The Uses of God and the Church in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The powerlessness of Pauline is one of the first things we see as a reader when we meet her. One of the main aspects of the powerlessness we see was that she “wasn’t much

Throughout the 1950’s and well before, African Americans were suppressed greatly by the seemingly superior whites. Vulgar slurs were thrown at blacks, many of those pertaining to animals. In Beloved, Toni Morrison includes the use of animals in a light, somewhat normal tone. However, these cover up a dark, blasphemous meaning. In order to pick up on the messages being conveyed by Morrison, one must be analytical in sentences that may seem to have little to no importance. The use of animals sends the a strong message about slavery and those affected: slaves are dehumanized. Slave owners become vicious in order to make slaves feels as if they are animals, and this in turn takes a toll on Sethe, making her kill her own child so she won’t feel these dehumanizing emotions.

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

...Morrison explores in the novel [and] centers upon the standard of beauty by which white women are judged in this country. They are taught that their blonde hair, blue eyes, and creamy skins are not only wonderful, but

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,

From a young age, Mrs. Breedlove has struggled to feel beautiful. From a nail through her foot to the judgment she received when she moved north, she has always been put down for who she is. As a young child she impaled her foot with a nail and it “left her with a crooked, archless foot that flopped when she walked” (Morrison 110). The first thing that began the curse of Mrs. Breedlove not being beautiful (besides her skin color), was as a child and got a nail right through her foot. The lack of medical knowledge and care left her with a limp that she was going to have for the rest of her life. From this one injury, she blames the rest of her misfortune in life off of it. She thinks her family does not like her because of it, and blames her foot for her

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).

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.

Toni Morrison’s classic novel, Beloved, can be briefly summarized as a story with woman who is living in both the horrible aftermath of slavery, as well as her action of murdering her baby child in an attempt to save her from slavery. This story is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, who killed her own child and attempted to kill her other children instead of willfully letting them all return to lives of slavery. While slavery is today clearly classified as wrong by the vast majority of civilized society, as is infanticide, the event that takes place in this book is not as black and white. These instances of a grayer side of morality represent a sort of moral ambiguity that runs rampant throughout the entire novel. The example that is of paramount importance is when Sethe, the protagonist of the story, murders her child in order to save the child from a life of slavery. While at first glance, this act may seem wrong to modern readers, there is actually some evidence that, when thought about, justifies Sethe’s actions.

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

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.

Claudia expresses again and again how marginalized she and her sister perceived themselves to be, "Adults do not talk to us - they give us directions" (10). When Claudia thinks back to a childhood illness she suffered, she remembers her mother's irritation at finding her sick in bed. Claudia questions the reliability of her perceptions of pain and confusion, "But was it really like that? As painful as I remember? Only mildly. Love...eased up into that cracked window" (12). Claudia's mother's irritation is tempered with compassion; she coats Claudia's phlegmy chest with salve and "hands repinned the flannel, readjusted the

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

All humans, begin their life with a “clean slate, or a blank canvas”, if you will, but with the natural process of growth and development, that canvas, or slate, slowly begins to fill in, with either positive, or negative life experiences that are imposed on us from birth, by the adults who both do, and do not participate in a child’s upbringing. We get to see many different examples, of the “Blank canvas, clean slate” metaphor, in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, where we see the negative imprint presented the most when we are introduced to the books main storyline of the Breedlove family. Whom epitomize negative nurturing, passed down from one generation to the next. The Patriarch of the Breedlove’s, Cholly Breedlove, is an African American man, who from the moment he was born, was rejected by the two human beings that made him, he was thrown away like a piece of trash and reminded of that fact frequently, as a young boy. Consequently, Cholly developed into a volatile, aggressive, and violent person with no one to answer to, but himself. Henceforth, with no male role models in his life to provide him with positive examples of what a good father should be, that when his children were born, he was left notably confused about what to feel for them, for he lacked the capacity to bond with his children. When he did feel emotions for his children, those emotions were almost always impulsive and based on what he felt at the time.