Shirley Temple Essay

Besides the inherent self-confident issue, the outside voice from community is also affecting Pecola’s view. For example, in the “accident” when Pecola went into Junior’s house, Junior killed the cat and impute to Pecola. His mother, Geraldine, saw Pecola was holding the dead cat. Without any thought and didn’t even ask for the truth, Geraldine simply called Pecola a “nastylittle black bitch.” This event, again, reinforces Pecola’s view of what beauty means.

1. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the picture, and knew the sights— if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say beautiful, she herself would be different.” (The bluest eye 46) This quote is significant because it introduces us to Pecola’s desire for blue eyes. These three lines found in chapter 3 of the Autumn section of the novel, show clearly the complexity of Pecola’s desire—she doesn’t want blue eyes simply because they are conformed to white beauty standard, but because those blue eyes will give her a different picture and sight.

She thought that if she had blue eyes, the blue eyes of the accepted white ideal, she would be beautiful and therefore loved. The acquisition of the blue eyes she so fiercely covets signifies Pecola's step into madness. It was a safe place, where she could have her blue eyes, and where she could be accepted.

With some background knowledge on Pauline, the mother of Pecola, it’s easier to understand some of Pecola's core traits. There are parallelisms between Pecola and Pauline. They find their reality too harsh to deal with, so they become fixated on one thing that makes them happy, and they ignore everything else. Pecola's desire for blue eyes is more of an inheritance that she received from her mother. One of Pauline’s own obsessions was back when she was fascinated with the world of the big pictures. As long as they can believe in their fantasies, they're willing to sacrifice anything else.

It had occurred to Pecola … that if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different…. If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they’d say, " Why, look at pretty-eyed Peola". We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes (Morrison 46).

Morrison’s early novels, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon, shared identical themes in which her characters desired to seek achievement. Pecola Breedlove in the novel, The Bluest Eye, aspired to resemble Mary Jane (Shirley Temple). Mary Jane was signified as “real beauty” in the 1940’s. Due to this, Pecola went on a quest in order to be like Mary Jane. She longed to have blue eyes so that she could be classified as “beautiful”.

At this time black people weren’t treated with respect and were constantly discriminated against in all types of ways. Pecola grew up in a rough environment with her dad abusing her mother constantly and constantly getting in fights “Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove fought each other with a darkly brutal formalism”(Morrison 43). Pecola decided to surround herself with people that can help her like the Macteer’s. In addition Pecola believed she was ugly and reason for this was because she didn’t have blue eyes like the Shirley Temple doll that everyone adored. Pecola never tried to persevere through the tough times and make people believe that she isn’t ugly but had just settled to believing that she was granted blue eyes and just felt sorry for herself “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty.

Furthermore, their self-contempt concerning their physical appearance is continually reinforced by society, most notably through the movies that first induced the yearning for beauty in Mrs. Breedlove. Ultimately, a vicious cycle of self-loathing and misery is established by these societal forces, constantly strengthening Pecola’s desires for blue eyes to the point that it consumes her. When viewing Mrs. Breedlove’s and Pecola’s dreams in parallel, one can see the inevitability of their self-contempt due to the ruthless society that we are all a part of, making us all vulnerable to share a similar

In her society she is seen as an outcast, and feels as if she is undesirable. With her only true friends being Claudia and Frieda, she begins to wonder what her life could be like if she wasn’t African American. The tarnished love she acquires from her household and family leads her to believe that she will not be accepted by her community as well. Her life did not meet the ideal standards she set in her head and she believed “If those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). This quote shows Pecola’s desire to be white, and have the bluest of eyes so she can be different and completely unlike what she is now.

Pecola's society sets blue eyes as the best way to fit in, ¨ It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures and knew the sights- If those eyes of hers were different, that is to say beautiful, she herself would be different¨ (pg.40). Pecola wants blue eyes, because in her society blue eyes are considered beautiful. Pecola's society makes it so that people think that you can only be happy and have everything you want if you have blue eyes, so thats why pecola yearns for blue eyes so much. Pecola, wants to be accepted by society that she actually go to the point where she asks for blue eyes and actually believes that she has them, " I guess you're right, and i was so lonely for friends. and you were right here before my eyes.

Pauline’s loss of a tooth destroys her chances of achieving her perception of white beauty, as shown through her obsession with looking like Jean Harlow, ultimately forcing Pecola to search for her own beauty to achieve the acceptance she was unable to receive because of her mother’s lack of love. During her pregnancy, Pauline’s loneliness contributed to her focusing her life on movies for entertainment because Cholly began to resist her total dependence on him by not being home as often. The movies, however, introduced her to the ideas of romantic love and physical beauty. After living a life attached to movies, “she was never able..to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty” (122). The importance of

Sisters Frieda and Claudia know they were getting a new sister. Well not exactly. Because Pecola’s father burnt down their home, she was sent to live with the MacTeer family until her family was able to take her back. Frieda and Claudia do not know what to make of Pecola. First off she is ugly, this little black girl, whom no one will ever call beauty. What she long for is blue eyes. The bluest eyes in the world, as if she was like all those blonde fair skin blue eye girls, her family would love her, and mend their broken home. Where Pecola very view times get to narrates her story, it is told from other perspective, including events to led to her home life. From Claudia’s point of view of Pecola, to how her parents were both raise and met,

The reader can visualize the picturesque doll with blue eyes, blonde hair, and pink porcelain skin, sitting on the top shelf of everyone’s favorite store. The utilization of imagery to describe an individual’s physical appearance is Morrison's way of displaying the unequal treatment that Pecola encounters as a young black girl in a condemnatory society. The colors of one’s appearance is noted by Morrison throughout the novel, for physical appearance is highly significant in the imagery that Morrison depicts. Society casts its dark hatred upon those who do not conform to the standards of beauty that society sets, expediting self negativity to those who do not fit the perfect physical

At the beginning of the book, it explains why Pecola goes to stay with the MacTeers and the experience they all had from the point-of- view of the MacTeers youngest daughter Claudia. Claudia narrates on how shy Pecola is and how she loved drinking of their Shirley Temple glass because she enjoyed looking at the face of Shirley Temple. The Shirley Temple glass represents everything that is beautiful to her, and longs for but cannot have. Pecola and Frieda, Claudia’s older sister, liked talking about how beautiful Shirley Temple was. Claudia didn’t understand why they enjoyed Shirley Temple so much because she hated white baby dolls she could not find the beauty that everyone else sees in them.

This can be demonstrated by Pecola’s interest in a cup that had Shirley Temple’s face on it, which is highly symbolic within the text, “We knew she was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle sweet Shirley’s face (Morrison 23). Pecola cherished