“The Bluest Eye” is taking place around 1940 in Lorain, Ohio. During the year of 1940, discrimination, especially toward African Americans, was still a serious problem. People believe that whiteness is the standard of beauty. The main character, Pecola, who was a nine-years-old African-American, was influenced by how people view beauty. Pecola suffered and felt that she is inferior to others. Pecola believed that having a pair of blue eyes would made people think she is pretty, and would be the key resolving all the problems. What is beautiful? How do people define beauty? People view differently. Usually, we judge people, first, from his or her appearance then to their inherence. It is a common fact that appearance has an indirect relationship with confidence. No matter male or female, people want to pretty (, or handsome). “Because each culture has its own standards of beauty, the way people choose to enhance their appearance will vary among cultures. (Raskoff)” The standards of beauty are varies due to the different period of time, the different locations, and different culture. ...
In the novel, The Bluest Eye, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove. Pecola longs for acceptance from the world. She is an innocent little girl, however, she is rejected practically by the whole world, and her own parents. Pecola endures physical and verbal abuse at home, and also at school. She is always the main character in the jokes that usually refer to her very dark skin. Her mother cherishes the white daughter of the family she works for and calls her own daughter a "rotten piece of apple. Her father Cholly is constantly drunk, and sexually molests her daughter more than once, eventually rapes and impregnates her.
The perception of beauty have gone through uncountable changes over time. There is no fixed perception of beauty as the ideal beauty are different among people, culture and religion. However, the famous idea of beauty are depend on media, idol and fashion. We may have different perception in beauty, but we still need to respect the others even though we disagree with theirs. Every person has the right to attain his or her ideal beauty but make sure that one should not be too obsessed to achieve ideal beauty as this may harm our body. Our nature beauty is a gift from our parent, so we should appreciate it even though it is not what we wish.
There is a famous saying that states, “ we should not judge a book by its cover”, but oftentimes the first thing noticed on a person is their looks. One’s “physical beauty” strongly influences people’s first impressions of them. As a whole, we tend to assume that pretty people are more likeable and better people than those who are unattractive. Around the world, we believe that what is beautiful is good. There is a general consensus within a culture about what is considered physically appealing and beautiful. “Physical beauty” is associated with being more sociable, intelligent, and even socially skilled. Society shares this common notion of who has and who does not have “physical beauty”. Thus, “physical beauty”, as seen
“The novel addresses the psychological and political implications of black people’s commitment to a standard of beauty (the blonde-haired, blue-eyed ideal)…” (Smith 364). Her desire to have blue eyes was so strong that once she was told her prayers had been granted, she never saw herself the same way again. From that moment on Pecola Breedlove believed that her eyes were blue. The last chapter of The Bluest Eye shows the dialogue between Pecola, and an imaginary figure whom Pecola had created, discussing the blueness of her
Beauty is something that a lot of people in life strive for , because everyone has fitted in their mind what exactly beauty is. People know that it can help you out in life. But what most people don’t know is that, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Meaning that beauty should not be characterized by what people are told it is, beauty is different for everyone, what is beautiful for you may be ugly to someone else. The characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are confronted with the ideal of beauty and strive for it whether they know it or not. The two characters that I think were followed the ideal of beauty in Toni Morrison’s story are Pauline and Pecola.
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.”
...four page conversation with her supposed ‘friend’), "what if there's someone with bluer eyes?"(Morrison, 201-204) At the end of the day, there will always be someone out there more beautiful than you, and Pecola seems to be an example of how you can drive yourself crazy if you don't face this fact. Pecola, who, for her entire life, has gone unnoticed by the eyes of others and in turn has been unable to see herself and to realize her own self-worth, has now manufactured a way to see herself. Her imaginary friend is the companion she has never had, as well as the devoted admirer of her blue eyes. Pecola, who could not figuratively see herself before, has remedied the problem. Now, she literally sees herself in the most twisted and tragic way possible. We see Pecola cling to the standards of the white world, all the way to the end, even as her sanity deteriorates.
There are several themes throughout the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. One theme being self-hatred. Throughout this novel, self-hatred has made itself prevalent through different characters, like Claudia and Pecola. Claudia’s self-hatred can be seen when she dismembers and destroys her doll with blue eyes and blond hair because she viewed herself as ugly and that she didn’t have the things that the doll had. Another example of self-hatred in this novel is with how Pecola feels guilty about her appearance. Pecola honestly believed that the reason her brother ran away was not because of her parents fighting, but due to her ugly appearance. Claudia even mentioned how everyone felt better about themselves because of Pecola. “All of our waste we dumped on her and she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us” (205). This is a major impact on why Pecola felt the way she did about herself.
The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison tells the story of several African Americans living in the rural south from 1910 to 1941. One of the main characters in the book happens to be Pecola Breedlove. Throughout the book Pecola encounters many hardships. Her problems range from home, school, extracurricular activities; even if she is walking down the street she has a problem with someone. It is very obvious that during this time period, white people are not that fond of African Americans and you would think that Pecola has the most trouble with. When in all actuality, many of the problems she encountered where her own people so to speak. The people who bullied her felt that because she was a darker skin tone that she was a target.
In The Bluest Eye, Morrison describes the absurd and racist standard by which the characters are judged. And through the actions taken by each character, that absurd standard becomes more defined, the conflict more poignant. In this particular work, it is the American ideal of beauty that makes Pecola resign her self-image as ugly and it is Pecola's reaction to this standard, her futile wish to become beautiful, that drives her into madness and thus completely exposes the absurd and wrongful nature of this standard. And yet who created this standard? It is present in movies, on candy wrappers. It is completely visible, yet the creator of this standard is somewhere else, never appears as a character.
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.
Throughout The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison includes a number of background stories for minor characters along with the main plotline in order to add dimension to the novel and further convey the intense racial prejudice felt by almost all African Americans. Her main story tells of the outrageous landslide of wounding events that Pecola Breedlove experiences, a young black girl constantly patronized by her peers, and the things that eventually make her go crazy. The struggle for a deep black skinned person can be significantly different from what a lighter skinned black person feels, and Toni Morrison adds secondary story lines to stress that difference, and the extremes that racism can force people into. The back-story of Geraldine expresses the desire to be white supported by social circumstances, the comparison of how much easier whiter life could be on Pecola and her family, but also the poor results that can come from shying away from one’s own nature and history.
The first reason why black people in ‘The Bluest Eye’ feel self-hatred is because they are said to be ugly, due to the white beauty ideal that society has. The main problem in the book is that Pecola wishes to have blue eyes, which is a symbol for the white beauty ideal. To Pecola, having blue eyes gives her something which is considered to be beautiful by American society. Next to being considered pretty, the blue eyes mean a different view upon the world for Pecola herself as well. She believes that she can lead a life just like a middle-class white girl (Shmoop citate).
The definition of beauty is varying among different people in the world. Even though almost everyone knows the term beauty, many people are struggling in defining it and persuading others to agree with their opinions. Beauty is defined by a combination of qualities existent in a person or thing that fulfills the aesthetic feels or brings about profound gratification. Many people define beauty as a term to describe a person’s physical appearance; they often think that beauty comes from magazines, video girls, or even models. Although the term beauty can define a person’s physical appearance, true beauty lies in the way one acts and thinks rather than the way one look.
The blue eyes themselves can be seen as a form of resolution to racism, whether that be gaining the cachet of whiteness or eliminating the ignobility that seemingly swarms around black culture. Additionally, it is important to note that—although Pecola is perhaps the perfect example of the dissension orbiting race—she is not the only character to desire repudiation of her own skin color. Soaphead sees Pecola, “a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes,” and believes that her ambition is “the most poignant and the one most deserving of fulfillment” (Morrison 174). He sees the reasoning behind her desires, and abides by them, because he believes they are more justifiable than any other wish he’s been asked to grant. This is true credence in the removal of bigotry from