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What subjects and themes does toni morrison utilize in the bluest eye
The bluest eyes essay
Reader's ideas toward the bluest eye
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In Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” the young African American protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, has an arduous time trying to find her beauty in a society where she only feels as if you are beautiful with blue eyes. Despite her complex fascinations with the unrealistic goal of having blue eyes, along with the social pressures she is faced with throughout her life, leads her to a shattered future filled with confusion and a lack of stability. In the novel, one might ask “why could this happen to one of societies youth?” Then again, how did this happen to an innocent child? During Pecola’s first moments in the book, the reader gets an impression of what she wants to accomplish. Pecola is currently living with MacTeer family, a family made up of two naive young girls by the names of Claudia and Frieda and their parent. This is all due to the misfortunate events caused by Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove. An outburst of pure anger Cholly almost burned down the Breedlove’s family home. When Pecola arrives to the Macteer’s household, Mrs. Macteer offers Pecola a glass of milk to drink. When she receives the cup of milk it is in a Shirley Temple mug. Looking at the Shirley Temple glass, Pecola developed a strong personification of the perfect girl because of her beautiful appearance. She has two things that Pecola desires for, luscious pale white skin and the dark deep blue eyes. An attempt to consume little Miss Temple’s beauty, Pecola guzzles all the white milk in the Macteer house. Mrs. Claudia is very confused on why the whites were viewed as superior to African Americans in this society. She feels that they have disrespected and unappreciated just because of their skin color. Claudia is so ruthless about the whi... ... middle of paper ... ...own mentally and making her feel worthless. Pecola’s perception of her aesthetic lead her through a life long crucible with lead her to losing her peace of mind. To help her ease her trouble she seeks a spiritualist who is a revered for his work psychology. She asked Mr. Soaphead Church, to give her the bluest eyes in the world. In this time this is unpractical, so he hides her from reality. This leaves Pecola even more psychotic and delusional than before. She has a quixotic belief that she has blue eyes. When it all end, Pecola Breedlove, never finds love nor happiness in her life except for in the paradise that is living in her mind. To conclude Pecola’s image of her beauty is thrown in disarray, which causes her to feel lost, confused and weak. Pecola’s Community, and family all play a part in her infatuation with having the bluest eyes. Ultimately she
In The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, Pecola Breedlove attempts to measure up to the standard of beauty set by the Master Narrative: an ideological truth imposed by those in power. Pecola, persistent in her attempt to reach the convention of beauty, is never fully satisfied with herself, and quickly becomes obsessed in becoming ‘beautiful. Pecola begins to associate beauty with happiness and respect. This infinite pursuit for beauty has extremely destructive effects on Pecola’s self-esteem. By portraying Pecola’s perpetual, unrealistic endeavor to reach society’s standards and how she becomes submissive to these standards, Morrison reveals that one’s life can be overrun by viewing the world solely through the Master Narrative.
Pecola now finds herself feeling really close to the beautiful girl on the candy wrapper. This here is showing another reason on how the media builds a strong image on the world’s perfectionist and beauties. “If those eyes of her were different, that is to say beautiful, she herself would be different”. (Morrison 46) Pecola has now come to believe that to be beautiful you have to have blue eyes. She begins to pray to God that she can be blessed with blue eyes. Everyone is involved to what Pecola is feeling in the novel. “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.” (Morrison 46) Pecole is relating to what she see’s on the media. Today numerous celebrities make commercials and take pictures for articles in magazine to show how you need to look in, if you want to fit in, in this world or like I say how they want you to
Unable in her home environment to have properly achieved stable levels of “Physiological Health”, “Safety” or “Belonging” on ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Basic Needs’, Pecola couldn’t achieve a sense of self-esteem and therefore self-actualization. Hence, “she, stepped over into madness” (T. Morrison 1970) and spent her days talking to her imaginary friend about her imaginary blue eyes. As Vickroy says, “Pecola’s belief that she has blue eyes more importantly symbolize the trauma of not being loved.” (L.Vickroy, 2002). We see in the novel that Pecola innocently seeks a physical reason for her lack of being loved by her parents and classmates “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her
The Bluest Eye focuses on the difficulties of transitioning from child to woman. Morrison says that the ideal child is worry-free, vulnerable, and curious by introducing characters like Pecola, Claudia, and Jane. She contrasts the girls by giving adult qualities of maturity, the ability to nurture, independence, and community bonding. In the form of rape or a lack of interest from mother figures, the feeling of being unloved is detrimental to girls in their transition. In order to make the transition a woman needs to find herself through community and family. Morrison reminds us that in reality the vital transition from childhood to adulthood is filled with barriers that many fail to overcome.
One of the first immoral acts that society introduces to Pecola is lust – lust for “whiteness”, for beauty. She is taught from a young age that beauty is one of the standards that she will be held up to. In addition, society tells her that the key of being beautiful is being white, something Pecola never can be. One of the major quotes in the book shows just how powerful common belief can be. “…they stayed there because they believed they were ugly… No one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly,” [Emphasis added] (Pg. 28). Although, Morrison does not actually say that the Breedloves were physically ugly, she implies that society told them they were ugly, therefore they believed they were ugly. This belief came from society setting a standard that Pecola could never reach. Sadly, this poor little girl did n...
The novel is a retrospective story told by Claudia, one of Pecola's childhood friends. Claudia's account allows the reader to sympathize with Pecola's self-hatred. As an adult, Claudia best articulates how Pecola's victimization is caused by her environment. Telling the story almost three decades later, during the sixties, Claudia reflects on the pain of wanting to be something you can never become. According to an interview entitled "Toni Morrison's Black Magic" in Newsweek, Morrison states that Pecola's character was formed based on the fact that "Black is beautiful was in the air. . . .So I wrote about a child who was ugly-Pecola is the perfect defeated victim-only she was beautiful" (Strouse 56). Morrison's depiction of a victimized Pecola addresses how the dominance of white consumer society can effect the psyche of a young African American girl.
Society, especially western, tends to conceptualize beauty through the use of publicity and cinema. We are under constant bombardment from consumer related magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and movies about what “beautiful” people look like and how we should imitate them. This standard is overwhelmingly portrayed as a white beauty standard. Starting from a very young age this standard of beauty is created in our minds. We want to look like these actors and models; we want to be thin, fit, youthful looking, a symmetrical face and even have a particular race. We accept this beauty standard; we notice our various faults among ourselves and self-critique. We try to emulate the models as best we can; we forget that these standards are not reality. Publicity models and the most popular actors do not represent the majority of us and it is a foolish and unattainable dream to attempt to change ourselves to their beauty. The pressure society puts on us can cause low self-esteem and diseases such as anorexia. But we must look at the antithesis of society’s conception of this white standard, our minorities. Portraying this beauty standard to the polar opposites is more than racist. It is destructive to the minority community in that it creates resentment, low self-esteem, and a perverse hierarchy where minorities judge themselves and others on their proximity to the white beauty standard. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison critiques the white beauty standard that causes the black minority to feel a destructive self-hatred towards themselves and their fellow blacks because their self-perception is an unrealistic and unattainable beauty seen in publicity and films. This research paper’s aim is to present the influence of ...
In the bluest eye, Toni Morrison often showed the devastating effect that low self esteem and an absence of self respect can have. Pecola Breedlove had a very har life.. she was raped by her father, ignored by her mother and viewed as ugly by everyone. If though she felt self worth and grew tired of the perceptions of others by acting I a way that showed her confidence, she could have stopped the harsh treatment she faced. Also, even when people taunted her she could have instead of looking scared be bold. Claudia, another girl around the same age as pecola, was a good example of this. Claudia didn’t allow herself to have a negative view on her appearance. Instead she didn’t let just anyone have the time of day with her. She didn’t tolerate taunts because she felt she was worth
Two of the major instances of sexual abuse present in the novel involved both Mr. Henry with Frieda and Cholly with Pecola. The incident with Mr. Henry, while very serious...
Pecola believes she is far from meeting the white standards of beauty, offering no opposition to the judgements implied on to her. Her unconscious assimilation to beauty standards brings her into a state of delirium and worthlessness. Her conviction of her ugliness is rooted from societal standards of beauty rather than from herself: “...long hours she sat looking in the mirror trying to discover the secret of her ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored and despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike” (Morrison 34). Pecola’s inability to reject and oppose standards of beauty is expected, as every encounter and experience further reinforces her low self-esteem. All members of Pecola’s community, participate in crushing any possibility of a healthy self image of herself. For example, when Pecola heads to the grocery store, the clerk looks at her and her money with disdain: “She looks up at him and sees the...total absence of human recognition the glazed separateness. She doesn’t know what keeps his glance suspended...The distaste must be for her, her blackness” (Morrison 48). From this quote, Morrison describes how non-black members of the community treat Pecola lower than human. She is rejected due to her blackness and therefore her ugliness. Pecola frequently encounters such discrimination not only due to her race, but her gender as well. Such distressing encounters paired with a poor sense of self, Pecola falls victim to cultural expectations and her community’s prejudice. Society has eaten away at her self-esteem and self-worth; thus, Pecola is prevented from developing a positive self image and instead, loses her innocence on account of her community’s own need for self assurance. Living in a community that internalize white beauty standards, and condemned by her peers and parents for it,
In the novel “The Bluest Eye”, Toni Morrison traces a young girl’s story that is being discriminated against because of the pigment of her skin color which makes her ugly and worthless. She thinks that her life would not be difficult, if only her eyes were blue. Many women of color have learned to hate their own bodies because of their skin color, even taking this hatred out on their own children. Pecola, in Morrison’s story desires blue eyes; she believes that everything she is experiencing has to do with the way she looks. To her, having blue eyes will cause people treat her differently. Blue eyes symbolize the beauty and happiness that she sees
“Racialized Beauty: Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye” by Esti Sugiharti informs readers on how Morrison challenges the Western standards of beauty and reveals how this concept was constructed socially. Sugiharti mentions that Morrison’s points out that if white beauty standards are used in society, then the value of blackness would be diminished; however, the novel tends to override that tendency. The author tells readers how the ideal representation of beauty for women, specifically, is light skin and blue eyes, which for women of color is less possible to achieve than white woman (Sugaharti, 2002). This is clearly shown throughout the story with the characters of the book trying to conform to the Western standard of beauty. An example of this
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
She eventually convinces herself that the reason her mother can’t make eye contact with her and the reason no one talks to her is because they are jealous of her eyes. Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye is a tragic narrative of how one black community loathes itself for not being white. Even more tragic is the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young girl who hates herself for not being white. The constant criticism, the bullying received at school, and her rough family life at home lead Pecola to seek escape from her misery. In order to escape from her misery, Pecola fantasizes about becoming beautiful.