The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison Essay

At a time when blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple is idolized by white and black alike,

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

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

Topic: Discuss the issues of self-hatred and the aesthetics of beauty in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. What role do they play in the novel and how do they relate to its theme?

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 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.

The narration of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is actually a compilation of many different voices. The novel shifts between Claudia MacTeer's first person narrative and an omniscient narrator. At the end of the novel, the omniscient voice and Claudia's narrative merge, and the reader realizes this is an older Claudia looking back on her childhood (Peach 25). Morrison uses multiple narrators in order to gain greater validity for her story. According to Philip Page, even though the voices are divided, they combine to make a whole, and "this broader perspective also encompasses past and present... as well as the future of the grown-up Claudia" (55).

Lindsay Kite, author of the article “Beauty Whitewash”, advocates positivity of what beauty is to its bearer. Living the life of a society which is full of physical image perfectionism is a huge challenge for any woman to attain. The effect of media implying what is beautiful is encouraging the minds of women into needing a physical remedy. The images of beauty shown in all forms of media create an emotional struggle for many women of color. For these reasons, Kite’s observations combined with life experience, come with a goal to empower women, by focusing on the effect of media’s white beauty standards on women of color.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and “Junior,” and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home.

You pick up your favorite magazine and begin to flip through only aware to your conscious how none of the models look like you. You watch a movie/ tv and the same is present… lack of representation. In effect, you begin to recount remarks you have received such as “you are pretty for a black girl”, “you should flat iron your hair”, “why are your lips so big” or black women shouldn’t wear certain colours, balanty telling you that your lips, skin and curves are not involved based on the eurocentric idea of beauty, thus your natural features in which you had great comfort and confidence becomes peculiar and discomforting. Hence, the influence from the European expansion altered the meaning of beauty all over the world, predominantly in

There are many themes that seem to run throughout this story. Each theme and conflict seems to always involve the character of Pecola Breedlove. There is the theme of finding an identity. There is also the theme of Pecola as a victim. Of all the characters in the story we can definitely sympathize with Pecola because of the many harsh circumstances she has had to go through in her lifetime. Perhaps her rape was the most tragic and dramatic experience Pecola had experiences, but nonetheless she continued her life. She eliminates her sense of ugliness, which lingers in the beginning of the story, and when she sees that she has blue eyes now she changes her perspective on life. She believes that these eyes have been given

As a result, she fails to care for her own children and is harsh with them. Samuel has thoughts about running away and Pecola has a fear of growing up. Also when Pecola accidentally drops the berry cobbler on the floor, Pauline does not comfort Pecola, but instead comforts the daughter of the white family. Pauline consoles, “Hush, baby, hush. Come here. Oh, Lord, look at your dress. Don’t cry no more. Polly will change it” (Morrison 109). While Pecola is in pain from the cobbler burning her legs, Pauline slaps Pecola and consoles the little girl. This shows that she prefers the white child over her own child. In brief, Pauline has no interest in her family and instead favors the white family that she works for.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison narrates the lives of two families, the MacTeer family and the Breedlove family. The novel digs into the themes of love, envy, and weakness, while maintaining a thick and interesting plotline. These themes are conveyed thoroughly through Morrison’s literary style. Toni Morrison’s powerful writing and structural techniques add depth to the novel, enhancing certain emotions while developing a riveting plot.

Since childhood, we all have been taught that “racism is bad” and should be avoided at all costs. We have been told that “everyone is a child of God and we are all created equal.” In fact, Americans are praised for the so-called equality they possess. However, renowned author Toni Morrison sheds light on the sheltered and unspoken truth that everyone—to some extent—is racist. “Home” is a reflective essay in which Morrison explains that her triumphs against racist ideologies are evident throughout her various novels (“Home” 3). In Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, instead of establishing a home where race does not matter—a home which she dreams of in her essay—she creates just the opposite (3). In this novel, by using direct

Women across the globe face this pressure to live up to a certain standard of beauty. Women will dye their hair, wax their eyebrows, and some even spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery, all in an attempt to fit society’s perception of “beauty.” African-American women and women of color in particular struggle to embrace their own unique beauty, especially when dealing with things such as skin complexion, hair, and Afrocentric facial features. People have grown up in a society that leads them to believe that beauty can be achieved if you have fair skin, straight hair, or having the ideal body Societies views on what is attractive, can persuade another person’s views on attraction. Attraction is partially biological, but also social. Which is why it is important to have a vast selection of beautiful women to show case that not only Eurocentric features are attractive. African American women and other women of color need more representations of women that look like them in the media. We need more shows and movies, portraying images of woman of color as beautiful.