The Bluest Eye Research Paper

Therefore, the self-loathing produced by beauty standards and colorism portrayed in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye highlight the impact racism has on the African American community. To begin with, the social conflict of colorism within the Black community emphasizes the presence racial ideology has on African Americans. The definition of colorism is explained by feminist author Alice Walker as a “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color”. With this in mind, Morrison incorporates the concept of colorism through the characters of Maureen Peal and Geraldine. Morrison’s readers are first introduced to the character of Maureen Peal, a light-skinned Black girl who is the favorite of the school by both

The role Geraldine plays in The Bluest Eye is that of a middle-class ‘thin brown girl’ who lives under the norms of colorism. Geraldine represents the image of the light-skinned blacks or “colored people” who are accepted by the white societal standards. She describes her ‘people’ as “neat and quiet”, whereas the dark-skinned blacks or “niggers” are considered to be “dirty and loud”. Due to this classification, Geraldine avoids contact with the “niggers” and prohibits her son to play with them as she considers it as a threat to their “colored status”. The uneasiness Geraldine feels is marked by the fear of gaining back her blackness, “They hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free; when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair” (Morrison, 83). This statement indicates that being of a mixed race is not enough to be accepted into the white-dominated society, but also one has to behave like one. Geraldine doesn’t want to fall into her blackness as she thinks of it as not ‘beautiful’. Furthermore, Christopher Douglas, an American Literature professor, classifies Geraldine’s assimilation of white society as Morrison’s way of describing a “typology of cultural loss” (144). This is a clear inference colored people losing themselves as a result of

When she is gifted “The big, the special, the loving…big, blue-eyed Baby-Doll” (Morrison, 20), Claudia feels nothing more than despise for it as she doesn’t understand why the “world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (Morrison, 20). Claudia fully understands the message white Hollywood sends to its audience. Unlike her sister and Pecola, Claudia is not oblivious to the white ideal image of Shirley Temple. According to Jerome Bump, an English professor in the University of Texas, “If the ultimate ‘Enemy’ that shames and traumatizes African Americans is the racist white society, there are also more immediate and intimate enemies within the African American community and family” (158). This is a direct statement at the fact that it is not just white individuals who discriminate the black community, but also the black community itself is affected by the racial oppression that causes them to discriminate within themselves. An example in particular would be when Claudia and Frieda wonder what is the Thing that made Maureen beautiful and not them. Bump states that the Thing the two sisters wonder about is the judgement of appearance that bring forth the emotions of shame and anger as a consequence of being compared to an “ideal, making them seem less than, inferior, a mistake” (153). This is supported by the fact Morrison