ipl-logo

The Bluest Eye Analysis

1655 Words7 Pages

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

Show More
Related

Twyla And Roberta In Recitatif By Toni Morrison

1291 Words | 6 Pages

Prejudice is a predominant theme in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”. A short story that follows the lives of Twyla and Roberta, two girls of different races who met in a state home. This piece has been the subject of much discussion, particularly about race, but also about class and disability. Prejudice has deeply impacted and shaped the main characters’ lives. “Recitatif” addresses the characters’ prejudice in a variety of ways, but also forces the audience to consider their own prejudice through Morrison’s use of stereotypical descriptions.

Read More

Through A Lens Darkly Analysis

673 Words | 3 Pages

It is hard to define identity in the sense of human characteristics and qualities of one’s self or even a group of people. However, every day people manage to define their identity through various outlets of life. In the documentary, Through a Lens Darkly, the director, Thomas Allen Harris, asks artists who are African Americans to define themselves and their culture through photography. He uses his own identity in demonstrating the effect of photography on his own life as an African American. Through the rest of the documentary, Harris explores the identities of African Americans through photography publicly and privately in past and present.

Read More

Toni Morrison Recitatif Sparknotes

806 Words | 4 Pages

Roberta’s race, and the subjective nature of memory, more specifically involving Maggie, to emphasize race as a “social construct”. The first way Morrison shows race as a “social construct” is by having the beginning of “Recitatif” told when Twyla

Read More

The American Criminal Justice System In A Lesson Before Dying

1449 Words | 6 Pages

This quotation shows how African Americans had no say in what happened in the American criminal justice system and were treated unethically. When the quotation mentions “Twelve white men” it is referring to the jury. The fact that the jury is all white for the conviction of a black man reveals the discrimination in the American criminal justice system at this time in history. Another idea that is touched on in this novel is, “How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?”

Read More

Analysis Of Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

1800 Words | 8 Pages

By employing rhetorical devices, Morrison demonstrates man’s desire to leave behind responsibility

Read More

Identity In Toni Morrison's Sula

1416 Words | 6 Pages

It is often impossible to truly understand the extent of a person’s character. Consequently, the generalizations that other people make, abstract a person’s identity. These issues and many more are discussed in Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, which follows the lives of two best friends and how their actions ultimately lead to the demise of their friendship. In between this plot, the characters find themselves and their actions misconstrued to what their community wants to believe, bringing about Morrison’s overall message of her text. Through her novel, Morrison states that once a community has an idea of an individual, it can be difficult for them to believe something that contrasts their ideas.

Read More

Rhetorical Devices In The Bluest Eye

1648 Words | 7 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis Essay 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 the author argues that society influences an individual 's perception on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove.

Read More

Toni Morrison Research Paper

255 Words | 2 Pages

Toni Morrison's novels inspired many individuals, which resulted in her achievement of being the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. She was honored for her discussion on the issues of racism and class exploitation. A powerful message about America surrounds her excerpt from chapter two. Morrison's words most likely mean that to be considered part of America, an individual must be of white color. In turn, this makes it difficult for African Americans to assimilate into America's culture because that concept has been held in place for years.

Read More

Bluest Eye Thesis

159 Words | 1 Pages

Set in segregated America, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison covers topics that most people are not proud of. It takes the reader back to an era of filled with discrimination and hatred towards people of color, even within their own communities. Morrison chooses to have multiple narrators, which allows the reader to delve into what life is like for these characters. Through the different narrations, the reader is faced with difficult truths that people would rather not think about: during this time there is an immense amount of hatred for people of color, even within the community itself and it negatively affects both individuals and family units. As well as this

Read More

Race And Colorism In Toni Morrison's The Origins Of Others

857 Words | 4 Pages

What is the problem, from Morrison’s perspective (which is denoted my her use of the

Read More

Song Of Solomon And Beloved, By Toni Morrison

517 Words | 3 Pages

Conclusion To conclude, in her novel, Morrison sheds the light upon many directions connected to the various themes in the novel. When it comes to slavery, Morrison is able to clarify the way that the African American treated with. They suffer a lot against oppression and slavery. The society provides the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took place and also the novel shows the exact meaning for resistance to gain freedom and get rid of slavery. Morrison manifests the basics of racism in the origins of America, representing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing the relationship between men and women.

Read More

Social And Social Class In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

1356 Words | 6 Pages

In order to do so, I will use quotations extracted from Morrison´s work and other secondary resources, and I will focus on the main characters of the novel that stand as representations of their social dimension. Toni Morrison uses the personal lives of the

Read More

Theme Of Double Consciousness In The Bluest Eye

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.

Read More

Identity In The Bluest Eye

835 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

The Bluest Eye Research Paper

1188 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

More about The Bluest Eye Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document