Toni Morrison foreword expresses her goal for the book to explore what happens when a person accepts "rejection as legitimate, as self-evident." Morrison describes an incident in her childhood when a friend wished for blue eyes. The idea horrified Morrison. She writes, "Implicit in her desire was racial self-loathing." Morrison's other goal was to express "black culture" in language. The foreword was initially not included in the book Morrison wrote in 1993. The purpose was to shine light on how African American developed different views of themselves while growing up in a white dominate community. Every part of the book Morrison used language as a theme to express black culture and uses specific voices to represent African American voices
“‘You are ugly people’” (39). One of the first things that catch the eyes of Morrison’s readers in The Bluest Eye is the classism between her pages. Morrison digs deep into 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.
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about
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.
In 1983, Toni Morrison published the only short story she would ever create. The controversial story conveys an important idea of what race is and if it really matter in the scheme of life. This story takes place during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. The idea of civil rights was encouraged by the government but not enforced by the states, leaving many black Americans suffering every day. In Morrison’s short story Recitatif, Morrison manipulates the story’s diction to describe the two women’s races interchangeably resulting in the confusion of the reader. Because Morrison never establishes the “black character” or the “white character”, the reader is left guessing the race of the two main characters throughout the whole
One way she covers this is by highlighting Morrison’s disregard for censorship in her work. By presenting us with the raw truth, Morrison’s novel becomes all the more compelling. The author wants us to be condemned by her work; she inspires us to think deeper on its roots. Morrison accepts black history for what it is and therefore can use her work to express her opinion and take a stand for her beliefs. This article shows us the power of censorship and the strides we could potentially make if we were to cast it aside when dealing with things like
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.
Outline I. Introduction A. Toni Morrison is recognized for many book publishing’s in literature. Morrison is popularly known for her writings of past culture events pertaining to the harsh reality of the treatment towards slavery. Morrison was not educated on African American history until her teen years. As Morrison once stated, “when I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only black in the class and the one only child who could read” (Toni Morrison Bio.com).
Toni Morrison was like the average single black woman in the 1960’s. Newly divorced, she worked hard at her nine to five job at a publishing company trying to care for her two sons. Although she majored in English in college, being a novelist and winning awards for her stories was the last thing on her mind. And after being rejected from publishing companies saying that her stories “had no beginning, no middle, and no end” and “it [was] great but…..’ she surely thought that her stories were a waste of time. After the publication of her first novel, “The Bluest Eye” did not sell very well, it did receive reviews by book critics saying that the novel was like poetry and filled with emotion and pain. They also mentioned that her novels gave a
Race is such a forbidden topic that people do not talk about it so that lessens the chances of that subject being written about. Morrison states that some of these literary critics have not even read any African American literature and that has absolutely no impact on the, whatsoever. Some of them just refuse to read African American literature leaving them unaware on what it has to offer. Toni Morrison would like to bring Africanism to American literature. She states “My early assumptions as a reader were that black people signified little or nothing in the imagination of white American writers.” (pg. 15) It was then Morrison states that she stopped reading as a reader and began reading as a writer. (pg. 15) It seemed as though American literature was being shaped by racial ideology, but in some way authors were representing themselves in the African American characters they put in their writing. Morrison wants to make a change in American literature being her reason for writing this essay.
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.
Black writers, especially an African American woman are known to have more difficulty when it comes to publication and recognition, and therefore desperately have to please a white audience in order to achieve success. Morrison decided that she wanted to enforce positive work associated with black literature. Morrison successfully achieved that goal by discussing and implementing controversial universal themes that exist in the world.
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison shows that one’s family determines a character’s feeling of self-worth. According to Morrison, the world is teaching little black girls that they are not beautiful and unworthy of love. The world teaches this by depicting white people and objects that resemble them, as symbols of beauty. In this world, to be worthy of love you must be beautiful. Morrison shows that if a little black girl believes what the world is telling her, her self-esteem can develop low self-esteem and they may yearn to be white. Even in the absence of economic and racial privilege, Morrison suggests that a little black girl can look to her family to build up her self-esteem. For Morrison, having a family is
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, is a story about the life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is growing up during post World War I. She prays for the bluest eyes, which will “make her beautiful” and in turn make her accepted by her family and peers. The major issue in the book, the idea of ugliness, was the belief that “blackness” was not valuable or beautiful. This view, handed down to them at birth, was a cultural hindrance to the black race.
...Morrison explores in the novel [and] centers upon the standard of beauty by which white women are judged in this country. They are taught that their blonde hair, blue eyes, and creamy skins are not only wonderful, but
In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison incorporates various techniques, such as her use of metaphors, the ironic use of names, and the visual images that she uses. The theme of The Bluest Eye, revolves around African Americans’ conformity to white standards. A woman may whiten her skin, straighten her hair and change its color, but she can not change the color of her eyes. The desire to transform one’s identity, itself becomes an inverted desire, becomes the desire for blues eye, which is the symptom of Pecola’s instability.