Dance Of The Happy Shades

The characters within The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, all attempt to conform to a standard of beauty in some way. This standard of beauty is established by the society in which they live, and then supported by members of the community. Beauty is also linked with respect and happiness. Both people who reach the standard of beauty, and those who try, are never really satisfied with who they are. This never-ending race to become beautiful has devastating effects on their relationships and their own self-esteem.

be considered beautiful in the white world is so compelling, that the characters in The Bluest Eye

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

The concept of physical beauty and desire to conform to a prescribed definition of what is considered beautiful can destroy a person's life. In Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, many characters are obsessed with attaining the idealist definition of what is considered beautiful. The characters of Geraldine, Pauline, and Pecola all believe that physical perfection leads to acceptance; however, it is the same belief that causes their personal downfalls and prevents them from recognizing their own inner beauty.

On the other end of the spectrum, the black end, is the story of Shirlee’s father and his family history. This narrative, Haizlip tells with pride; she mentions how she would have very much liked to meet her Native American grandmother from years back and how she too would have loved to have a name like “White Cloud.” In this narrative there is no shame, no abandonment, and no sadness. This is a story of a family and it’s success despite their skin color and the changing times around them. Her father, as his father before him, had inspired her with confidence and pride in the way she was, dark or light, and from this end of the spectrum she learned to love the dark pigment in her skin. Haizlip tells various stories of black communities in which her father grew up and how her grandfather was respected by his fellow citizen. This is a completely different story than that of her mother. Instead of running away from their darkness, her father’s family reached for it, yearned

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

The dominance of the white race is evident through the power that it holds in a traditional society. Throughout The Bluest Eye, Claudia and Frieda, two young black girls, gradually begin to hate Maureen Peal, a lighter-skinned “friend” with whom they attend school. Claudia and Frieda despise the beauty that other members of society see in Maureen and attempt to figure out the reason for Maureen’s power over themselves. Claudia argues that “Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred,” and that the only thing they had to fear was “the Thing that made her beautiful and not [them]” (Morrison 74). When Claudia references the “Thing to fear,” she is addressing Maureen’s lighter skin tone and acceptance into society, and not her own blackness, despite the fact that Maureen is not a part of the white community. Claudia’s hatred toward Maureen illustrates the power that light-skinned, and primarily white, individuals have over blacks to deceive people as well as place themselves above everyone else. The ability for the white community to assume its position at the top of the social hierarchy

The desire to feel beautiful has never been more in demand, yet so impossible to achieve. In the book “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the story of two black families that live during the mid-1900’s. Even though slavery is a thing of the past, discrimination and racism are still a big issue at this time. Through the whole book, characters struggle to feel beautiful and battle the curse of being ugly because of their skin color. Throughout the book Pecola feels ugly and does not like who she is because of her back skin. She believes the only thing that can ever make her beautiful is if she got blue eyes. Frieda, Pecola, Claudia, and other black characters have been taught that the key to being beautiful is by having white skin. So by being black, this makes them automatically ugly. In the final chapter of the book, the need to feel beautiful drives Pecola so crazy that she imagines that she has blue eyes. She thinks that people don’t want to look at her because they are jealous of her beauty, but the truth is they don’t look at her because she is pregnant. From the time these black girls are little, the belief that beauty comes from the color of their skin has been hammered into their mind. Mrs. Breedlove and Geraldine are also affected by the standards of beauty and the impossible goal to look and be accepted by white people. Throughout “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison uses the motif of beauty to portray its negative effect on characters.

Just her braveness and godliness sets an important atmosphere for the story. In “What it is like to be a black girl” author Patricia Smith uses modern day as her setting for her poem. In her poem she speaks of black girls putting on wigs and coloring their eyes with color (Contacts). Here Mrs. Smith enhances a setting of an on- going struggle for acceptance even in this day and age when we all are supposed to feel equal.

In Zora Neale Hurtson's “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” we encounter a very broad descriptive essay where Hurston explores the new found discovery of her self-admiration. To complement the wide variety of description used throughout the essay, Hurston includes imagery and figurative language to capture the reader with a first class seat on a journey with her. At the beginning of the essay, Hurtson dives into her childhood in Eatonville, Florida, describing moments using anecdotes when she sang and danced throughout the streets and greeted the neighbors. Back then she was free from the scaring feeling of being different and was "everybody's Zora". But she immediately became different when she was thirteen and her mother passed away and she left home to attend boarding school in Jacksonville.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and “Junior,” and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home.

Peggy McIntosh explores blackness in the white imagination, but her ability to view the Other through the dominant eye presents her with a newfound

In the novel The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison uses the internalization of beauty standards and its effect on characters’ social interactions with the community to reveal society’s assumption that appearance is the decisive factor in determining one’s status and critique its detrimental effect on one’s personal identity.

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, depicts characters desperately seeking to attain love through a predetermined standard of beauty established and substantiated by society. Morrison intertwines the histories of several characters portraying the delusions of the ‘perfect’ family and what motivates their quest for love and beauty. Ultimately, this pursuit for love and beauty has overwhelming effects on their relationships and their identity.

For decades there has been an ongoing discussion on society’s standards of beauty and what makes someone beautiful. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye she challenges white standards of beauty. Just like today, the society in Loraine, Ohio establishes a standard of beauty, and this beauty is defined as being as close to white as possible, having blonde hair, blue eyes, and a “Jack and Jill” family. Most of the characters in The Bluest Eye attempt to conform to society’s standards (complicating this idea) and believe if they can achieve at least one of the aspects of beauty their life will be better and they will be treated in higher regards. Through the female characters of Pecola, Claudia, Maureen, Geraldine, and Rosemary it is prevalent that there is a spectrum of beauty and the person who is closest to this standard, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, is considered pretty and is respected by society, while a person who is not close to this standard is considered ugly and is treated poorly by society. By ascribing to society’s expectations of beauty, Geraldine extends the role of white supremacy and undermines her own self-worth.