Love And Hate In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

Love is something that many people desire. In “The Bluest Eye,” Toni Morrison describes Love and Hate, referring to the people in the early 1941. This novel through flashbacks describes Love and Hate and its consequences on self-esteem. There are different ways Morrison describes Love and Hate in the novel: First, love for white features. Second, hatred for black features. Third, self-hate. First, love for white features. Society’s standard of beauty is based on white features, blue eyes, synthetic yellow bangs, pinched nose and bowline mouth. There are a lot of black people who desired the white features, one of them is Pecola. Pecola, from the beginning is an object of pity her desire for blue eyes and lighter skin overshadows

According to Steele, Black folks are “the most despised race in the human community of races” (White 1991). In the early 1940 when racism was still very much alive and colored people, were being limited to do certain things. Black characters in the novel have grown up in a society that does not find them pretty enough or even worthy to be looked at. Pecola and her entire family the Breedloves. Mrs. Breedlove also known as Polly during her younger years saw herself as ugly, her belief made her feel lonely and cold. She has a bad foot and doesn 't see herself getting married. When she got married to Cholly and moved she felt uncomfortable with the other black women she met because of her hair. “They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair” (Pg. 118). Another character who was despised for her black features was Pecola. When she was born her mother Pauline Breedlove describes her as smart and ugly: “But Pecola look like she knowed right off what to do. A right smart baby she was. I used to like to watch her. You know they make them greedy sounds. Eyes all soft and wet. A cross between a puppy and a dying man. But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair but Lord she was ugly.” Even in her mother’s eyes Pecola is still ugly, the love a Mother has for her child could not overshadow ugliness in Pauline’s eyes. “They were disgusted, amused, shocked, outraged, or even excited by the story. But we listened for the

.” “Black Americans remain the most despised among the community of human races, reinforced via media images. In response is Black self-hate acted out by the political conservatism of Black American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as icon. Black Conservatives insist that Blacks who fail, if they want, can succeed much as any other. Conversely, research substantiates that the self-hate pathology Black Americans who fail suffer precipitates a decrease in leukocyte telomere length (LTL). A decrease in LTL is a reduction in life span longevity. Black self-hate then presumes a life-threatening pathology among Black Americans so afflicted. In the aftermath, as the most despised among human races coupled with the internalization of self-hate, is a joint process which accelerates biological aging. The antidote may require Black pride as alternative to the premature LTL aging of Black people in America. “According to Morrison: “So it was. A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfilment.”(Pg.204) The desire for blue eyes destroyed Pecola, she went from being an object of pity, to an object of mockery. “We saw her sometimes, Frieda and I-after the baby came too soon and died. After the gossip and the slow waging of heads. She was so sad to see. Grown people looked away; children those who were not frightened by her,