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Blue Eye In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

685 Words3 Pages

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, tells a story of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who desires blue eyes because she is deemed ugly by all of her peers. All of her life, Pecola is mocked for the way she looks and presents herself. She dreams of having blue eyes because she thinks that if she did have them, she would be beautiful and she would be loved. Pecola Breedlove, a character in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, desires to have blue eyes because she is not happy with her appearance, her difficult life at home, and the affects society has on her. Since Pecola Breedlove is has been taught all her life that she is ugly, she thinks that she can only achieve true beauty by having blue eyes. The narrator says, “Only a miracle could relieve …show more content…

Pecola is bullied because she is dark skinned, which makes her ugly. The narrator describes what Pecola does when she gets bullied: “Pecola edged around the circle crying. She had dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands” while Maureen Paul screamed, “I am cute! And you ugly black e mos” (66,73). Pecola is constantly bullied at school because she is ugly. Children are not the only people in the community that bullies Pecola, adults talk about her and call her names. A mixed woman once said to Pecola, “You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (92). This woman judged Pecola based on the way she looked- black and poor. As well as being bullied, Pecola is sometimes ignored. The grocery man refused to look at Pecola, “He does not see her, because for him, there is nothing to see” (48). The constant bullying and loneliness affects Pecola in a negative way, “Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes”, hoping that she will be accepted and loved by her community (46). The way Pecola’s community treats and views Pecola, makes Pecola realize that the only way she will be accepted will be if she has blue eyes because with blue eyes, she will be

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Connie from “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates represents a situation opposite of that which Pecola is subject to. Connie “knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Seagull Reader 337). She had “long dark blonde hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” (337). She lived with her parents and sister in a comfortable home.

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Believing blue eyes could save her from her world of ugliness and tragedy, Pecola wished for them for so long. She thought that if she had something that was considered beautiful, people would stop treating her poorly. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights---if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Through this book Morrison wanted to show that anyone could be beautiful, because beauty is something that goes beyond one’s appearance. “Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do” (Morrison

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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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In The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison is about a young African American girl named Pecola, and a time were many people grew up with racism and many difficulties during the 1940’s because they were African American. Throughout the novel, it demonstrates that white societies have a better living, and higher beauty standard in which the media illustrates through television and books. This causes many conflicts towards African Americans because they are unable to find the true meaning of beauty. The author Toni Morrison, stresses plot, setting, characterization, or theme when writing a work of fiction like The Bluest Eye.

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1) Society has change the way Pecola perceives herself and she has the idea in her mind that her life would be less miserable if she has blue eyes. She is always thinking that “if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Pecola has gotten the impression of her life being complete if only she has blue eyes. She would see the eyes of others and become envious of their blue eyes. The boys at school would always pick on her and call her an ugly black girl.

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