exactly what happens in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Consequently, this warped view on the world ruined lives and relationships for the characters in the book. What motivated the characters to react in such a way? How did Toni Morrison’s use of characterization, direct and indirect, form believable characters and situations? In this essay, I will explore all of these points. The Bluest Eye is a novel following the lives of the Breedlove and MacTeer families. Pecola Breedlove, who is exceptionally
darkness and evil. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye illustrates the struggles many black women faced in a patriarchal society, as they struggled to meet an impossible standard of beauty. “Black females were double oppressed. First, they have been sexually oppressed by white masters under the institutionalized slavery. Second, they have been victimized by family members and social institutions” (Tahir 3). From a feminist perspective, I will examine how The Bluest Eye depicts a standard of white beauty
Oneself through the Eyes of the White Culture: A Feminist Perspective Alongside its umbrageous depiction of African American female identity and its shrewd criticism of the internalized racism cultivated by American cultural definitions of beauty, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been inspiring a propagation of literature written by African American women about their experience as women of color. Inspired by a conversation Morrison had with one of her students who wished for blue eyes, the novel portrays
the person that they look up to and in most cases look for encouragement. However, some parents tend to value destruction and their own self-gain more than the life of their child. Both William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” demonstrating a principle that when parents are bound to their twisted, manipulative, and even immoral values that their children will ultimately be the ones to pay the price as they either embrace the similar hollow values themselves or set out
From Suspension to Liberation: A Character Analysis of “The Bluest Eye” Racial oppression, the definition of beauty, internalized racism, and sexual violence are a few of the recurring themes that women experience throughout Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and while some emerge from oppression, there is one character who remains a victim of various characters until the very end. Lois Tyson defines in “Critical Theory Today”, that a suspended woman is “the victim of men and society as a whole, with
In Toni Morrison’s, The Bluest Eye, power is shown by race, beauty standards, and bullying./ . Because the novel is set in the 1940s, the characters are living in segregation, where white people were held more powerful than black people or other races. Throughout the novel, it is common to see examples of white dominance even though there are rarely any white people seen in the novel. The novel also portrays power by beauty standards that have been set by society and how easily it can change perspective
lives. This internal struggle is shared with many characters in The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison. They believe that once they obtain certain spiritual, mental, or physical characteristics that they will be able to depart from their current, nauseating living conditions. The Bluest Eye varied in the amount characters that are seeking spiritual characteristics to depart from their current living conditions. Cholly Breedlove is seeking spiritual characteristics to escape his family life. Cholly
The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is a novel born from the author’s experience with a little black girl who wanted blue eyes, an effect of “racial self-loathing” (Morrison 210). The novel explores a similar, but much more extreme story: the story of Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is a little black girl living not only in a world that divides itself by race and is prejudiced against black people, but also amidst a family that holds conflict and divisions within itself. Morrison’s novels are known for their
grow and develop properly. In her novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison examines the effect of different mothers on their respective children through the characters of Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove. Throughout the novel, both characters express their thoughts and feelings through words, with Mrs. MacTeer having a few fussy soliloquies and Mrs. Breedlove having a few interior monologues to get their points across. Although Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove are two entirely different individuals, their
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Beauty is said to be in the eyes of the beholder, but what if the image of beauty is forced into the minds of many? The beauty of a person could be expressed in many different ways, as far as looks and personality goes, but the novel The Bluest Eye begs to differ. It contradicts the principle, because beauty is no longer just a person’s opinion but beauty has been made into an unwritten rule, a standard made by society for society. The most important rule
during the Great Depression, the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, illustrates in the inner struggles of African-American criticism. The Breedloves, the family the story revolves around a poor, black and ugly family. They live in a two-room store front, which is open, showing that they have nothing. In the family there is a girl named Pecola Breedlove, she is a black and thinks that she is ugly because she is not white. Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, goes through humiliated experiences that
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. In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison incorporates various techniques, such as her use of metaphors, the ironic use of names, and the visual images that she uses. The theme of The Bluest Eye, revolves around African Americans’ conformity to white
Racism in “The Bluest Eye” Several examples of racism are encompassed in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Characters who are members of the black community are forced to accept their status as the “others”, or “outsiders”, which has been imposed on them by the white community. In turn, blacks assign this status to other individuals within the lighter-skinned black community. In this novel, characters begin to internalize the racism presented by these people, and feel inferior. The stereotype
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, encompasses the themes of youth, gender, and race. The African American Civil Rights Movement had recently ended at the time the novel was written. In the book, Morrison utilizes a first-person story to convey her views on racial inequality. The protagonist and her friends find themselves in moments where they are filled with embarrassment and have a wish to flee such events. Since they are female African Americans, they are humiliated in society. One of Morrison’s
The story I read independently is called The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The story is told by two narrators: Claudia Macteer who is a grown woman reflecting back on her childhood, and an unknown narrator. This Novel is about how America's standards of beauty affect African Americans. In this novel the community has accepted blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin, as the only forms of beauty and they pass these beliefs onto their children. This theme is very prevalent in today’s society because the
Pecola’s Eyes and Vision Tony Morrison is a famous, exciting, American writer, describes as a major figure of the entire African American nation within the American community. “The Bluest Eye” published in 1970, is one of the most impressive novels of the author describing the Great American Depression. The contexts and the structure of the story looks as if it was written for children. This realistic story describes the manner of life and reality of the African American, suffering form the pressure
The Bluest Eye(1970) is Morrison’s first novel and also a very powerful study of how African-American families and particularly women are affected by racism and consequent sexual and mental abuse and how these women dwindle into madness. She depicts the struggle of living as a black American in a white, patriarchal society. This work is powerfully engaged with questions of history, memory and trauma. Her novels function as a form of cultural memory and how, in their engagement with African American
In the novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison readers are taken throughout the daily lives of African Americans who are faced with numerous trial & tribulations. Already facing the harsh reality that they were inferior to the white race. There were many families throughout this story that was faced with this stigma, however it seemed that the Breedloves had it just twice as hard. A series of social problems of which African Americans were victims to during the 1940s-1060s such as Rape, interracial
Beauty in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Some people will argue with you that there is always an ugly duckling somewhere in a family. I see it different, I see these people as unique. In Toni Morrison's book, The Bluest Eye there is the issue of being beautiful and ugly. In this essay I will discuss how Toni Morrison book The Bluest Eye initiates that during 1941 white was beautiful and black was ugly in the surrounding of two families. The issue of beauty versus ugliness is portraying
another race, as a result of the political, economic and social benefits associated. In the novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison, the topic of racial passing is widely explored through observation of the culture of the Black community. The story told in The Bluest Eye is one about eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, a black girl in America who prays for her eyes to turn blue. In her community Pecola is constantly referred to as ugly and is resented by all those around her. A major action identified