The Bluest Eye Comparison

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 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

Moreover, the individuals in the book consistently tell Pecola that she is ugly and or tease her for certain aspects of her life, adults included. For example, Frieda and Pecola were having a conversation and Claudia said to herself “Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley”( The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison Chapter 1, par. 1, line 35 ). If Claudia was to say this out loud, Pecola would have, more than likely, felt that she was wrong for having her own likes and dislikes.

Claudia, another character who goes through a similar situation compared to Pecola. She is a young girl who came out from a loving family and is intrusive, yet sensitive.

However, when Pecola was raped by her father, she told her mother and she didn't believe her, therefore she did nothing. Even though Frieda likes Shirley, she had her sister and parents to help her through this horrible event, although Pecola had nobody. Since Pecola isn't able to love herself, she has to love Shirley. On the other hand, Claudia McTeer hates Shirley. She was brought in the same family as Freida, but since nobody expects anything of Claudia, she is able to have her own opinions and is able to despise the actress.

This can be seen toward the end of the novel, on page 199, where, in a conversation between Pecola and a figure of her thoughts, Morrison reveals that Pecola may have been raped twice. “You said he tried to do it to you when you were sleeping on the couch. ‘See there! You don’t even know what you’re talking about. It was when I was washing dishes,’” reads the exchange. These lines also tell the reader that even with this information, Pecola is still internally unsure of what happened herself. Through internal dialogue, her personal insecurities are projected. Dialogue is key in presenting major ideas in the novel.

In the afterword of “The Bluest Eye”, Morrison describes the narrator of the story as “the sayer, the one who knows…a child speaking, mimicking the adult black women on the porch or in the backyard” (Morrison 213), in essence, a child acting as the narrator and imitating black women when speaking, possessing intimate secrets waiting to be divulged to the reader. By having a child act as the narrator and introduce emotionally taxing topics to the reader, the weight of these topics would be cushioned by creating skepticism about the truth behind a child’s statements in providing lots of seemingly “trivial information” (Morrison 213) and thereby “altering the priority an adult would assign the information” (Morrison 213). But rather than just being an arbitrary character in the story, Claudia can be justified as being the very embodiment

Logic has just recently released a new album speaking out about problems in today's society. Toni Morrison’s novel can be compared and contrasted to Logic’s album Everybody. Although in different ways, Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye and Logic in his album Everybody develop the theme that race shouldn't be the standard that determines beauty. Both develop this theme through the use of internal, external conflicts and by utilizing imagery.

Pecola’s perceptions of herself and her world begins to change; distorted and twisted as she begins to become aware and understand the society she lived in and how she was perceived by

Not too long ago, my friend and I agreed that a student was beautiful. Her skin was caramel in the light, her face shape was an oval, her style was subtle urban and her eyes were the perfect size. She was indeed beautiful. But why was her beauty more irrespirable than her friends, who was walking right beside her? Many are subjected to the specifications of social beauty. Pecula, the main character of The Bluest Eye, destroyed white baby dolls. The tortures act of dismantling and configuring the baby doll acted as a combination to unlock the beauty within the doll. Soon she finds nothing but a metal sphere. Here I understood the metal sphere to be power. Within the doll was nothing integral, but an innate physically

Instead they start to insult her and break down her self-confidence. And that what happened with Pecola in THE BLUEST EYES. Her family didn't feel happy with her, and always says that she is ugly; what makes her believe that she is extremely ugly, but she doesn't know why. She always looks at the mirror and asks herself why they say that she is ugly. In addition to the family, Pecola’s friends, classmates and teachers also think that she is an ugly girl, just because of her skin

Pecola evaluated herself ugly, and wanted to have a pair of blue eyes so that every problem could be solved. Pecola was an African-American and lived in a family with problems. Her father ran away because of crime, her brother left because of their fighting parents, and was discriminated simply because she has dark-skin. Pecola is a passive person. She is almost destroyed because of her violent father, Cholly Breedlove, who raped her own daughter after drinking. Because of this, Pecola kept thinking about her goal- to reach the standard of beauty. However, she was never satisfied with it. Pecola believed once she become beautiful, fighting between her parents would no longer happen, her brother would come back, and her father would no long be a rapist. No problem would exist anymore.

Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye follows the racial tensions in the primarily black town of Loraine, Ohio at the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of the Second World War. Morrison utilizes a combination of first and third person narration in order to convey significant themes in the novel and shape the novel’s tone. The Bluest Eye begins with homages to both styles of narration: first with a short excerpt from Dick and Jane that later introduces each chapter narrated in the third person, and then with “Quiet as it’s kept…” and a briefly italicized prologue narrated by Claudia that foreshadows the events that take place later in the novel. This clear division in the prologue of the novel sets the tone for the shifting narrative perspectives that remain present for the duration of the novel. These shifting perspectives provide the reader with a more intimate view into Pecola’s story (as displayed in Claudia’s storytelling) as well as a contrasting depiction of how Pecola’s situation originated and its impact on the community of Loraine (through the omniscient third-person narration).

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.

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.