ohio establishes a standard of beauty, and this beauty is defined as being as close to white as possible, having blonde hair, blue eyes, and a “Jack and Jill” family. Most of the characters in The Bluest Eye attempt to conform to society’s standards (complicating this idea) and believe if they can achieve at least one of the aspects of beauty their life will be better and they will be treated in higher regards. Through the female characters of Pecola, Claudia, Maureen, Geraldine, and Rosemary it is prevalent that there is a spectrum of beauty and the person who is closest to this standard, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, is considered pretty and is respected by society, while a person who is not close to this standard is considered ugly and is treated poorly by society. By ascribing to society’s expectations of beauty, Geraldine extends the role of white supremacy and undermines her own self-worth.

In modern society, women continue to be victimized by an illusory culture that offers the affectation of equality and hope but a reality of gender inequality. The little acts of chivalry conducted by men are just prolonged sugary illusions meant to hide the unpleasant truth of women and their strained relationship with the media 's’ perception of beauty. Many women who are subjected to society 's’ views of beauty often aim to convert to theses said beauty standards. This desire can, at many times, become unhealthy and lead to problems such as anorexia, bulimia, and self-hate. There is clearly a need for re-self-identification within the Black female community. With focus on self-hate one can see that this problem particularly becomes apparent in African American communities, author Toni Morrison in her novel The Bluest Eye not only highlights this self-hated within the Black community but also displays an urgent need for feminism within the black community, through her characterization of Pecola, and Claudia. One indication of Morrison’s intentions is her creation of Pecola as an African American female character who apparently think that she is worthless, as she does not fit society 's strict beauty standards of being white and or fair skinned. Secondly, Morrison portrays the narrator Claudia as a strong African-American female with an aversion to the beauty myths of her society. However, Morrison exposes Claudia fighting feelings of anger and self-hate towards not only