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Literary analysis for toni morrison recifitat
The bluest eye as racial prejudice
Literary analysis for toni morrison recifitat
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The Bluest Eye Blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin was the envy of most young African American girls in the 1940's. In the tragic novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old black girl is a victim of racial self-loathing and also rape by her father which results in pregnancy. Described as submissive, ugly, and ignorant, she is labeled the outcast amongst the black community of Lorain, Ohio. Though Pecola does have some friends, Claudia and Frieda Macteer, she wants to be accepted and loved by others. Pecola grows up in an abusive and un-loving family. She longs to disappear from the face of the Earth to rid her of her problems; however, it soon drives her into a yearning to become beautiful. Pecola gets the idea that if her brown eyes were to turn blue, her world would be different. For a year Pecola prays for blue eyes, but her wish never came true. When she gets raped by her father, she thinks he does it because of her ugliness. Pecola goes to a spiritualist later on to ask for blue eyes and is led to believe that she will gain her wish. She is then truly convinced that she really does have blue eyes and goes insane as a result. (p. 204) "She spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulder, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air like a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach--couldn't even see--but which filled the valleys of the mind." The tragedy of Pecola Breedlove is of oppression and violation in children. Children learn from the adults around them and believe everything adults say or do. The emphasis on Europeans in Pecola's community gives her the idea that only white people are beautiful and loved. Her belief in white superiority results in internalized racism. Even in the world today there is still oppression in children, especially girls. The most common problem for girls is beauty. Almost every girl believes that being tall, thin, and beautiful will give them everything. But, if girls start learning to love and except themselves, there'll be one less problem in tomorrow's society.
If a person had never experienced it before it would probably be strange but through stories and personal experiences the setting was familiar and inviting. Curanderas are almost the equivalent of over-the-counter medicine for Latinos, not really, but close. If there is a symptom it is easier, faster and more comforting to visit the local curandera than it is to visit a doctor. Doctors require tests and until they are certain of the illness, their remedy is Tylenol.
Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye", is a very important novel in literature, because of the many boundaries that were crosses and the painful, serious topics that were brought into light, including racism, gender issues, Black female Subjectivity, and child abuse of many forms. This set of annotated bibliographies are scholarly works of literature that centre around the hot topic of racism in the novel, "The Bluest Eye", and the low self-esteem faced by young African American women, due to white culture. My research was guided by these ideas of racism and loss of self, suffered in the novel, by the main character Pecola Breedlove. This text generates many racial and social-cultural problems, dealing with the lost identity of a young African American women, due to her obsession with the white way of life, and her wish to have blue eyes, leading to her complete transgression into insanity.
One of the biggest, growing debates today is the issue of immigration into the U.S. I just don’t understand why there’s such a big debate. I compare this issue to the issue of racism in the way that, no matter what you do, "they" are always going to be here, and it is only ignorance that keeps the issue ablaze. The fact that migrants are not mostly white these days, also makes the issue one more of race. As Charles S. Clark puts it in The New Immigrants, "In the 1990’s, Americans who grew up in a historically white, Anglo-Saxon society are having to adjust to a Polish-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili; to Spanish-language editions of People magazine on Seven-11 shelves; and to Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques rising in their communities." In the case of immigration, though, the ignorance is apparent in both the immigrant and the non-immigrant.
During the 1900’s through 1950’s the United States experienced an influx of immigrants coming in from Mexico seeking employment opportunities, as many of them wanted to avoid the Mexican Revolution occurring from 1910 to 1920. Methods for arriving in the United States varied for each individual’s preference of the destination, but the means of transportation had been constant throughout. These methods of transportation consisted of contractors seeking unskilled workers willing to partake in hard labor in steel, railroad, or agriculture companies. Contractors traveled to towns close to Mexico’s boarder such as Laredo or El Paso seeking Mexicans citizens for labors. In some instances, immigrants traveled on their own will based on the advice
Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye provides social commentary on a lesser known portion of black society in America. The protagonist Pecola is a young black girl who desperately wants to feel beautiful and gain the “bluest eyes” as the title references.
Since a long time ago immigrant families have been coming to the U.S. to seek a better life. The idea of the American Dream becomes shattered once they start dealing with all the obstacles to get to the United States from South or Central America. People start facing discrimination and are taken advantage of. Since their journey starts, immigrants face discrimination from everywhere they go; the people who help them cross over to the U.S. charge high amounts of money to help them come over. Once they get to the United States immigrants continue in the same pattern of being abused, and taken advantage of. It is important to mention that if people are moving from their own country of origin it must be because the conditions they are living in are worse than the ones they are willing to live in, by moving. People that decide to make the move and explore new ways of living are often faced with discrimination, wage-theft and poor health conditions. “Wage theft is particularly prevalent among immigrant workers, and ―work-related exploitation appears to be growing along with the country’s immigrant population.” (James Pinkerton,
As an attempt to escape the possible tragic proceedings following cultural conflicts, Latin American immigrants seek refuge in America. Once in America, immigrants seek to gain new opportunities that can enable them to essentially achieve a better quality of life. Additionally, Henderson argues that immigrants from Latin America migrate to the United States for roughly the same reasons as other immigrants: “they might wish to join family members, have a lust for adventure, or need to escape something in their home country; but mostly they need jobs, which are scarce back home”
In the article titled "Dying to Work" there is an excellent quote given by Rep. Kolbe says, “There are no two countries in the world that share a border where the economic disparities are greater than between the U.S. and Mexico.” (AZ Republic, 2002) My paper draws on the information from the “Worldwide Refugee Information: Country Report: Mexico” written in 2000 and the article titled “Dying to Work: The Arizona Republic” written in 2001. Both of these articles give numerous information about the Mexican Immigrants and refugees. I am focusing on the illegal Mexican immigrants as well as refugees that enter the U.S. through refugee status, because living in Arizona, there are many immigrants and refugees from Mexico that we see walking down the street. They are trying to come across the boarder to the United States. These immigrants and refugees come in search for a better life, not only for themselves, but for their families as well. Mexico is full of poverty and trying to find a good paying job in Mexico is slim to none. People depend on their family members that come across to the United States to support them. In this paper I will compare and contrast these two articles, trying to give you a better scope of how difficult things are for refugees and illegal immigrants that come to the U.S. from Mexico, in search for hope..
In the novel, the Black narrator Claudia talks about how the ideal beauty of their society is White women, stating, “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. ‘Here,’ they said, ‘this is beautiful, and if you are on this day “worthy” you may have it’ (Morrison 20). This quote is significant because it proves that the culture promotes the appearance of White women over Black women. Due to the large amounts of racism, many African Americans believed they lived in poverty because they were black. The narrator explained, “The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they were ugly” (Morrison 38). The discrimination was so extreme in the novel that the African American characters started to idealize the white race. One example of this is when Pecola, a black girl, yearned for blue eyes because she believes all of the cruelty in her life will then go away. This strong desire ultimately leads to insanity (Morrison 174). The psychological suffering that many of the young female characters went through is result of discrimination towards a racial
For Mexicans, the general reason to migrate is for pure economy reasons. For Cubans and Guatemalans, the main reason is to escape from persecution at home and seek refugee status in the United States. For Indigenous communities, it is generally a combination of the two. But often or not, the poor and unlivable conditions in the home country are just too much to bear. They are often so horrible that not only are men and women willing to face and in some cases, die to reach the United States but, as dramatized in “Victoria para Chino”, so too do the children of migrant parents. Upon crossing the border, many migrants discover that the much-hyped notion that the US is a land of opportunity or plentiful work is not true. Migrants, unlike citizens, have far fewer choices to employment options such as agriculture and service jobs. Generally, these jobs provide low pay and are some of the most economically vulnerable during economic downturns. If a migrant cannot find stable work, he is often forced onto the streets as a jornalero. A jornalero is basically a day laborer that seeks work on street corners. However, this method of work is notorious for its unreliability for work and money that it is often joked that there is only “¡Tres trabajos para toda la pinche ciudad!” (Ordenez pg.44). While
Immigration is the process of entry of individuals into a new country (23). Throughout past centuries, immigration has been a means of discovery and exploration of new lands. In today’s culture, immigration to the United States is an avenue for individuals who wish to start new lives and take advantage of the capitalistic, entrepreneurial system. People from many countries have migrated into the United States. Most recently, the migrants have come from Central and South American countries. These Latin American countries influence America’s society culturally and economically through their language, traditions, and workforce. From the 1990s to the present time, immigration from Latin American countries has more than doubled. Mexico is one of the leading providers of immigrants to the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, 16.3 percent of our nation’s population consists primarily of people with Hispanic or Latino background (4) (This percentage does not include illegal immigrants). By understanding the background and development of immigration, the effects of immigration on the economy and culture, as well as, the different perspectives of Americans on immigration, one can begin to grasp the overall significance that Latin American immigration is having on America’s infrastructure.
"And Pecola. She hid behind hers. (Ugliness) Concealed, veiled, eclipsed--peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask" (Morrison 39). In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Pecola, comes to see herself as ugly. This idea she creates results from her isolation from friends, the community, and ever her family. There are three stages that lead up to Pecola portraying herself as an ugly human being. The three stages that lead to Pecola's realization are her family's outlook toward her, the community members telling her she is ugly, and her actually accepting what the other say or think about her. Each stage progresses into the other to finally reach the last stage and the end of the novel when Pecola eventually has to rely on herself as an imaginary friend so she will have someone to talk to.
Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye contributes to the study of the American novel by bringing to light an unflattering side of American history. The story of a young black girl named Pecola, growing up in Lorain, Ohio in 1941 clearly illustrates the fact that the "American Dream" was not available to everyone. The world that Pecola inhabits adores blonde haired blue eyed girls and boys. Black children are invisible in this world, not special, less than nothing. The idea that the color of your skin somehow made you lesser was cultivated by both whites and blacks. White skin meant beauty and privilege and that idea was not questioned at this time in history. The idea that the color of your skin somehow made you less of a person contaminated black people's lives in many different ways. The taunts of schoolboys directed at Pecola clearly illustrate this fact; "It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its teeth" (65). This self hatred also possessed an undercurrent of anger and injustice that eventually led to the civil rights movement.
A reader might easily conclude that the most prominent social issue presented in The Bluest Eye is that of racism, but more important issues lie beneath the surface. Pecola experiences damage from her abusive and negligent parents. The reader is told that even Pecola's mother thought she was ugly from the time of birth. Pecola's negativity may have initially been caused by her family's failure to provide her with identity, love, security, and socialization, ail which are essential for any child's development (Samuels 13). Pecola's parents are able only to give her a childhood of limited possibilities. She struggles to find herself in infertile soil, leading to the analysis of a life of sterility (13). Like the marigolds planted that year, Pecola never grew.
She believes that if she could have blue eyes, their beauty would inspire kind behavior from others. Blues eyes in Pecola’s definition, is the pure definition of beauty. But beauty in the sense that if she had them she would see things differently. But within the world that Pecola lives in the color of one’s eye, and skin heavily influences their treatment. So her desperation for wanting to change her appearance on the account of her environment and culture seems child-like but it is logical. If Pecola could alter her appearance she would alter her influence and treatment toward and from others. In this Morrison uses Marxism as a way to justify Pecola’s change in reality depending on her appearance. The white ideologies reflected upon Pecola’s internal and external conflicts which allowed her to imagine herself a different life. The impacts of one’s social class also impacts one’s perspective of their race. The vulnerability created by the low social class allows racism to protrude in society and have a detrimental effect for the young black girls in “The Bluest Eye” (Tinsley).The quotes explained above express the social and economic aspect of the Marxist theory. The theory that centers around the separation of social classes and the relationship surrounding them not one’s internalization of oneself