The Bluest Eye Racism

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The Bluest Eye is an exceptionally written novel which reveals the fictional traumatic life of an eleven year old African American girl named Pecola Breedlove. This novel takes place in the town of Lorain, Ohio during the 1940’s and focuses on the racism that the characters endured throughout the story. This story is told from the perspective of a young African American girl named Claudia MacTeer. She and her sister, Frieda MacTeer become witnesses to the terrible circumstances Pecola is terribly and unintentionally put through. Pecola chooses to hide from her life due to her constant fear and her everlasting dream of being thought of as beautiful, and possessing blue eyes. The Breedlove’s constant conflict filled lives and ever growing poverty …show more content…

Pecola’s innocence is ripped from her grasp when her father rapes her physically and mentally. The community deals with its own insecurities but are taken out on this poor, “ugly”, black young girl. She protects herself from this sorrow behind her obsessive longing for beautiful blue eyes. To her surprise, her eyes do not replace the pain of the racial struggles she faces or the carrying her father’s baby. In The Bluest Eye, racism and beauty are approached in a very unconventional way. The characters in the novel are led to a set of values that are broken. The black community has accepted white beauty standards which causes judgement towards those with lighter or darker skin. This judgement causes a rise in Pecola’s obsessive desire to have blue eyes. This novel discusses intense negative and disturbing situations which …show more content…

Geraldine works her entire life to reach and maintain a standard of beauty. Her obsession with her appearance and beauty is so significant that she is only concerned with their hairpins while having intercourse with men. This obsession of retaining the standard of beauty also separates the women from their family. In Geraldine's case, the husband married her because of her pervasive cleanliness, and does not expect anything more. The relationship between the couple is similar to a well oiled machine. The effects that this has on the children are profound. From an early age, Junior is taught that he is better than the other children that live around him, and that playing with them is beneath him and causes him to look bad. This creates extreme superiority within Junior, and it isolates him to being alone and away from the other children. Although he wants to have fun with them, he is not allowed because he would no longer be

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