How Does Pecola Affect Society

The immoral acts of society raped Pecola Breedlove, took her innocence, and left her to go insane. The Random House Dictionary defines “rape” as “an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation.” The Random House definition perfectly describes what happens to Pecola over the course of the novel. From Pecola’s standpoint, society rapes her repeatedly, by their judgmental attitudes towards everything that she is; she is “ugly,” she is poor, she is black. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Morrison shines a critical light on society, illumining the immoral acts that it participates in, through the story of how a little girl is thrown by the wayside since she does not embody the societal ideal. Instead of one human

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.

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 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.

Censorship of literary works denies students the right to evaluate different concepts that help them establish a better sense of the world around them. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a story about a young, African American girl named Pecola, who believes the only way she can ever be deemed beautiful is if she has blue eyes and white skin. Pecola throughout the novel struggles with the constant abuse her parents inflict on each other, being the poster child of what is viewed as ugly, and a brother who is always fleeing from home. Later in the story she is raped by her drunk and deeply disturbed father. Her neighbors shun her after they find out she is pregnant with his child. At the end of the novel Pecola visits a mystic, who falsely grants

Not only does the novel discuss racism and it’s effect on the black community, but it discusses the unrealistic expectations of beauty in our society. Even the title of the novel “The Bluest Eye” displays a stereotypical viewpoint of beauty. For example in the story Pecola Breedlove yearns to have blue eyes. She hopes that one day she will be able to transform, and therefore be loved by others because of her new blue eyes. Eventually, Pecola goes crazy, thinking that she has the bluest eyes. Toni Morrison discussing an issue such as racism and unrealistic beauty standards is surely not what I call a safe call, but instead, a bold and intimidating one. Personally, this felt like a way of describing what happens to a person who wants to change themselves physically and becomes distorted in the process...because it is, in fact, unrealistic to drastically change one’s appearance.

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.

The novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is subjected on a young girl, Pecola Breedlove and her experiences growing up in a poor black family. The life depicted is one of poverty, ridicule, and dissatisfaction of self. Pecola feels ugly because of her social status as a poor young black girl and longs to have blue eyes, the pinnacle of beauty and worth. Throughout the book, Morrison touches on controversial subjects, such as the depicting of Pecola's father raping her, Mrs. Breedlove's sexual feelings toward her husband, and Pecola's menstruation. The book's content is controversial on many levels and it has bred conflict among its readers.

The Bluest Eye was written in 1970 and yet in the year 2017 there is still a false since of beauty in America. Children learn from a young age to admire this false sense of beauty unconsciously. When looking at television children see skinny girls with white skin, and long silky hair, when in reality that is not how all people look. Morrison exposed the effect that a false sense of beauty has on a child, and today that effect continues to repeat itself. Beauty isn’t something that is just about appearance, but it is also about how a person is inside. Although this has been established and many people are beginning to embrace their inner beauty, history still repeats itself in making young children the victims of false beauty stereotypes. The theme of beauty in The Bluest Eye is something that still many books, and people focus on. Some people base their life on living up to the standards that the world has set for beauty. Peacola wanted to be beautiful, and because no one ever told her she was beautiful the only thing she could rely on to teach her was society, and in return they did her an injustice because she was beautiful all along. The idea that white beauty is the only beauty still happens today, as more people of color try to change themselves in order to form white

In the novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison in 1970, she stated that romantic love and physical beauty are “probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought.” During the time period of when this book was written there was a lot of racism and segregation and the beauty standards just has stated in this novel is blond hair and blue eyes.The narrator at this point will be Pauline Breedlove. This statement is related to Pauline because of how she struggled with her romantic love with Cholly and also how she struggled with the idea of beauty. Romantic love and physical beauty are the most destructive ideas in human history because it can have a huge effect on anyone and the idea of beauty and the idea of love can drive

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye follows Pecola Breedlove’s “journey” to obtain beauty in the form of the titular blue eyes. Not only is it told in Claudia’s perspective, but the readers witnesses several backstories, namely Geraldine, Pauline, Cholly, and Soaphead Church’s, which is in a third-person perspective. This might be seen as odd at first, but after taking a deeper look into their pasts, there is something that stands out: something “beautiful” in the eyes of these people. These “beautiful” things are as unobtainable as Pecola’s wish for blue eyes, and yet they are an important aspect of The Bluest Eye, as are the “beauty” standards during that time. This “beauty” standard is what most African-Americans yearned (some even able to

“If only the eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how very different our ideals of beauty would be”. Toni Morrison shows, to the black community and to the world, how white supremacists and false convictions on beauty and self-worth can cause serious mischief if believed and taken to heart. Throughout the book, the character who exemplified the best repercussions of racism through her actions was Pecola Breedlove. A very passive little girl who was lacking self-esteem and parental guidance buys into the sinkhole of society's perception of beauty and race resulting in believing herself to be one of the ugliest girls in the world. In the Bluest Eye, Morrison uses Pecola and the characters in Pecola's life such as China, Poland, and Miss Marie

In both novels, women are subjected to society’s harsh standards of love and beauty. In The Bluest Eye this is seen through the characterization of Pecola Breedlove, Pauline Breedlove, and Geraldine. Toni Morrison purposefully emphasizes the ideas of love that both Pauline Breedlove and Geraldine have, for the intention of highlighting the misconceptions of love they both have as a subject of society. When Mrs. Breedlove was two years old she stepped on a rusty nail that pierced her foot and left her with a permanent limp. She quickly learned that she was different from others and let society define her as damaged goods, unworthy and undeserving of love or attention because of her physical deformity. Society

She drinks several quarts of milk at the home of her friends Claudia and Frieda McTeer just to use their Shirley Temple mug and glaze at young Temple’s blue eyes. One day Pecola is raped by her father, when the child the she conceives dies, Pecola goes mad. She comes to believe that she has the bluest eyes of anyone.