Pecola's experiences would have less meaning coming from Pecola herself because a total and complete victim would be an unreliable narrator, unwilling or unable to relate the actual circumstances of that year. Claudia, from her youthful innocence, is able to see and relate how the other characters, especially Pecola, idolize the "ideal" of beauty presented by white, blue-eyed movie stars like little Shirley Temple. In addition to narrative structure, the structure and composition of the novel itself help to illustrate how much and for how long white ideas of family and home have been forced into black culture. Instead of conventional chapters and sections, The Bluest Eye is broken up into seasons, fall, winter, spring, and summer. This type of organization suggests that the events described in The Bluest Eye have occurred before, and will occur again.
Have you realized how much the world plays a lot in racial background? Not everyone is the same, but isn 't that what makes all of us special? There are several movies that helped me to realize how important race is but the Imitation of Life spoke to me the most. Lora is a single white Broadway mother who met Annie and her daughter at a festival. Annie becomes the maid and a care taker of Lora’s daughter Suzie.
Films show a perception of reality, for better or for worse. Many see films and the cultural that it is in and think that it must be a accurate depiction, which sometimes unfairly puts a stigma on a group of people or a cultural. Hollywood has been able to expand all over the world, and many think The objective of promoting American culture through Hollywood movies is to dominate the other cultural communities around the world and become the universal culture of the world. Going to a movie with friends or family has been a tradition for many for a long time. Globalization has spread Hollywood movies all over the world, and our American movie stars are also the world’s movie stars.
As the mother of a mixed daughter (African and Panamanian), I feel for her. She is beautiful, she is wise and she is strong. But there are times when her black sisters admonish her and tell he, she is too light to really understand. In turn, her Caucasian sisters will tell her she’s too ethnic, too spicy to be white. That in between place is hard.
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.
Pecola embraces them to the point of madness. Unloved and unwanted, she believes that her ugliness can only be erased by the virtual embodiment of white beauty, beauty symbolized for her by blue eyes. The widely different views held by Claudia and Pecola are important in understanding the survival of one and the demise of the other. This paper explores the experiences and responses of Claudia and Pecola, as African-American girls, in their relationship to the white cultural icons of female childhood. As a child star, Shirley Temple embodied cultural ideals of innocence and instinctual understanding believed inherent in idealized childhood.
Breedlove, also known as Polly, tries to get forget her blackness and becomes fascinated with white culture as well. As a white society they try to get rid of the “blackness” as seen on page 83 “Wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away; where it crusts, they dissolve it; wherever it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it and fight it until it dies.” Polly has no love affection for poor Pecola and is not close to being an ideal mother either. But this little beautiful white girl with corn blonde hair in a pin dress has caught the attention of Polly. Polly begins to love this white girl more than Pecola, which she does not understand what she has done wrong for so long that this new white girl has taken her mother away from her. Since Polly is consumed with “whiteness” she neglects her own children and family.
Black women were free only in a sense. They were typecast in real life into providing domestic services for affluent white families” (The Mammy Caricature). The mammy caricature basically was an image that was given to mammy 's but in reality mammy 's hated their jobs and were unhappy in the way they were treated “the mammy caricature was more a myth than accurate portrayal” (The mammy Caricature). Aunt jemima was another representation of a mammy in Clinging to mammy The faithful slave in Twentieth-century America “Aunt jemima trademark cemented an idea of what a mammy looked and acted like for generations of consumers” (Micki
Belle was participating in her oppression by upholding the status quo of injustice. America and other countries continue to discriminate color people who have caused riots. The reason that Belle is involved is to be, “A voice for people like my mother who don’t have one.” It describes the era of postcolonialism where comforting dehumanization isn’t allowed in our society. Lord and Lady Mansfield are questioned about their treatment towards the color people. Belle uses an example to his injustice by saying, “How may I be too high in rank to dine with the servants and too low to dine with my family” (James).
Additionally, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was raped by her white master and got pregnant; this causes her to make some hasty decisions with Janie’s life. As a young adult, Janie is married off to a wealthy black man, even though she is not remotely in love with him. This is done because Nanny believes black woman have no power and need someone with power and wealth to protect them. As a middle-aged adult, Janie meets Mrs. Turner, a black woman, who is obsessed with white people and believes they are superior to black people. This shows that not only white people are racist towards black people.