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How Does Toni Morrison Present Racism In The Bluest Eye

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Toni Morrison uses character development to address racism and self-image during the 1940s in her novel The Bluest Eye. The characters in The Bluest Eye all went through a struggle living in a society where beauty and acceptance were viewed differently towards blacks. Out of all the characters, the Breedlove family experienced this struggle the most. The brokenness of their family had much to do with the society they lived in. Racism in the world during the time of the novel affected the characters’ emotional and physical views of themselves and their beauty. White pop icons such as; Mary Jane and Shirley Temple were used as figures that characters wished to look like, and the famous Dick and Jane story was used as well to show a typical white …show more content…

She listened to society because that was the only type of authority she had to listen to, and sadly it was telling her she was useless. Pecola was destroyed because of her family’s unsupportive life-style due to the fact they could not deal with the standards of beauty white Americans believed in. (Dougherty 442). Her most valuable possession, passed down by her mother, was the desire to be white. (Kulkarni). She idolized those that were not only white, but those who had blue eyes. She felt that if she received blue eyes her parents would have thought she was beautiful and payed attention to her. (Morrison 46). Pecola just wanted to be accepted, not only by society, but by her family. She felt like the only way to do that was to be exactly what society told her to be. Having that thought on her mind daily made her feel completely worthless. Her own father raping her, and getting her pregnant made her go to a place where she did not even recognize herself. She tried to believe that she had the bluest eyes, just like she wanted all along. In reality, the society she lived in got the best of her and her family, and they did not know how to get out of what they had depicted their whole life

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1483 Words | 6 Pages

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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Pecola wanted to have blue eyes because things may have been easy for her and her life may be better. Pauline messed up foot and fallen teeth made her feel so ugly and she did not wanted to fit in with society was of beauty she didn’t love herself. Cholly had always been neglected by her parents society and he had never learned how to love it affected him in the long run and a traumatic event in his life had scared him as a result. It is why beauty is undeserved for those who are called ugly according to

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Likewise, Morrison also uses symbolism for the duration of the novel to establish how people can judge a person based on their economic standing. For instance, symbolism is represented through the blue eyes that is repeatedly mentioned in the novel. The blue eyes represent the idealistic white middle class life that Pecola dreams of having since white people commonly have blue eyes. The reader can infer this suggestion because whenever Pecola is experiencing bad things she wishes to have blue eyes. Morrison writes, "If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different and Mrs. Breedlove too…Each night, without fail, she prayed for the blue eyes…

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290 Words | 2 Pages

A three-hundred-year history of slavery in America led to a psychological oppression of black people in America, which still exists today. Toni Morrison decides not to delineate how white dominance has affected African-Americans culturally yet she challenges American standards of white beauty and how that beauty is socially constructed within our culture. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison uses society’s image of beauty to demonstrate how the value of black beauty is diminished by racial prejudices and dilemmas through the lives of Pecola Breedlove, Claudia and Frieda MacTeer, whose young minds were affected by this internalized idea that the color of your skin determined how perfect or worthy you were seen, not to yourself and on the inside, but

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1902 Words | 8 Pages

Through the protagonist Pecola, readers can see how society and media plays a heavily influenced role on females from a very young age and plays a part in the construction of their identity based on their appearance. Morrison’s writings are truly an exemplary display of the difficulties involved in obtaining a positive social identity as

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Pecola and her mother, Pauline, see themselves as ugly because they hold themselves to beauty standards in which light-skinned people are the ideal. Pecola and her mother have a brutal home life due to the drunken violence of Cholly Breedlove, and the constant pressure of beauty standards only adds to their misfortune. Morrison explains this pressure by asserting that “[i]t was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they

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538 Words | 3 Pages

Singular as Pecola's life was, I believed some aspects of her woundability were lodged in all young

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

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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Niloofar Sedigh Sarvestani Dr. McAdams HON 171 November 30, 2015 Claudius, The Machiavellian Prince November 30, 2015 Thesis Machiavelli argues that a true leader - The prince - must be both the lion and the fox; Claudius is cunning like the fox and feared by the people. Claudius possesses many qualities of a Machiavellian prince, such as killing King Hamlet and taking the kingdom as his own, but makes the fault of not getting rid of Hamlet. Instead Claudius insists that Hamlet stay with him and his mother as well which ultimately results in his downfall. Claudius didn't kill all those who were entitled to the throne; instead he let the queen and her son, Hamlet live.

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But it is not only the race and the colour of their skin what makes them unable to change their situation, but also poverty. Race and wealth are intertwined, and Pecola is the fundamental victim of this relationship, for she is a young black girl suffering from this ideology that determines her life. The dominant class imposes its values upon the other, for they think they are the best ones, reducing thus the personality of the people belonging to other classes, and at the same time, making them unable to change their oppressed situation, for they do not have the chance. They just accept their current position, and thus they will always be

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3280 Words | 14 Pages

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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1542 Words | 7 Pages

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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800 Words | 4 Pages

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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1172 Words | 5 Pages

Toni Morrison, in numerous interviews, has said that her reason for writing The Bluest Eye was that she realized there was a book she wanted very much to read that had not been written yet. She set out to construct that book – one that she says was about her, or somebody like her. For until then, nobody had taken a little black girl—the most vulnerable kind of person in the world—seriously in literature; black female children have never held centre stage in anything. Thus with the arrival of the character Pecola Breedlove, a little hurt black girl is put to the centre of the story. Pecola’s quest is to acquire “Shirley Temple beauty” and blue eyes – ideals of beauty sponsored by the white world.

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1260 Words | 6 Pages

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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