Pecola’s conversation with her imaginary friend is one of the most crucial scenes in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. In it, a young African-American girl in the 1940s takes on the impossible task of trying to conform to societal expectations of beauty. The most damaging force is not racist white people but Pecola herself. She attempts imitating something she is not and never leaves behind the parasitic ideas of beauty that infest her thoughts. By asking the manipulative Soaphead Church to grant her wish for blue eyes, she destroys herself. The conversation between Pecola and her imaginary friend captures her questionable sanity. Having an imaginary friend as a young child is normal, but talking to an imaginary friend about having “blue eyes” …show more content…
Somewhat amusingly, she assumes that her friend threatens to leave because of her eyes. After her friend acknowledges she is angry with Pecola, Pecola challenges, “because my eyes aren’t blue enough? Because I don’t have the bluest eyes?” (Morrison 204). Pecola only makes herself ugly as she strives for beauty. The ugliness she sees in herself forces those who befriend her to leave her, and she creates her own friend to feel loved because she has no real friends. Her friend, however, is not really a friend. Her primary function is to agree with Pecola that nobody has bluer eyes. Despite “obtaining” blue eyes after having her wish granted, Pecola does not attract the attention she originally thought she would. Whereas before she could not see herself, she now sees herself in an unreal way as a result of her “blue” …show more content…
The invented friend responds to Pecola’s question by retorting, “No. Because you’re acting silly” (Morrison 204). This response is somewhat paradoxical because if Pecola knows (subconsciously) that what she is doing is silly then, logically, she would stop pretending she has blue eyes. Utilizing “silly” is important because it affirms Pecola must know that her obsession is irrational. Her own mind chose “silly” as the proper adjective to describe her situation. Nobody would call Pecola’s actions silly, but Pecola’s subconsciousness selects this word because it makes her actions seem less severe. An outsider would bluntly call her “stupid.” Utilizing “silly” is a type of defense mechanism, and defense mechanisms are often used by emotionally weak people to shield themselves from further emotional harm. As suggested by utilizing “silly,” Pecola’s prognosis for recovery is bleak. Outsiders, instead of Pecola herself, comment on her state because it keeps her insulated from the harsh criticism she would face were she to comment on her own actions. By having outsiders comment on her condition, nobody can say with absolute certainty they know what fuels Pecola’s predilection with blue eyes. What is certain is that Pecola’s retreat to her imagination is a result of the harsh experiences she has endured throughout her life. Her imagination is a haven where she can have blue eyes, friends, and beauty. Lamentably, seeing beauty in herself
Back in the 1940s, lighter skin was a better look. If you were a dark black girl, you were seen as dirty and lesser. Since Pecola was a dark skin with wooly hair, she was accepted openly. To be beautiful, you need “blue eyes.” Pecola’s hardship of being an “ugly” black girl growing up around whites was hard for her. She believed she was ugly, because she is bullied and tormented. Pecola is a fragile and delicate child when the novel begins, and by the middle of the book, she has been almost completely worn-out by hurt and shame. Pecola is a symbol of the black community’s self-hatred and belief in its own ugliness. Others in the community, like her mother, father, and Geraldine, act out their own self-hatred by expressing hatred toward
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.
As a child, Claudia seems to resent black exploitation from the past as she does not embody the longing for ‘white perfection’ as other characters do. After receiving a white doll with blue eyes as a present, Claudia resents it and states ‘I could not love it’ (p. 19). It could be argued that the doll symbolizes prejudice against black people and how the appearance of white skin and blue eyes is preferred. As Claudia does not favour the white stereotype, it seems as though she is not living in a state of self -hatred that seems to stem from the past and live on in the present for others. Claudia and Pecola Breedlove are in the same age group, yet it could be argued that she does not affiliate herself with the same longing that Pecola feels to be ‘saved’ from black injustice by the appearance of blue eyes. Furthermore, it is argued by a critic that ‘Claudia MacTeer is Morrison’s persona in the novel, her fictional “second self” . The Bluest Eye seems to reflect this, as Morrison wants to highlight black prejudice by opposing it in her novel. It could be suggested that Morrison uses Claudia in the novel to represent her own resentment and need to break away from the past, stopping it living on in her own present, as well as the present of society. Claudia seems to provide a sense of hopefulness for the future rather than a cycle of personal antagonism, represented in
get blue eyes. Pecola thinks that if she can be like the blue eyed Shirley
In the 1940's as well as present day, the media pushed on society an image of perfection and beauty. This image is many times fake, but the naive cannot deceive, and it can become an icon of beauty. If you do not fall within the image then you are ugly. In the book "The Bluest Eye," we witness the power that the media has on specific characters: Pecola Breedlove, Claudia and Frieda MacTeer. The icon of beauty at that point in time is Shirley Temple, a white girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She is also the first reference to beauty in the book. Claudia explains her feelings towards Shirley Temple by saying, "...I had felt a stranger, more frightening thing than hatred for all the Shirley Temples of the world" (19). Claudia is relating the hatred that she felt towards Shirley Temple to the envy she has towards girls who are beautiful like Shirley. Claudia herself knows that the media is trying to imply this image she says, "Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signsall the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured" (20). This idea is repeated repetitively throughout the story, the idea that blue-eyed is beautiful. Frieda and Pecola love Shirley Temple while Claudia despises her with envy. Pecola once goes to purchase some candies called Mary Janes, she is very intrigued by the blue-eyed, blond girl in the wrapper. The narrator tells us that Pecola feels Mary Jane's eyes are pretty and that by eating the candy she feels the love that she has for the girl on the wrapper and she finds herself closer to her (50). The idea pushed by the media that blue eyes are beautiful builds up a strong destructive desire in Pecola.
She is envious of people with blue eyes because she thinks that those people have better lives. “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty....A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes…” this quote is from Soaphead, a man that runs a church and he pretends to be God, after Pecola has asked him to give her blue eyes. Even a terrible man that has committed many terrible sins, feels sympathy for Pecola because of the terrible life she has
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.
In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the character Claudia struggles with a beauty standard that harms her sense of self-esteem. Claudia tries to make sense of why the beauty standard does not include black girls. The beauty standard determines that blonde-haired blue-eyed white girls are the image of beauty and therefore they are worthy of not only attention, but are considered valuable to American culture of the 1940s. Thus, learning she has no value or beauty as a black girl, Claudia destroys her white doll in an attempt to understand why white girls are beautiful and subsequently worthy, socially superior members of society. In destroying the doll, Claudia attempts to destroy the beauty standard that works to make her feel socially inferior and ugly because of her skin color. Consequently, Claudia's destruction of the doll works to show how the beauty standard was created to keep black females from feeling valuable by producing a sense of self-hate in black females. The racial loathing created within black women keeps them as passive objects and, ultimately, leads black women, specifically Pecola, to destroy themselves because they cannot attain the blue eyes of the white beauty standard.
In the novel “The Bluest Eyes”, by Toni Morrison, Racial self-loathing and hatred is a major theme through the text, and is even evident in the title. Instead of making the plot center around events over racism, the book shows a deeper portrayal of racism, emphasizing on the way racial self-hatred and loathing plagues the black characters. The novel shows an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards distort the lives of the black characters. The author shows this by having African Americans who have lighter features, Maureen Peal, Geraldine and Soaphead Church, and characters with darker features, Pecola and her Parents Cholly, and Pauline Breedlove. Through them we are able to see racial self-loathing, there
Blond hair, blue eyes. In America these are the ideals of a woman’s beauty. This image is drilled into our minds across the lifespan in the media and it conditions people's standards of beauty. We see Black women wish that their skin was lighter. In an episode of "The Tyra Banks Show", a Black girl as young as 6 talks about how she doesn't like her hair and wishes that it was long and straight like a white woman's. Some minorities get surgery to change their facial features, or only date white men. Having been taught to think that white people are more attractive than people of their own ethnicity. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the character of Pecola exemplifies the inferiority felt throughout the black community due to the ideology that white qualities propel you in social status. Pecola’s mother, Pauline Breedlove, said it best when she was introduced to beauty it being the most destructive ideas in the history of human though. From which the envy, insecurity and disillusion have been derived by the ideas of beauty and physical appearance. Pecola’s story is about the consequences of a little black girl growing up in a society dominated by white supremacy. We must not look at beauty as a value rather an oppressive discourse that has taken over our society. Pecola truly believes that if her eyes were blue she would be pretty, virtuous, and loved by everyone around her. Friends would play with her, teachers would treat her better and even her parents might stop their constant fights because, in her heart of hearts, no one would want to “do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.”
and white society has conditioned her to believe that she is ugly. Pecola.s physical features
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison is an African American writer, who believes in fighting discrimation and segregation with a mental preparation. Tony focuses on many black Americans to the white American culture and concludes that blacks are exploited because racism regarding white skin color within the black community. The bluest eye is a story about a young black girl named Pecola, who grew up in Ohio. Pecola adores blonde haired blue eyes girls and boys. She thinks white skin meant beauty and freedom and that thought was not a subject at this time in history. This book is really about the impact on a child’s state of mind. Tony Morrison has divided her book into four seasons: autumn, winter, spring, and summer. The main characters in this book are three girls, Claudia and Frieds McTeer, and Pecola Breedlove. Why was Pecola considered a case? Pecola was a poor girl who had no place to go. The county placed her in the McTeer’shouse for a few days until they could decide what to do until the family was reunited. Pecola stayed at the McTeer’s house because she was being abuse at her house and Cholly had burned up his house. The first event that happens in the book was that her menstrual cycle had started. She didn’t know what to do; she thought she was bleeding to death. When the girls were in the bed, Pecola asked, “If it was true that she can have a baby now?” So now the only concern is if she is raped again she could possibly get pregnant. Pecola thought if she had blue eyes and was beautiful, that her parents would stop fighting and become a happy family.In nursery books, the ideal girl would have blonde hair and blue eyes. There is a lot of commercial ads have all showed the same ideal look just like the nursery book has. Pecola assumes she has this beautiful and becomes temporary happy, but not satisfied. Now, Pecola wants to be even more beautiful because she isn’t satisfied with what she has. The fact is that a standard of beautyis established, the community is pressured to play the game. Black people and the black culture is judged as being out of place and filthy. Beauty, in heart is having blond hair, blue eyes, and a perfect family. Beauty is then applied to everyone as a kind of level of class.
Brought up as a poor unwanted girl, Pecola Breedlove desires the acceptance and love of society. The image of "Shirley Temple beauty" surrounds her. In her mind, if she was to be beautiful, people would finally love and accept her. The idea that blue eyes are a necessity for beauty has been imprinted on Pecola her whole life. "If [I] looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they would say, `Why look at pretty eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty [blue] eyes'" (Morrison 46). Many people have helped imprint this ideal of beauty on her. Mr. Yacowbski as a symbol for the rest of society's norm, treats her as if she were invisible. "He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper... see a little black girl?" (Morrison 48). Her classmates also have an effect on her. They seem to think that because she is not beautiful, she is not worth anything except as the focal point of their mockery. "Black e mo. Black e mo. Yadaddsleepsnekked. Black e mo black e mo ya dadd sleeps nekked.
"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.
Brought up as a poor unwanted girl, Pecola Breedlove desires the acceptance and love of society. The image of "Shirley Temple beauty" surrounds her. In her mind, if she was to be beautiful, people would finally love and accept her. The idea that blue eyes are a necessity for beauty has been imprinted on Pecola her whole life. "If [I] looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they would say, `Why look at pretty eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty [blue] eyes'" (Morrison 46). Many people have helped imprint this ideal of beauty on her. Mr. Yacowbski as a symbol for the rest of society's norm, treats her as if she were invisible. "He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper... see a little black girl?" (Morrison 48). Her classmates also have an effect on her. They seem to think that because she is not beautiful, she is not worth anything except as the focal point of their mockery.