The Bluest Eye

Women. When hearing that word alone, you think of weakness, their insignificance, and how lowly they are viewed in society. Females can be seen as unworthy or nothing without a man if they are not advocating them and are constantly being treated differently from men. However, in the book, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, they live up to their reputations for how they view themselves. Specifically, being focused on women like Pecola, and Claudia. They are often questioning their worth from society’s judgement of beauty. Though one character, Frieda embraces it despite being black. With having everything temporary, the desire of grasping and having something permanent increases. The women desires to be of

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison depicts racism all throughout the novel. Discrimination is very heavy in the 1940s, and the protagonist Pecola Breedlove experiences that. Pecola is a lower-class black girl who is constantly picked on for not only her looks, but her uncontrollable family situation. Maureen Peal is a new girl that arrives at Pecola’s school, and she is an upper-class, wealthy black girl. When Maureen goes out for ice cream with Pecola, Frieda, and Claudia, the girls talk about menstruation, and Maureen accuses Pecola if she has ever seen her father naked. Pecola denies the accusation, and conflict arises between the girls. Maureen shouts, “‘I am cute! And you are ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!’” (Morrison 73).

In the third chapter of The Bluest Eye, entitled "Autumn", Toni Morrison focuses on Pecola's family, the Breedloves. Morrison goes in depth about the family dynamic of the Breedloves and how it affects Pecola and her self-image. The passage starts after one of many arguments between Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove, Pecola's parents, turns violent. Mrs. Breedlove wants Cholly to fetch some coal from the outside shed. Cholly spent the last night drinking and does not want to get out of bed. The passage begins with the children becoming aware of the argument. Mrs. Breedlove starts to hit him with cooking pans while Cholly mostly used his feet and teeth. After the fight is over Mrs. Breedlove just lets Cholly lie on the ground and she goes about her

After she meets Pecola, her concerns go to Pecola. She explains about each and every incident that occurs to Pecola and the reasons behind leading to those incidents. According to Claudia, the narrator of the story, not just Pecola but it was the Breedlove family members who treated themselves the uglier rather than the society. Only the difference is that they make a different mindset deal with it. The narrator vividly mentions by saying, “Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction/And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it” (Morrison 39). This explains more of what they were dealing with. It is impossible to make them believe that they aren’t relentlessly and aggressively ugly (38). Being young, vulnerable and more importantly, female, Pecola is the one who gets abused frequently and endures the damage in greater

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl immersed in poverty and made “ugly” by the Society of the early 1940’s that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley Temple.

In the novel, “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison the unorthodox structure and undermining content inspired and continues to inspire controversy. Morrison’s creative narrative approach addresses many issues of racism and identity. Through the course of the novel some vulgar subjects are also introduced, such as incest and pedophilia. In the book the point of view founded by the characters following their upsetting lives helps portray the theme of battling internal conflicts formed through extended metaphors and horrible societal circumstances.

By contrasting the homes of Claudia and Pecola throughout the entire novel, Morrison stresses the importance of home in defending against a predatory, racist society. In Claudia’s home, her parents truly care for her and her sister. In one instance, her father took out a gun to fend off a tenant that touched Freida’s breast. This completely contrasts with Pecola’s home, where her parents are both hateful and self-hating, and her father actually raped her. Even though both households are

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) takes place in Ohio towards the tail end of the depression. The story focuses on the character of Pecola Breedlove who wants to have blue eyes. Pecola becomes convinced that if she had blue eyes her life would be different. Through the eyes of our narrator, Claudia, and her sister Frieda we see the pervasive racism and abuse Pecola is subjected to. Claudia and Frieda act as witnesses to Pecola’s disintegration and as a result, they will spend the rest of their lives grappling with what happened to Pecola.

Because "The Bluest Eye" crystallizes the negative affect society can have on people, specifically African American girls in this novel, it is a teachable book for kids to determine the difference between what society wants and what is right. In the novel, Claudia says “We looked hard for flaws to restore equilibrium” (Morrison 68.) Claudia was referring to a white girl in her school. This is significant because society lead these African American girls to drool over white girls because they are supposedly perfect or worthier then them. It teaches kids the effects of society’s actions, and makes them realize self-worth does not come from the way you look. On page 22 of the novel Claudia states, “I try to discover what eludes me” (Morrison

Racial supremacy has been an issue through the world. It has been demonstrated by slavery in America and the genocide by Hitler in World War 2. Racial supremacy was a big thing in America where white people were seen as the right people and the only people and the other people were just minorities. In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison racial supremacy is shown by a young girl named Pecola who wants blue eyes so she could have better life. White culture has been the dominant culture for many people who are brought up thinking that it is the perfect lifestyle.

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.

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.

were dirty and loud”(Morrison 87).She is teaching her son how to acknowledge the difference between black people, the colored who would be fair skinned and the African Americans who are dark skinned. She did not want her son Junior to play with dark skinned black people because she found them to be dirty and loud. This was one problem the delusion of passing caused. Geraldine already passed and was welcomed by the white community and left behind her dark skinned people later pushing them away in order to keep her status in the white community.

The Standard of Beauty In the novel “The Bluest Eye”, by Toni Morrison depict the story of a young girl brainwash that the pigment of her skin color makes her ugly and worthless. She thinks that her life would be different if only she had blue eyes If only she had blue eyes. Women of color having learned to hate their own bodies because of their skin color even take this hatred out on their own children. Pecola has desire for blue eyes; she believes that everything she is experiencing has to do with the way she looks.

“Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is a novel about racism, yet there are relatively few instances of direct oppression. The Bluest Eye presents a more complicated portrait of racism. The characters are subject to an internalized set of values, which creates its own cycle of victimization. Morrison’s novel highlights how cultural ideals based on skin colour and physical features function as tools of racial oppression. For all races and for all individuals, it is critical to fully understand how society influences our values and beliefs. The focal character, Pecola, is victimized by a society that conditions her to believe that she is ugly and therefore worthless, because she doesn’t epitomize white