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The Bluest Eye Research Paper

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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 …show more content…

This goes back to the idea of how Shirley Temple and other idolized characters within television, like the mulatto girl from Imitation of life, are pretty whereas black is ugly. Bishop uses to this to justify Morrison’s view that this vigorous power that white beauty has is, “the most destructive idea in the history of human thought” (252). The word “destructive” is used to illustrate the strenuous effects that this small idea can have on such a tremendously huge population of black girls, this is what they are exposed to and this is what they learn to hate from. It is a very strong statement that does have a large amount of sensible truth to it and is proven with the struggles that Pecola goes through, not only is she a girl that is called ugly but she is called that because the color of her …show more content…

A major aspect of this novel surrounds the idea the black skin and brown eyes are what makes one ugly. Around this time period there were initiatives, where many people had the perception that blonde hair and blue eyes is what makes a perfect picture. Morrison wrote, “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (46). Something as small as the color of her eyes is what controlled her whole life and allowed her to feel as if she wasn’t enough. It is scary to see how society’s dominance can take a toll on someone, if everyone around them is saying one thing they will eventually listen to it. It is important to consider that the quote said “she herself would be different” instead of saying that she would be beautiful. She continuously believes that blue eyes will make her beautiful and worthy but no one knows if that genuinely would resolve how people see her, because ultimately they seem to just dislike her

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There are many things that may affect us physically, emotionally and mentally. In the book the Bluest eye by Toni Morrison, Society 's perception of beauty affects the emotional and mentally aspect of a person . In the book the Bluest Eye beauty affects all aspects of the characters in the the book that love is undeserved for those who are seen as “ugly” or are called “ugly. It has been evident all throughout the book that beauty has affected Pecola ,Pauline and Cholly and society has rejected them and has despised them they see themselves as “Ugly”.

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Likewise, Morrison also uses symbolism for the duration of the novel to establish how people can judge a person based on their economic standing. For instance, symbolism is represented through the blue eyes that is repeatedly mentioned in the novel. The blue eyes represent the idealistic white middle class life that Pecola dreams of having since white people commonly have blue eyes. The reader can infer this suggestion because whenever Pecola is experiencing bad things she wishes to have blue eyes. Morrison writes, "If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different and Mrs. Breedlove too…Each night, without fail, she prayed for the blue eyes…

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The first piece in my portfolio is a piece of Pecola with blue eyes. One of the overarching ideas presented throughout The Bluest Eye is that white features, specifically blue eyes, is the epitome of physical beauty. Throughout the book, there is vivid visual imagery of blue eyes such as those of “lovely Mary Jane” (Morrison 50). The use of the word lovely further correlates her physical appearance and blue eyes with beauty. This causes Pecola to crave blue eyes so desperately that “every night, without fail, she prayed” in order to gain what she and everyone else unanimously view as beauty (46).

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These oppressions persist today and so do their effects on black families and even more in young black people. Because Morrison makes the issue not only beauty but also our perception of ugli-ness in general, the problem of the “ugly little girl asking for beauty” is a cultural problem. Every time a young person looks in the mirror and sees that they are not as beautiful as a movie star or not as as beautiful as the television, magazine, and billboard ads tells them they should be, they feel the fear of rejection and abandonment, and through this novel, readers have experienced the emotional pain of that which destroyed Pecola. “Suffering with Pecola, knowing that pain con-sciously, feeling it, acknowledging it openly and directly, most of

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Many of the black characters, including Pecola, Cholly, and Pauline believe that they are indeed “ugly” and “dirty” because it’s what society has wanted people to think since the beginning of time. This idea that they are worth nothing and that there is no beauty or cleanliness in them has become embedded in their memories considering it is all they’ve ever known while growing up. Pecola and her family “did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly” (38). While some of the black characters in The Bluest Eye are very much confident in themselves, there are characters like the Breedloves, who have succumbed to society’s opinion and have started to believe that they are the equivalent of dirtiness.

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In The Bluest Eye By: Toni Morrison, beauty standards ruined the lives of black girls and women and created a negative impact on Pecola and the other characters throughout the book. The Great Migration from the south included more than 6 million African Americans moving from the South to the cities of the North from 1916 to 1970. “The migration process is likely to have varied markedly by both race and sex. (Katherine J. Curtis White et al.. “Race, Gender, and Marriage: Destination Selection During the Great Migration”.

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Through the protagonist Pecola, readers can see how society and media plays a heavily influenced role on females from a very young age and plays a part in the construction of their identity based on their appearance. Morrison’s writings are truly an exemplary display of the difficulties involved in obtaining a positive social identity as

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Pecola and her mother, Pauline, see themselves as ugly because they hold themselves to beauty standards in which light-skinned people are the ideal. Pecola and her mother have a brutal home life due to the drunken violence of Cholly Breedlove, and the constant pressure of beauty standards only adds to their misfortune. Morrison explains this pressure by asserting that “[i]t was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they

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“‘You are ugly people’” (39). One of the first things that catches the eyes of Morrison’s readers in The Bluest Eye is the classism between her pages. Morrison digs deep within her character’s lives and sets up character flaws that will eventually fall victim to classism. Toni Morrison sets up strong foundations of classism in her book, The Bluest Eye, that shares a harsh truth between the children, adults, and ideas and concepts of beauty. To start off her book, Morrison intrigues her readers within the first page by showing tensions between the MacTeer girls and their neighbor Rosemary.

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It is the mother’s vulnerability to the racial standards of beauty that is transmitted to the daughter and ultimately leads to her victimization. In fact, the reason of Pauline’s vulnerability to the racially prejudiced notions of beauty lies in her relationship with her own mother. The relationship between Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, and her mother, Pauline Breedlove, is ironically characterized by lack of love, and emotional attachment, indifference, frustration and cruelty. Set in a small town in Ohio, during the Depression, The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, who, victimized by the racist society, yearns for blue eyes, which, she believes, will make her worthy of love, happiness and acceptance in the

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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.

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Destructive Nature of Racialised Beauty Toni Morrison published her first book, The Bluest Eye, in 1970. In this novel, Toni Morrison shows how societies racist and false beliefs on beauty can be seriously destructive if believed and taken to heart. Toni Morrison displays the destructive nature of racialised beauty through the character in the novel named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola lacks self esteem and believes that she is the blackest and ugliest girl, and she believes that white is the only beautiful race.

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1172 Words | 5 Pages

Morrison explains that the master narrative is whatever ideological script is being imposed by the people in authority on everyone else. And in the novel it is evident how Pecola is not the only one who has internalized her ugliness; for instance, we are told that the group of boys who circled and hurled insults at her do so because of “their contempt for their own blackness” and an “exquisitely learned self-hatred”. Moreover, they were ironically bullying her for something they themselves should fully empathize with; something she “had no control [over]: the color of her skin” (63). Even within the black community Pecola finds no solace or support. They all hold whiteness to be the default beauty standard.

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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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1) Society has change the way Pecola perceives herself and she has the idea in her mind that her life would be less miserable if she has blue eyes. She is always thinking that “if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Pecola has gotten the impression of her life being complete if only she has blue eyes. She would see the eyes of others and become envious of their blue eyes. The boys at school would always pick on her and call her an ugly black girl.

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