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The Bluest Eye Title Analysis

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Tyler Johnston Mrs.Norment Senior English October 26th, 2015 In the novel, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, the significance of the book’s title is based off Pecola’s desire for blue eyes, and acts as a metaphor for society’s standards on beauty and on the impact it made on her, as well as acting as a symbol for false hopes and the struggles of accepting and being happy with your self-identity. To begin, Pecola throughout the book has desired for something that will help alleviate all the pain in her life, and the thing she chose to hope for was to see through blue eyes. They were to her, a symbol of perfection; all her problems would go away and her life would significantly improve if she somehow obtained them. For example, she strongly believed that her parents would stop fighting, she would stop getting bullied, and she would finally obtain some happiness in her life. It’s written in the book about Pecola that “If those eyes of hers were different, that is to say beautiful, she herself would be different.” (p. 46) this gives me a reason to believe that the title directly …show more content…

She idolizes Shirley Temple and loves her white dolls. She wants to become those objects she clings to; the people in society pushed as beautiful. There’s one thing that they all happen to have in common, and that is white physical features. In the novel, a scene between Frieda and Pecola starts about Shirley Temple and their opinions on the subject are shown. Claudia narrates what happens during all of this. “Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cute Shirley Temple was. I couldn’t join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley.” (1.1.35) Pecola has always been sort of obsessed with Shirley Temple, she uses her as a comparison for herself, and she develops a self-hatred for herself as a result of

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Claudia and Frieda are the only two in the community that hope for Pecola 's child to survive in the coming months. Consequently, they give up the money they had been saving to buy a bicycle, instead planting marigold seeds with the superstitious belief that if the flowers bloom, Pecola 's baby will survive. The marigolds never bloom, and Pecola 's child, who is born prematurely, dies. In the aftermath, a dialogue is presented between two sides of Pecola 's own deluded imagination, in which she indicates strangely positive feelings about her rape by her father. In this internal conversation, Pecola speaks as though her wish has been granted: she believes that she now has blue eyes.

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Later in the book, Toni Morrison uses Pecola’s own conviction of being “ugly” to show that she truly believes that if she changed her physical appearance to match those at the top of the race and beauty hierarchies, her perception of her reality would be ameliorated. Back at home after her parents’ fight, Pecola ponders the unfair way she is treated by teachers compared to her Caucasian classmates at school. When the narrator says, “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. Maybe they’d say, ‘Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes’”

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Pecola wanted to have blue eyes because things may have been easy for her and her life may be better. Pauline messed up foot and fallen teeth made her feel so ugly and she did not wanted to fit in with society was of beauty she didn’t love herself. Cholly had always been neglected by her parents society and he had never learned how to love it affected him in the long run and a traumatic event in his life had scared him as a result. It is why beauty is undeserved for those who are called ugly according to

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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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Pecola saw that Ms. Breedlove didn’t want anything with her and took care of the little white girl. This shows that Pecola is very unwanted and different from the world. Her mother showed this with the white girl. Ms. Breedlove was responsible to keep that house clean, but did overreacted a little bit to Pecola, which kind of wasn’t

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Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother prefers her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the Shirley Temple doll with blue eyes. Morrison went into great detail when describing the elegance and beauty that was present in the Fisher home, to demonstrate that those who do not fit into the ideal American life often feel shame. The Breedlove family lived a very simple life, and in no way did they fit into what society believed to be correct. Mrs. Breedlove was the only member of the family that truly understood what the American Dream looked like. The work that she did for the Fishers lead her to envy the American Dream.

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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Color Purple by Alice Walker are two modern works of literature that initially unsettled and deeply shocked people around the globe. Both novels give us an insightful view on the inhumane treatment that African-Americans had to endure during the ‘60s and ‘70s in a white, male-dominated America. Pecola Breedlove is an eleven year old girl who is socially victimized and is absorbed with the idea that the only way to be “beautiful” is by having blue eyes and blonde hair like Shirley Temple. She is almost painfully optimistic in a very antagonistic white society who continually reminds her of her “blackness” or “ugliness”. When we are first introduced to Pecola, she is homeless.

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But it is not only the race and the colour of their skin what makes them unable to change their situation, but also poverty. Race and wealth are intertwined, and Pecola is the fundamental victim of this relationship, for she is a young black girl suffering from this ideology that determines her life. The dominant class imposes its values upon the other, for they think they are the best ones, reducing thus the personality of the people belonging to other classes, and at the same time, making them unable to change their oppressed situation, for they do not have the chance. They just accept their current position, and thus they will always be

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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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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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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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