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The Bluest Eye Conformity Essay

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John F. Kennedy preaches that “conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Conformity and fitting society’s so-called “correct” mold does exactly that. It limits individuality, and in the case that someone is unable to fit such a narrow mold, causes agony and self-loathing, It’s easy to believe in the ideal of individuality, but the truth of the matter lies in the fact that knowing is not the same as truly carrying out the ideal. Being rejected due to appearance can often cause agony, especially in a school setting. But, in a society where beauty is restricted to fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes and anyone else is subjected to the harassment of society, the effects can be tremendously even more detrimental. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the standards of …show more content…

After years and years of isolation at school and racial contempt, Pecola “pray[s] for blue eyes” each night for a year, without fail (61). For Pecola to be driven to such extreme measures and to the point where she is praying to look different, shows how far her self-hatred has gone and how detrimental the effects of conformity are. Not only that, but when her wish is not granted, she goes to a miracle worker for help, who responds with “a surge of love and understanding” because “an ugly little girl was asking for beauty” (189). Rather than preaching to the child that beauty is more than white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, Church feels sympathy and agrees with her, demonstrating how devoured that society has become by society’s notion of beauty. That devoured society has misbegotten and impressed upon Pecola the idea that beauty is restricted to white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, all of which Pecola does not have. Combined with her isolation and experiences of discrimination, Pecola concludes that she herself was ugly, and because of that, hates

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Pecola is now seen searching the garbage and walking up and down, up and down her head jerking to the beat of a drum so distant that she could only hear (Morrison 204). Her baby came too soon and died and now Pecola had grown to convince herself that she had blue eyes and that is the reason no one talks to her, because they are jealous of her blue eyes. Even then after she convinces herself that she has blue eyes, she is heartbroken to even think that someone out there has bluer eyes than she

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11.) Pecola 's life issue is she has an inferiority complex, which causes the majority of the conflict in the book. "It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different." Pecola starts to think she is ugly because her neighbors are tell her that they think she is ugly, the way her own family treats her, and her friends. Pecola 's mother even says in the book that she thinks Pecola is ugly, "Eyes all soft and wet.

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Lord she was ugly” (Morrison 124). Her first baby has no effect on her self-loathing, but Pecola starts her long hard trail of hatred. Pecola first makes her ugly and this causes Mrs. Breedlove’s self loathing to rise. When she is born Mrs. Breedlove automatically believes that her baby is pure ugly. This sets the tone for Pecola’s life of self-loathing.

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The shame wells up again.” (38) Pecola interprets poor treatment and abuse as her own fault. She believes that the way people observe her is more reliable

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In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the way Pecola values herself directly correlates with what white society considered beautiful at the time. The impact white society has on the self-assurance of minorities, especially minority women, is not only evident in Morrison’s novel, but also the way it continues to affect women of color today. The Bluest Eye effectively criticizes the way white society pressures and molds the personalities and self-value of African-American women directly and through the use of American pop culture and media. In the foreword to The Bluest Eye, Morrison speaks about why she began writing the novel, the root of prejudice, and how to understand and combat the self-loathing effects it has on minority female youth.

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An insight to the beauty standards of Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye” “The Bluest Eye” is a story, written as a Bildungsroman, set in Ohio. It is a novel about growing up as a black female in America during the years following the great depression. In the text “Out of Sight: Toni Morrison’s Revision of Beauty”, Malin LaVon Walther mentions that Morrison in “The Bluest Eye” (1970) presents a black community that has taken the white criteria and ideals for their own. This is an accurate statement since there are many fragments in the book where Toni Morrison shows how the standards of white beauty have taken the colored women’s attention. These particular beauty ideals have imprinted to the colored girls in their early days, and follow them through life.

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To continue the bullying in Pecola’s life, at a point in the story, she saw Claudia’s baby doll which was a replica of glamorous Marilyn Monroe, a superstar at the time that was identified as beautiful and someone most kids wanted to imitate.. Most kids including Pecola studied that piece of plastic. Little did she realize that this “superstar” was going to agonize her. After seeing Monroe’s fame and success, she thought that having blue eyes would make her beautiful and would magically change all the evil in her life to good. For “it had occurred to Pecola some time ago that is her eyes...were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different”, the colors of her eye were thought to “change” her (Morrison 46).

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Pecola the protagonist of the novel longs for the bluest eyes ultimately ends up her life with mental issues. Born as a black girl she admires white beauty and blue eyes which is rejected plainly for the blacks. It is very hard for the blacks to lead their life as a children as well as an adult. As a child blacks face many humiliations and hatred. It is even difficult and different in the case of black girls where the girls are raped and treated very badly.

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1.1. Introduction Toni Morrison wrote the Bluest Eye. Some of the parts also coexist with her own childhood. She grew up in Lorain, Ohio in 1931 and the narrator is a nine-year-old girl, the age of Morrison similar to the year the book takes place (1941).

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(48) Pecola comes to Mr. Yacobrowski’s Fresh Veggie Meat and Sundries store and he does not even bother to gaze directly at her. “The total absence of human recognition-the glazed separateness.” (49) Pecola does not understand what is causing the store owner to treat her this way. She believes the reason may be because he is a grown man and she is a little girl. Pecola soon discovers that it is on account of her blackness in the view of his white eyes.

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Although, some of the particular issues in the story may not occur in normal everyday life, conflicts exist at any time frame and in everyone’s life. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses characters such as Claudia, Cholly, and Soaphead to claim that individuals sometimes blame others as a coping mechanism when they are unhappy with themselves or their lives. Upon the start of The Bluest Eye, Morrison introduces readers to Claudia and her major character conflict, her distain towards society’s idea of beauty. Society and media in the 1940’s presented the idea of beauty as a white, blue eyed child. Claudia looks at a cup with Shirley Temples face on it, her reaction can be immediately known; “I hated Shirley.

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