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The Bluest Eye Research Paper

488 Words2 Pages

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, this novel took place in 1940 in Lorain, Ohio. Beauty is shown numerous ways throughout this book but discrimination was very much a problem due to the standard “white girl beauty”. The characters aren’t comfortable with themselves because of the standard society has set up. Beauty is defined as being very attractive in a physical way: not having any bad qualities(Merriam- Dictionary). Beauty can mean different things to different people it’s kind of undefinable . There’s always a person that might not look their best but they’re beautiful in their own way no matter what others think. The reader’s are shown many examples of how being white is the standard of beauty, which makes blacks feel less of a person, when reading this novel it’s very clear that being another color other than black is superior. The theme of beauty is greater than just skin color. Beauty is told by many characters, mainly the three girls Claudia, Pecola and Frieda. Through the struggles those …show more content…

There were many different examples of beauty in this novel. Feelings can definitely get in the way of how beautiful a person sees themselves, even Caudia feels insecure to even speak upon a non-colored person. She says "Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley"(Morrison19). Claudia uses Shirley Temple to compare herself to Frieda and Pecola, and what she perceives as their internalized racism. Her hatred for Shirley Temple is the fact that Shirley Temple has an impact on what society sees as the "perfect girl". Since Claudia is perceived as ugly in the novel she feels self-hatred because she's doesn’t have that perfect image and can’t do anything about it. Society sets the standard for beauty up so high that people aren’t comfortable with themselves and want to be like somebody

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