How Does Morrison Address Racism And Self-Image In 1940s?

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses character development to address racism and self-image in 1940s. Throughout the novel, Morrison shows how the characters react to the society and how the society treats them. The characters, such as, Pecola Breedlove, want to have the ideal beauty and to be treated differently. She thinks if she has blue eyes she will be treated better and be like everyone else. Since the novel takes place during the Civil Rights Movement, racism and other discrimination determine characters’ self-worth. While the characters go through conflicts because of how they look, they also begin to find themselves and develop in the novel.

In The Bluest Eye, the theme of racism plays a big role in the novel. It allows the characters

Pecola wants to have blue eyes because she wants to be accepted in her community. She wants to stop being an outcast and be treated like everybody else. Pecola wants to hide her ugliness because she is ashamed and embarrassed. For example, The Breedloves are an ugly black family. Mrs. Breedlove tries to act like it doesn’t bother her and imagined she was pretty, while Pecola hides and tries to conceal her ugliness (Morrison 39). In the novel, Morrison explains how Pecola thinks if she has blue eyes everything would be better and happier. Pecola thinks that Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove would be different. During the novel, Pecola continuously prays to God to achieve blue eyes (Morrison 46). She shares that she wants her eyes to disappear. She asks God to make her disappear and closes her eyes and watch her body disappears but only her eyes were left (Morrison 45). Pecola realizes she would do anything to be like everyone else and have blue eyes. She makes a new world with an imaginary friend that tells her that she has the prettiest blue eyes. Pecola goes through many obstacles that makes her realize she looks beautiful. Pecola realizes her ugliness of her body is dissolved when her new ‘friend’ can see her blue eyes when Pecola has her breakdown at the end of the book it shows the boundaries between inside and outside, self and other, sense and nonsense are broken in their tasks

For example, the novel took place during the pre-civil rights legislation in the South and because of that the African Americans were treated terrible in the white community (Ledbetter). During the time the book was written when many racism events were happening. For example, in the novel, it shows the tension of the blacks who moved in Lorain, Ohio in the beginning of 1900s because the migration was during World War I and the immigration led to labor and work shortage. Many people suffered especially the blacks because they lost their jobs to whites and were excluded (Moss, Joyce, and George Wilson 50). Also, “when Morrison published The Bluest Eye in 1970, the Civil Rights Movement was far from over, however; following its peak in 1963, white backlash increased” (Ledbetter). During this time the society had many stereotypes. Cormier-Hamilton and Patrice explain a study on stereotypes of children saying “the preference among black children for white, blonde, blue-eyed dolls is still all too prevalent; according to a study conducted by Hopson of black preschoolers, 76 percent of the children selected a black doll as “bad: and 60 to 78 percent still chose a white doll over a black one.” Morrison knew when she was writing this novel that the characters would have a hard time achieving the stereotypes and dealing with self- image in this time era, and she also shows how the characters