The Bluest Eye, By Toni Morrison

Pauline Breedlove, Pecola's mother, experiences racism within the black community when she moves to Lorain, Ohio. Being a dark-skinned black woman from the south, she does not understand why "northern colored folk was different... [and why they were] no better than whites for meanness" (117). She recognizes the hierarchy, or the "difference between colored people and niggers" within the black community, especially from the light-skinned women she encounters (87). One of these light-skinned black women is Geraldine, Junior's mother, who believes "colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud" (87). She even tells her son

The affiliation between beauty and whiteness limits the concept of beauty only to the person’s exterior. The characters are constantly subjected to images and symbols of whiteness through movies, books, candy, magazines, baby dolls and advertisements. Another example of the images and symbols in the novel is when the black protagonist, Pecola, feasts on a ‘Mary Jane’ candy.

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.

A standard of beauty is established by the society in which a person lives and then supported by its members in the community. In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, we are given an extensive understanding of how whiteness is the standard of beauty through messages throughout the novel that whiteness is superior. Morrison emphasizes how this ideality distorts the minds and lives of African-American women and children. He emphasizes that in order for African-American women to survive in a white racist society, they must love their own race. The theme of race and that white skin is more beautiful is portrayed through the lives and stories told by the characters in the novel, especially the three girls Claudia, Pecola and Frieda. Through the struggles these characters have endured, Morrison shows us the destructive effect of this internalized idea of white beauty on the individual and on society.

However, she becomes the scapegoat or the sacrificial lamb for all the characters, as they too suffer from insanity. In attempting to retain his masculinity, Cholly Breedlove stains his own blood, his own daughter. He was abandoned by his father, degraded by two white men when he had his first sexual encounter, and got many kicks in life. But when alcohol blots out his senses, it also blots out his humanity switch. Pecola grappled by her father was now in ruins. This was a result from the damages of racism and self-hatred. Leaving Pecola bewildered and silenced, depicting the very idea of how women have less rights and are often oppressed. “Dangerously free. Free to feel whatever he felt- fear, guilt, shame, love, grief, pity. Free to be tender or violent, to whistle or weep. Free to sleep in doorways or between the white sheets of a singing woman.” (Morrison, 159). Cholly crossed all boundaries and does whatever he wishes to do. He can sleep with prostitutes, sleep in doorways, quit jobs, spend time in jail, kill three white men, and knock a women in the head. He feels free of all responsibilities and feels freedom for the first time. Cholly’s self-hatred literally enters Pecola as she bears his child, the symbol of his ugliness and hatred. He looks at his daughter with loathe and tenderness but doesn't pick her up and covers her with a blanket. This season shows that Pecola was the dumping ground for the black community’s fears and feelings of unworthiness. She was fully broken and gave up hope in ever achieving the perfect family life. If the mother did not know how to love herself, or the father did not know how to love himself, then it would be impossible for them to teach Pecola how to love herself. They were doing the best they could with what they had been taught as children. Spring

Pauline Breedlove’s racial self-loathing began when she was a young girl. Pauline first perceives herself as ugly when she is left with a limp foot after impaling it on a nail. This limp foot sets the basis for her feelings of “separateness and unworthiness” as a child (Morrison 111). Pauline’s family then moves from Alabama to Kentucky to look for employment, therefore exposing her to even more isolation. Because Pauline is often alone, she develops a love for organizing and cleaning her house. Arranging items gave Pauline a sense of control and “when by some accident somebody scattered her rows” Pauline was delighted and “never angry” because it “gave her a chance to rearrange them again” (111). As she grew older, Pauline fantasized about men and fell in love with Cholly Breedlove. Pauline’s sense of worth and beauty soon became defined by Cholly’s perception of her, as she finally felt as if “her bad foot was an asset” (116). Pauline’s obsession with beauty and order stays with her throughout her adulthood. She constantly escapes from her dysfunctional life and enters a fantasy when watching movies starring beautiful white actresses. However, Pauline faces a reality check when her tooth falls out after biting into a piece of candy at the movies. This incident causes Pauline to accept her ugliness, which intensifies her self-loathing.

Pecola's life away from her family is no better. She is often picked on and called ugly by those around her. Claudia and Frieda realize that the entire neighborhood agrees with Pecola that white features are beautiful.

Although Claudia has not given in fully to the pressures of society, Pecola has completely accepted them. She defines beauty as white, blonde haired, and most importantly, blue eyes. Claudia explains how Pecola was “fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face”(Morrison, 23). Shirley Temple is an icon to Pecola and many other young girls, and she wishes to be just like her. Pecola sees how loved and respected Shirley is, and associates this with Shirley’s blue eyes. This leads to Pecola’s desire for, and obsession with blue eyes. According to W.E.B. Du Bois, blacks understand what it means to be American in the same way that whites do, but because of their race, are treated much differently. In his writing “The Souls of Black Folk”, he states that he “was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil”(Dubois, 4). Pecola believes that if she were to have blue eyes that she would not only be viewed different by the world, but that she would view the world differently as well. She sees how Shirley Temple is treated by others, and concludes that the reason she is treated so much better must because of her blue eyes, which make her beautiful. As a result, blue eyes become a symbol to Pecola of the happiness and beauty that she associates with the white, middle class world. She wishes to have blue eyes so that she could see the world without the veil shutting her out. By showing the idealization of Shirley Temple, Morrison demonstrates how the media creates a standard of beauty that is impossible for young black females to achieve. Pecola even goes as far as to buy Mary Janes from the candy store, just to admire the pretty little white girl with blue eyes that adorns the wrapper. Pecola’s

After watching the movies, Polly begins to consume whiteness, which reinforces the existence of internalized racism among African Americans. She measures absolute beauty of what she has seen on the silver screen. “She learned all there was to love and all there was to hate” (122). She believes that what she sees is the way things should be, which an example of internalized racism is. Polly admired how the white men took care of the white women, how white people dressed, and how their houses looked on the movie screen. Therefore, when she began to work for the Fishers, she revealed how much she loved whiteness as compared to blackness. In addition, she consumes whiteness as she works for the Fishers. Polly is able to have order, love, family, and happiness in the Fisher home, which is an example of internalized racism and the Eurocentricism idea. Society dictates how a typical home should be, which is why Polly thought highly of how she took care of the Fisher household, rather than her own. “More and more she neglected her house, her children, and her man—they were afterthoughts,” and “the dark edges that made the daily life with the Fishers lighter, more delicate, more lovely” (127). On another occasion, Polly loses a tooth, while at the movies. Losing her tooth was significant in that she felt as though she has lost her whiteness. “Everything went then” (123). The loss of whiteness, her tooth, meant a loss of beauty and a loss of power. The white family giving Pauline a nickname is a symbol of her being white. When she goes to the store on behalf of the Fishers, the respect that she receives portrays her power and respect, because she represents the whiteness. Unlike, when she goes to the store for her family, they intimidate her. She has more respect and love for the white family than her family. She accepted only the best for them, but she always accepted lesser quality for her own family.

Pecola, the protagonist is a dark skinned person who believes that she is ugly living in the world that white skin and blue eyes were classified as beauty. Pecola experiences shame because of the standard beauty and desire to racism but she doesn’t desire to be beautiful she desires to be the most beautiful human being living. Her desire was to be beyond the most beautiful girl the town has ever seen.

We are told certain facts about Pecola Breedlove from the perspective of different characters. One being, “Here was an ugly little black girl asking for beauty...A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes” (Morrison, 174). White beauty

The novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, reveals thetragedy of beauty in society and its role in African-American segregation from white culture. Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist of the novel, is an eleven-year-old girl who, like the rest of her black community, has adopted the belief the whiteness was the standard of beauty. In this world contaminated ofdamagingwhite values, Pecola desiresblue eyes, believing that they would bring her beauty, love and social acceptance, and thereby allowing her to transcend her miserable situation of abuse from her family and community. However, Pecola’shopes of achieving this aspiration fall apart when her fatherrapes and impregnates her. This calamity forces her further into an imaginary world that shields

When we came to this world, we all are innocent but throughout time we adopt the culture of this world and move forward to pursue the wisdom. Children’s mind is filled with lot of joy, happiness, and trustfulness. Some adults take this as an advantage to hurt the children. In the community, many children are expose to the negative consequence of child’s fall from innocence. Children’s mind is more open to observe and learn things quickly but if they live in the environment that does not nurture them, they can be expose for any danger and could lose their innocence.

Is someone who strives to become something that they are not, motivated simply by acceptance? For example, a person who changes his or her hairstyle or way of dress may desire to be seen as cool. Also, others may even join a sport simply to be popular and feel more accepted. In our lives, we are always changing and adjusting in order to show progress or to be seen as better. The changing of one’s race is another action taken by individuals who seek acceptance in high society. In The Bluest Eye, the author Toni Morrison tells of several intertwining stories of many black individuals. Most of these individuals, when addressed by other characters, struggle with negative references of name-calling and descriptions. Negative remarks aside, some black individuals in the novel are raised in a light that mirrors the opposing race’s life rather than their own. Throughout the novel, the author and society constantly place black individuals on a lower pedestal so much that they strive to be white or to have white qualities.

She lives in a world who views her as “ugly” (Morrison 38) and, like her parents, she has internalized this idea. Pecola lives in a world where white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed people are found the most beautiful, and she too adores this paradigm. She drinks three quarts of milk “just to handle and see sweet Shirley [Temple]’s face” (23) and spends what little money she has on Mary Jane candies, not because she enjoys their taste, but because of the white girl on the wrapper. She feels that, by eating candy wrapped with an image of a beautiful white girl, she can “[b]e Mary Jane” (50) and internalize the wrapper’s beauty in herself. She believes that having the blue eyes of a white child would also give her the life of a white child, or at least one where her life isn’t filled with fighting and abuse. This wish to conform to the white beauty standard, however, is only a “damaging internalization of assumptions of . . . inferiority” (210) and so, as critic Jane Kuenz states, Pecola’s ideal self is an “[image] she can attain only in madness.” As such, Pecola’s quest for blue eyes only leads her into insanity, far into the depths of her own mind where she can live out this imagined life of being an equal to the white children in her