I have truly enjoyed reading the book, ‘The Bluest Eye’, by Toni Morrison. The story revolves around the lives of three African American girls, Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda and their struggles in life, belonging from a poor lower- class background. Although we cannot explain from personal experience, how difficult it is to live in a substandard environment as those girls and their families have lived in, we can only sympathize and describe such events and situations. I have a strong belief and opinion that poverty plays a leading role in the future outcome in a person’s success, health and livelihood. Poverty has negative mental, physical, social, and developmental affects in both children and adults. I have conducted a research to support …show more content…
Although we don’t see this form of discrimination in today’s time, we can still see racism in our country, fueling hatred and hurtful messages to those who belong to different race and ethnic groups. The quote was very meaningful to the whole story, in my view. That one quote had revealed many matters that would be connected to the story. A study conducted by Prof. Alan Krueger called ‘Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?’, discussed the connection of poverty and terrorism that is widespread since the last few decades. The journal has done a research resulting that poverty and education do not have a direct link to terrorism. By terrorism, hate- crimes are the main offenses, whichever way it is conducted, but this gave an insight that there isn’t always a connection between poverty and class with crimes relating to hate, whether racial or …show more content…
Not only in non- fiction and biographies/ autobiographies, but also on fiction because many stories have plots that include poverty and racism. The topic of poverty is widely included in many fiction books. Two notable examples of poverty in literature are ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, by John Steinbeck and ‘The Revolution of Every Day’, by Cari Luna. Poverty is not a topic that is limited to non- fiction literature. Many fiction stories can commonly have a theme of poverty here and there, whether directly connected with the characters and plot or not. Mostly poverty is associated with the characters and their background and how they were raised. I have read many stories that were both non- fiction and fiction, where poverty is usually described with a back flash to the story, the character’s past and upbringing and how it resulted in them, the characters, to be where they are
The book deals with several sociological issues. It focuses on poverty, as well as s...
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.
Common among millions of Americans, poverty is an ongoing issue both in real life and for the characters in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Destitution means not having enough money to support oneself and family, which often times indicates a shortage of necessary items such as food, clothing and shelter. Living in Beachwood, I have not had many direct experiences with poverty and most incidences I have had have been through charity work, meaning the neediness was being supported by an organization or group. However, one time I witnessed true destitution was in New York City. While walking along the streets of Times Square, a few friends and I came across a poor man holding a dismal box and pleading for money. He shook the container
This book touches on many different aspects of racial inequality by bringing together the works of many different African American authors, and discusses all of the major themes of “whiteness studies”. The author speaks of how whites attempt to maintain a neutral ground by focusing on extreme acts of white supremacy, which blinds the main steam to the problem of white dominance as a whole. They also discuss how there are differences in the wages between whites and blacks. One of the chapters discusses how there are whites who are committed to the equality of the races, and yet cannot empathize with the races they are trying to help. In another chapter they discuss how Pecola Breedlove undergoes racial deformation through biopower mechanisms occurring throughout the characters life. In another chapter an author discusses how racial excoriation cannot be the focus any longer if we wish to make progress in the realm of race. Instead he suggests we need to focus on the rehabilitation of racial whiteness. He argues that in order to accomplish this we must address the fears and greediness of whites.
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. The book seeks to define beauty and love in this twisted perverse society, dragging the reader through Morrison’s emotional manipulations. Her father Cholly Breedlove steals the reader’s emotional attention from Pecola as he enters the story. In fact, Toni Morrison’s depiction of Cholly wrongfully evokes sympathy from the reader.
Racism is defined by merriam-webster.com as ‘1. A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. 2. Racial prejudice or discrimination.’ Racism exists among all races and ethnicities, but most prominently between whites and blacks. The most basic cause of racism begins with the idea that there is something different between different ethnicities. Though that thought is illogical, it is one that seems inevitable. The amount of hatred one can hold against another because of the difference in their skin pigmentation is uncanny. There are an uncountable amount of sources on racism to be found just by merely looking on the internet. In The Bluest Eye, a novel written by Toni Morrison, alone one can find a series amount of racist comments and “ways of thinking”, but beyond that racism can be found in poems, films, and everyday life.
Robert Wright considers the element of the biology of violence as a component of poverty and violence. To clarify his views he makes the relationship between gangs and political coalitions. He relates the motives of gangs to those in politics by depicting gangs as a group of people with concurring views who desire to serve each others interests suitably. Although the degree of destruction between gang violence and war or terrorism differs, it is Wright’s belief that the underlying principle that leads to each is the same. To understand this statement’s take the example of a poverty stricken mother or father. If the only way that they would be able to provide food or shelter was through acts of violence, it would be safe to assume that they would take whatever course of action necessary. Acts of terrorism (separate from the events of Sept 11 and onwards) are sometimes the result of a political statement or threat being made in an attempt to have a member of their group released when all else has failed. Environment also plays a role as in a sad but true way that violence is more “accepted”, in run-down, poorer areas.
Several citizens in America may not empathize with many social conflicts which transpire in America. Unfortunately, when poverty is mentioned people of diverse gender, race/ethnic, and age can relate to poverty in America. Although several societies have not experienced the undesirable measures of relative or absolute poverty; several people know poverty exist through many channels, such as the media, social networking, history and charities.
The notion of poverty has a very expanded meaning. Although all three stories use poverty as their theme, each interprets it differently. Consequently, it does not necessarily mean the state of extreme misery that has been described in ?Everyday Use?. As Carver points out, poverty may refer to poverty of one?s mind, which is caused primarily by the lack of education and stereotyped personality. Finally, poverty may reflect the hopelessness of one?s mind. Realizing that no bright future awaits them, Harlem kids find no sense in their lives. Unfortunately, the satisfaction of realizing their full potential does not derive from achieving standards that are unachievable by others. Instead, it arises uniquely from denigrating others, as the only way to be higher than someone is to put this person lower than you.
Poverty itself is a controversial and widely debated issue with a variety of opposing viewpoints. Despite differences in opinions on how poverty should be treated, the vast majority agrees that poverty is a problem plagues the nation on both economic and social levels. Economically, poverty affects everyone. As taxes are paid by the entire nation, poverty influences where our money goes and how it is spent. Socially, poverty affects families and individuals on an emotional level. Impoverishment affects happiness and health, the decisions people make, and most importantly the development of children. To best understand poverty, one must look at the issue economically and socially, and contextualize the numbers surrounding poverty as well as
Throughout Toni Morrison’s controversial debut The Bluest Eye, several characters are entangled with the extremes of human cruelty and desire. A once innocent Pecola arguably receives the most appalling treatment, as not only is she exposed to unrelenting racism and severe domestic abuse, she is also raped and impregnated by her own father, Cholly. By all accounts, Cholly should be detestable and unworthy of any kind of sympathy. However, over the course of the novel, as Cholly’s character and life are slowly brought into the light and out of the self-hatred veil, the reader comes to partially understand why Cholly did what he did and what really drives him. By painting this severely flawed yet completely human picture of Cholly, Morrison draws comparison with how Pecola was treated by both of her undesirable parents. According to literary educator Allen Alexander, even though Cholly was cripplingly flawed and often despicable, he was a more “genuine” person to Pecola than Pauline was (301). Alexander went on to claim that while Cholly raped Pecola physically, Pauline and Soaphead Church both raped her mental wellbeing (301). Alexander is saying that the awful way Pecola was treated in a routine matter had an effect just as great if not greater than Cholly’s terrible assault. The abuse that Pecola lived through was the trigger that shattered her mind. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the characters of Cholly Breedlove and Frieda McTeer to juxtapose sexual violence and mental maltreatment in order to highlight the terrible effects of mental abuse.
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.
In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, the struggle begins in childhood. Two young black girls -- Claudia and Pecola -- illuminate the combined power of externally imposed gender and racial definitions where the black female must not only deal with the black male's female but must contend with the white male's and the white female's black female, a double gender and racial bind. All the male definitions that applied to the white male's female apply, in intensified form, to the black male's, white male's and white female's black female. In addition, where the white male and female are represented as beautiful, the black female is the inverse -- ugly.
Poverty is a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of millions each year. However, poverty is more prominent in some areas around the world than others. The Oxford dictionary defines poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, but it’s so much more. Poverty can be defined as being hungry, lacking shelter, being unable to go to school, being unable to see a doctor, or being powerless and having a lack of freedom. The reason behind the many descriptions of poverty is that poverty has many faces, and its definition changes depending on the place and time, however the effects of poverty on the poor are always the same.
In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, she exposes the suffering produced by the problems caused by gender and race oppression through the experiences of African-American children. During the 1940’s, the United States had composed an identity through mass media with books such as “Dick and Jane”, and movies like “Sherley Temple.” These media sources provided a society based on national innocence. In the novel, Morrison relates to and exposes the very real issues that were hidden by the idea of the stereotypical white middle-class family.