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The Bluest Eye Analysis

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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes place in Ohio in the 1940s. The novel is written from the perspective of African Americans and how they view themselves . Focusing on identity, Morrison uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, dictation, and symbolism to help stress her point of view on identity. In the novel Morrison argues that society influences an individual 's perceptions on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove. Furthermore, Morrison illustrates how society shapes an individual 's character by instilling beauty expectations. Morrison is effective in relaying her message about the various impacts that society has on an individual 's identity through imagery, diction, and symbolism by showing …show more content…

Similarly, the author also uses the rhetorical device diction to establish the concept that people can judge a person by how they sound. For example, on page 39 Morrison writes "Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question." In this line Morrison uses the phrase "their conviction" to help establish her point that beauty standards created by society were in favor of whites instead of blacks. Furthermore, Morrison uses the word conviction to show that even though African Americans were freed, they weren 't really free because they were still being oppressed by the rest of society. The author also uses the word "conviction" to imply that they are sentenced to be ugly; consequently, she is implying that until African Americans stand up for themselves and question things they aren 't free. Later in the novel Morrison uses the phrase "I reckon" on page 137, which is a representation of diction since "I reckon" is a common phrase that you hear in the south. Thus, by using the phrase Morrison is showing the southern ethnicity of the characters and is also establishing a southern identity for the characters as well. As a result, Morrison is illustrating that southern accents and being black makes life harder for them considering the fact that civilizations judge a person by their

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Furthermore, the novel explains how society shapes an individual 's character by instilling beauty expectations. Morrison is effective in relaying her message about the various impacts that society has on an individual 's character through imagery, diction,

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Morrison 's first novel, The Bluest Eye, examines the tragic effects of imposing white, middle-class American ideals of beauty on the developing female identity of a young African American girl during the early 1940s. Inspired by a conversation Morrison once had with an elementary school classmate who wished for blue eyes, the novel poignantly shows the psychological devastation of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who searches for love and acceptance in a world that denies and devalues people of her own race. As her mental state slowly unravels, Pecola hopelessly longs to possess the conventional American standards of feminine beauty—namely, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes—as presented to her by the popular icons and traditions of white culture. Written as a fragmented narrative from multiple perspectives and with significant typographical deviations, The Bluest Eye juxtaposes passages from the Dick-and-Jane grammar school primer with memories and stories of Pecola 's life alternately told in retrospect by one of Pecola 's now-grown childhood friends and by an omniscient narrator. Published in the midst of the Black Arts movement that flourished during the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Bluest Eye has attracted

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Morrison exposes society’s standards by exploiting how white viewpoints of beauty and race affect girlhood. The Bluest Eye is the epitome of how societal mores can affect the way someone views the world or themselves. The novel set in the period of the 1940s and too no surprise these idealized visuals of beauty were very narrow minded, Morrison wrote “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs-all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pale skinned was what every girl child treasured” (20). It is interesting that she disconnected “older girls” from “adults” because those terms were used to help illustrate a gap in how different ages viewed an issue in addition to their gender. Not only do the adults not realize

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