...Whiteness, especially the stereotypically Aryan features: blonde hair and blue eyes are held in the highest esteem by society in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Set in the town of Lorain, Ohio during the 1960s, the various characters presented strive to live up to society’s perspective of beauty. It is this struggle to find beauty in the White-dominated world that drives many characters. To many, to be beautiful is to simply not be Black. Universally deemed ugly by almost everyone she encounters, central protagonist Pecola Breedlove yearns to live up to the standard of beauty, to be White, by attain blue eyes. Through the use of racism, the standard of innate Beauty of the White and innate Ugly of the Black is reinforced, questioned, affirmed and dispelled. Although no Whites appear in the book, each character presented heavily feels within their presence. While impossible to change the color of their skin, many characters seek to emulate the White way. The blue-eyed Shirley Temple is idolized and revered as beautiful by many characters, especially Frieda MacTeer and Pecola. White baby dolls are precious treasures, given to little Black girls, with their mothers passing on the idea that these Blonde-blued dolls are the closest to beauty their daughters can get. Property, while rare for the Blacks to own, was the adults mean of attaining society’s standards, with the Black women keeping their owns as tidy and neat and white as possible. In their pursuit of beauty, racism...
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...The Bluest Eye Essay (2nd Draft) Ms. Morrison divides her novel “The Bluest Eye“ into four seasons by making use of motives of her own life. The desire for communicating and sharing aspects with the reader develops a real and identifiable story. But, the reader will only receive knowledge about character perspectives and time frames piece by piece. In order to develop Pecolas fortune to a dramatic climax, she let’s the nature act against her, too. Furthermore, various techniques are used that make the text narratively rich, which leads to a style that contributes towards the dramatic plot action. A lot of what makes The Bluest Eye such capable is the use of special techniques that safe the readers attention at all times. Though Morrison structered her novel with an exposition, climax and conclusion, the plot is still very complicated and never a simple one. You can compare the way Morrison changes charecter perspectives and time frames to building a tower, giving the audience only pieces of knowledge little by little. Furthermore, it sometimes even feels like the novel started at the climax and goes intentionally back to the exposition, because you get to know the tragedy in the beginning but you have to experience the end first by reading the book. The change between the characters narrative enhances the way Morrison structered her story. Another very important stylistic aspect is the change in the character narratives which changes from 3rd person omniscent to a lot of...
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...As a result of low self-esteem caused by racial discrimination, many characters in the novel and play attempt to dissociate themselves from their ethnic background and portray a new identity to conform to social standards. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison inserts a chapter in the novel introducing Geraldine and other women similar to her. In the chapter, Geraldine and these women are characterized as black women who develop thrift, patience, high morals, and good manners. They actively strive to separate themselves from the “dreadful funkiness” of “passion”, “nature”, and “the wide range of human emotions”, and “wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away, where it crusts, they dissolve it; wherever it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it...
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...In Toni Morrison’s the novel “The Bluest Eye”, it provided a comprehensive understanding of how whiteness is the preferred beauty standards, which misleads the lives of African American women and children. Morrison is a master at examining the relationships between the races and genders. She also talks about the struggle between civilization and nature, despite the fact that if it is myth. Morrison has a unique way in her writing that causes the reader to get visual through her narrating stories. Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye demonstrates her creative techniques to express the struggles of how African American girl’s deals with society’s concepts of beauty, self-hatred, self-worth, and family. As many individuals may know that beauty is...
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...In the novel The Bluest Eye the author Toni morrison introduces us the narrator Claudia Macteer. Claudia narrates her life and the environment she was raised in. At the beginning of the story Claudia lives with her loving family and a friend of hers-Pecola Breedlove the protagonist. Pecola is temporarily staying with the Macteer’s because of a family complication she was facing. Although pecola and Claudia were raised in a similar neighborhood the two characters have a polar opposite ideas what is beautiful. Pecola believes that beauty is what she sees when she drinks milk out of the sheril temple cup.When she looks at herself and she sees that she is lacking the things the white girls have. This idea of that there is a default in being black...
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...For years, black women have been negatively impacted by generational systems of oppression. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison demonstrates this oppressive cycle as well as the long-term, damaging affects of internalized racism. Utilizing various perspectives from black women and children alike, Morrison shows these woman’s quest to find love and acceptance within society. This paper seeks to analyze this theme of love and the black woman identity. In doing so it will evaluate how white beauty standards, media, colorism, and internalized racism all contribute to enforcing division between black women and cultivate a cycle of self-hate. The book focuses on the journey of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven year old, dark skinned black girl, who prays...
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...The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Beauty is said to be in the eyes of the beholder, but what if the image of beauty is forced into the minds of many? The beauty of a person could be expressed in many different ways, as far as looks and personality goes, but the novel The Bluest Eye begs to differ. It contradicts the principle, because beauty is no longer just a person’s opinion but beauty has been made into an unwritten rule, a standard made by society for society. The most important rule is that in order to be beautiful, girls have to look just like a white doll, with blue eyes, light pink skin, and have blond hair. And if they’re not, they are not beautiful. Pecola, one of community’s ugly children, lives life each day wanting to be accepted. “The wider community also fails Pecola. Having absorbed the idea that she is ugly and knowing that she is unloved, Pecola desperately wants the blue eyes that she understands will make a child lovable in American society”(Kubitschek 35). In The Bluest Eye, Morrison argues that the black females in society have been forced to accept the blond hair blue eyed image as the only beauty that exists. Little girls in Lorain had it set in their heads that they should all grow up owning a blond haired and blue-eyed doll, also known as Shirley Temple. These images were placed in their minds, making them feel as if they had to live up to the expectations by going with the crowd, and letting their surroundings influence them. “Adults, older girls...
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...Josh Kloosterman 8:30am The Bluest Eye literary analysis Beauty is a perceptual scope that the reader looks through while reading the bluest eye in its entirety. It is the focus of ideals and issues within the book the Bluest eye. Beauty or lack of is the major motivator for decisions and/or consequences throughout the story. It can define who you are in terms of society and where you fit in, but does it have to? Supposedly, in this country we call home, if you work hard enough you can have whatever your heart desires. In the Bluest eye All Pecola Breedlove wanted was to have blue eyes or in her mind, be beautiful. She believed because of what society had taught her that those whom are beautiful have blue eyes and blonde hair. This is a social institution which has been part of America’s culture since the beginning of the U.S. We must look a certain way, have a specific occupation, or live in a particular neighborhood if we are to fit into society. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison has captured these and other stigma's we place on ourselves and raise the question of, is these things the only way to be accepted and have some level of beauty in societies eyes? We are raised in a society that tells us we are all equal, however that ideal is rarely practiced throughout our history. We only have to turn on the television or open a magazine to see who the adored people in our country are. Pecola believes that if she could have blue eyes then she would be accepted. "If she looked...
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...Pat ***** Ms.B*** English 7 11/13/13 The Enigma of Beauty Society’s eyes have been trained over the years to conspicuously spot flaws in what’s been perceived as its standards of beauty. Indifference within its own definition of genuine beauty-stands out like an eye sore amongst the conformity of what or rather whom we are. In Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye, characters call into question what is beauty itself and how can they achieve that “look” everyone yearns to have. Is it they who radiate unattractiveness or is it society’s harshness who push them to hide within the depths of their own ugliness? It is within the young character Pecola Breedlove do we indeed call to question the harshness of human self-worth. She often debates her own beauty but still embraces her ugliness-wearing it shamefully. “Thrown, in the way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people.” (Morrison, 1970) But what of, the binding conviction? The constant reminder of her offensive ugliness left nowhere to receive sympathy from, as her family welcomed their ugliness just as bluntly. “We soothe ourselves with clichés. Its only skin deep, we cluck it’s only in the eye of the beholder. Pretty is, as pretty does.” (Newman, 2013) There’s an impenetrable wall of perfection surrounding the world she grows in. Flaws categorized in...
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...Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Morrison puts the spotlight on society, lighting up the corrupt acts that it partakes in, through the story of how a little, black girl is thrown by the curb since she does not exemplify the common model. Instead of our protagonist, Pecola, having one human adversary, we see how most of most of society plays as the antagonist. The wicked acts of society eat up Pecola Breedlove from the inside to the outside, as they rape her, take away her innocence and leave her to go mad. Looking at everything from Pecola’s perspective, we realize that society rapes her constantly, by their critical attitudes towards all that she is. To them, she is black, she is poor, and hence she is ugly. One of the first heinous acts that society presents to Pecola is lust. That being, the desire for “whiteness” or as everyone else in the book believed, the desire for beauty. Pecola is taught from a very early age that beauty is one of the values that she will be held up to. In addition, society expresses to her that the crucial part to being beautiful is being...
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...Parents are the caregivers, watchers, protectors, lovers, and teachers of their children and are fully responsible for their kids. They help their offspring grow through life learning new concepts and ways of life and helping them prosper into mature people. But how may a child be taught about life, having a family, and any other questions that may have if the parent has no clue either? In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, a young eleven year old girl named Pecola goes through the mysteries of life and ponders the thought of what is truly beautiful. At the time of the story, blonde and blue-eyed was considered or perceived as the true image of beauty because white girls were attractive, popular, and the center of attention so the closest to white you are, the better. Everyone wanted to be looked upon as a great looking person, such as the “perfect” icon at the time Shirley Temple. Pecola becomes roped into this absurd idea of true beauty and would do anything at all costs to have the bluest eyes. People begin to torment Pecola for being ugly and give her no mercy, even her own family! Her confidence in herself goes downhill at an astonishing rate to the point where in the end, insanity encompasses her and takes her in for good. Pecola’s father, Cholly, is a drunk who rapes her twice and her mother, Pauline, abuses and beats her for any reason she needs to. This sad turn of events for Pecola could be pinned onto the parents because they weren't involved with Pecola at...
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...As Frye explains, “oppression can be hard to see and recognize” when it is easy to miss “seeing the structure as a whole” (39). In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, the main character Pecola Breedlove evidently lives with-and suffers through-the consequences of her oppressive society. However, like caged birds, Frieda and Claudia MacTeer also fall victim to oppression as a result of the hostile and broken environments they are bred into, restricting them from ‘flying’ and blooming into pristine, young women. In the chapter signifying the beginning of Spring, Morrison demonstrates how both of the MacTeer sisters are subconsciously subjected to oppression, in each of the sisters’ respective ways. At the start of the chapter, Claudia remembers...
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...self-hatred during this time. Furthermore, it was written at a major part of the Civil Rights Movement, which involved counteracting the bias that white is beautiful and black is not. 2. Toni Morrison is an African-American writer and professor. She grew up in Ohio, Lorain Where the Bluest Eye takes place. She developed a love for literature and storytelling as she grew up. The story is the told from the view of a 9 year old girl which would have been the same age as Morrison during time in the book. Showing the connection that the book has connection in her life personally. The story evolved from a conversation she had with a little girl in elementary school who wanted blue eyes. 3....
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...Another allusion in The Bluest Eye is the dolls test performed by Kenneth Clark and Mamie Clark along with the Supreme Court case of Brown vs. The Board of Education. Clark interviewed children using four neutral dolls - two pink and two brown; the Clarks wanted to demonstrate how children understood the significance of race in America. By a wide majority, across the board, and in different areas, black and white children preferred the pink dolls over the brown. Some children pointed how the brown doll was “bad” and the white doll was “nice.” Based upon his test, Clark testified that school segregation distorted the minds of black children to the point of self-hate (Douglas) and that the children had internalized society’s racial hierarchy...
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...Racial Passing is the act in which an individual of one race chooses to actively participate in another race, as a result of the political, economic and social benefits. However the act of “passing” is often a result of self- loathing, the dissatisfaction with self, in relation to societal ideals. In the novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison, the topic of racial passing is widely explored through the theme of self- loathing. In the text Morrison portrays the human condition through the contrasting views of protagonist Pecola Breedlove and her foil Claudia Mac Teer. Morrison uses various literary elements within the text to convey her take on the ideals of racial passing, such as symbolism, imagery, and point of view. In the text...
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