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Racial Self-Loathing In The Bluest Eyes

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Recommended: Racism In American Literature

The intended audience in The Bluest Eyes by Tori Morrison was to anyone who can hear her characters’ voice; that, whereas they are fictional, they reflect the society Morrison lived in. The novel has made an impact on racial beauty and what females go through due to her effort to demonstrate the implications of racial self-loathing, and this thesis has essentially originated from her friend wanting blue eyes. Morrison repulsed at the thought, and thus the racial infused attitude for the next twenty years has conformed into this novel. From a broad sense, The Bluest Eyes certainly has numerous main ideas. However, if you take the time to be more keen and deceptive by inspecting it, you can see that the main ideas are limned by the structure of the novel. From the beginning, the story begins with Pecola Breedlove being called “ugly”; henceforth the sneers, the disgusted looks, the bullying, and her perception of “I must have blue eyes to be beautiful.” …show more content…

Yet, not many seemed to notice or be concern over Frieda. Morison gave the impression of noticing this withal, as expressed on “[such a] delicate and vulnerable a character… lead readers into the comfort of pitying [Pecola].” Just because one had more trauma over the other does mean to deviate your attention from the one in less angst over another; both should receive the attention needed to soothe and garner as much healing as they can for their mental and psychological minds. Morison tried to break down the narrative for readers to piece and make connections from there as a prevention to the situation. Conversely, it seems forlorn with “many readers remained touched but not

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She wrote that her inspiration for the story was a conversation she had had when she was little with another little black girl who had a fascination with blue eyes, much like her character Pecola Breedlove. Morrison is known for her stories that circle around how racism and misogyny affect black women. For The Bluest Eye, a little girl named Pecola Breedlove goes insane from the inhumane treatment she faces as an eleven-year-old african american girl in the Great Depression. There are many points in the book where she is dehumanized and treated less than dirt, even by her own parents. Her father in a bid to feel in control despite how much white men have controlled him, rapes his daughter and she becomes pregnant with his child.

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Segregation, separation and discrimination are three different words that share one definition. The documentary Brown eyes-Blue eyes allows its viewers to see segregation, separation and discrimination. Although many have seen segregation displayed in older people, the prominent fact was viewers see kids discriminating one another because he/she has blue eyes or brown eyes. Jane Elliot a third grade teacher created the blue eye brown eye experiment, in hope of creating a perspective for children to view people for what lies on the inside not the pigment of their skin. The experiment cultivated many children, as shown in the film the kids actually took something away from the experience.

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In The Bluest Eye, Morrison offers multiple perspectives to help explain the intensity of racism and what it means to be oppressed and degraded in society. Through the eyes of various characters, readers are taken on a journey during the 1940s to demonstrate how each black character copes with the unfair standards and beliefs that society has. While some of the characters internalize self-hatred and have the desire to be someone else, others do not wish to change themselves to fit into the societal standards. Throughout the novel, there are clear and distinct remarks that are made to help distinguish the difference between white characters and black characters which is quite crucial. Morrison uses dirt and cleanliness to symbolize how society

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Morrison says that she wrote The Bluest Eye, in part, because it was a book that she would have wanted to read but that did not exist in another form at the time she was writing. The book is an important

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What is the most pressing issue facing society today? In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison argues that it is beauty standards, even calling physical beauty “the most destructive idea[] in the history of human thought” (122). While this may seem outrageous in a world of terrorism, global warming, homelessness, and hunger, beauty standards and the feelings of inferiority that stem from them affect everybody. In severe cases, these feelings can even manifest themselves deeply inside of a person and lead to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, self-hatred, and even suicide. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the insecurities of the female characters to demonstrate that beauty standards are a danger to society, as they perpetuate racism and self-hatred.

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Throughout the Bluest Eyes, Toni Morrison emphasizes the idolization of Whiteness through cultural conceptions of beauty that significantly influences the characteristics and actions of Pecola and Pauline Breedlove, alluding to the detrimental effects that romanization of White features has on modern America. The main character of the Bluest Eyes is Pecola Breedlove, who is raised by her parents Cholly and Pauline Breedlove. Cholly and Pauline have an estranged marriage, where Cholly’s abusive alcoholism leads the the parents’ negligence to their family. Particularly for Pecola and Pauline, their fascination with White

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To conclude, Toni Morrison’s purpose in writing the Bluest Eye is to show the readers of how young black girls in a way have to fight against society as they go from girls to young women. I specifically used the chapter of autumn where we saw Pecola as a symbolization of fog - confused, lost. The author uses three literary terms to present this theme such as imagery, epiphany and colloquial

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The Bluest Eye was my effort to say something about that; to say something about why she had not, or possibly ever would have, the experience of what she possessed and also why she prayed for so radical an alteration. The reclamation of racial beauty in the sixties stirred these thoughts, made me think about the necessity for the claim. The assertion of racial beauty was not a reaction to the self-mocking, humorous critique of cultural/racial foibles common in all groups, but against the damaging internalization of assumptions of immutable inferiority originating in an outside gaze.

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Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother prefers her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the Shirley Temple doll with blue eyes. Morrison went into great detail when describing the elegance and beauty that was present in the Fisher home, to demonstrate that those who do not fit into the ideal American life often feel shame. The Breedlove family lived a very simple life, and in no way did they fit into what society believed to be correct. Mrs. Breedlove was the only member of the family that truly understood what the American Dream looked like. The work that she did for the Fishers lead her to envy the American Dream.

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It is the mother’s vulnerability to the racial standards of beauty that is transmitted to the daughter and ultimately leads to her victimization. In fact, the reason of Pauline’s vulnerability to the racially prejudiced notions of beauty lies in her relationship with her own mother. The relationship between Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, and her mother, Pauline Breedlove, is ironically characterized by lack of love, and emotional attachment, indifference, frustration and cruelty. Set in a small town in Ohio, during the Depression, The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, who, victimized by the racist society, yearns for blue eyes, which, she believes, will make her worthy of love, happiness and acceptance in the

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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, has no recourse except madness. This assignment focusses on double consciousness and its devastating effects on Pecola.

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Destructive Nature of Racialised Beauty Toni Morrison published her first book, The Bluest Eye, in 1970. In this novel, Toni Morrison shows how societies racist and false beliefs on beauty can be seriously destructive if believed and taken to heart. Toni Morrison displays the destructive nature of racialised beauty through the character in the novel named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola lacks self esteem and believes that she is the blackest and ugliest girl, and she believes that white is the only beautiful race.

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Morrison 's first novel, The Bluest Eye, examines the tragic effects of imposing white, middle-class American ideals of beauty on the developing female identity of a young African American girl during the early 1940s. Inspired by a conversation Morrison once had with an elementary school classmate who wished for blue eyes, the novel poignantly shows the psychological devastation of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who searches for love and acceptance in a world that denies and devalues people of her own race. As her mental state slowly unravels, Pecola hopelessly longs to possess the conventional American standards of feminine beauty—namely, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes—as presented to her by the popular icons and traditions of white culture. Written as a fragmented narrative from multiple perspectives and with significant typographical deviations, The Bluest Eye juxtaposes passages from the Dick-and-Jane grammar school primer with memories and stories of Pecola 's life alternately told in retrospect by one of Pecola 's now-grown childhood friends and by an omniscient narrator. Published in the midst of the Black Arts movement that flourished during the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Bluest Eye has attracted

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African- American writings have dealt with manifold themes throughout history. The American Civil War can be considered a break-through in the political as well as literary history. Many texts were born with subtle experiences of racist attitudes in America. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye can be pinned to the African- American writings after the American Civil War movement of the 1960’s, representing a “distinctively black literature” what Morrison calls “race-specific yet race-free prose”.

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In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she validates her theme of how society can corrupt people through the portrayal of a conflicted society of racism to show segregation between the white and nonwhite, symbolic blue eyes to portray what the characters desperately desire in order to have a better life, and an abused

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