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Morrison And Lamar: A Literary Analysis

928 Words4 Pages

In The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, a girl named Pecola Breedlove faces adversity and misfortune throughout the book. This book ties back to modern day things in society. For example, To Pimp a Butterfly, by Kendrick Lamar, signifies white people being faulty in restraining “colored people” from meeting their full potential. Both Morrison and Lamar commented on how oppression manifests itself as internalized racism several themes such as: Beauty, Society and Class, and Women and Femininity. In The Bluest Eye and the song Complexion (A Zulu Love), both Morrison and Lamar presented Beauty as one of their major themes. In the book The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl, prays every day for beauty. Breedlove is taunted by many people due …show more content…

Breedlove also vigorously desires to have blonde hair and blue eyes and believes that having these qualities would allow her to fit in. More or less, Lamar’s song, Complexion (A Zulu Love), highlighted the details of self-love and self-confidence. Kendrick goes on to tell the story as a cotton-picking slave, who is forced to submit to his master. He again proceeds to point out how he’s pro ending the cycle of history to improve America’s future. When we hear the word beauty most people think of qualities that most white people possess. The literal meaning behind Beauty is “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.” Most people view the features that white people obtain as the general thing you need to be beautiful. Morrison and Lamar emphasize how African American view themselves when it comes to beauty. However, Lamar hails African American to see the beauty they’ve they been blinded to see “Beauty is what you make it, I used to be so mistaken / By different shades of faces” (Complexion (A Zulu Love)) Lamar conveys unity within all races rather than branching into their own

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