The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison Essay - 2249 Words

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison introduces readers to the life of Pecola Breedlove living in Lorain, Ohio during the end of Great Depression. Pecola and her friend, Frieda Macteer, experience early on neglective parents who are overly concerned with pleasing themselves rather than directing attention upon their daughters. This creates a sense of underlying hate and instability within and outside their homes. Looking for love and attention, Pecola turns to superficial things such as dolls. Pecola wants to feel beautiful in a world where a blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple doll is idolized by all colors alike. Her goal in life is to attain white beauty, a standard of her culture she believes she does not have. The effects of colorism and racism tear the African-American culture apart in this novel because they try so hard to fit into the graces of white society. The characters in The Bluest Eye hate their skin color so much that that are forced to feel shame for their own culture. Th e desires to be beautiful create a sense of self-loathing and self-hate within most, if not all, of the characters, which pass from generation to generation producing an on-going cycle of negativity. We are told certain facts about Pecola Breedlove from the perspective of different characters. One being, â€Å"Here was an ugly little black 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† (Morrison, 174). White beautyShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1720 Words   |  7 Pagesof The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, criticizes the danger of race discrimination for any kinds of situations with no exception. The purpose of the paper is explain how pervasive and destructive social racism was bound to happen in American society. The intended audiences are not only black people, but also other races had suffered racism until now. I could find out and concentrate on the most notable symbols which are whiteness, blue eyes and the characterization while reading the novel. Toni MorrisonRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1587 Words   |  7 Pagessaid, â€Å"We were born to die and we die to live.† Toni Morrison correlates to Nelson’s quote in her Nobel Lecture of 1993, â€Å"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.† In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she uses language to examine the concepts of racism, lack of self-identity, gender roles, and socioeconomic hardships as they factor into a misinterpretation of the American Dream. Morrison illustrates problems that these issues provoke throughRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison956 Words   |  4 PagesHistory of Slavery Influenced the Characters of The Bluest Eye Unlike so many pieces of American literature that involve and examine the history of slavery and the years of intensely-entrenched racism that ensued, the overall plot of the novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, does not necessarily involve slavery directly, but rather examines the aftermath by delving into African-American self-hatred. Nearly all of the main characters in The Bluest Eye who are African American are dominated by the endlessRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1189 Words   |  5 PagesA standard of beauty is established by the society in which a person lives and then supported by its members in the community. In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, we are given an extensive understanding of how whiteness is the standard of beauty through messages throughout the novel that whiteness is superior. Morrison emphasizes how this ideality distorts the minds and lives of African-American women and children. He emphasizes that in order for African-American wom en to survive in aRead MoreThe Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison1095 Words   |  5 PagesSocial class is a major theme in the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison is saying that there are dysfunctional families in every social class, though people only think of it in the lower class. Toni Morrison was also stating that people also use social class to separate themselves from others and apart from race; social class is one thing Pauline and Geraldine admire.Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda are affected by not only their own social status, but others social status too - for exampleRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesblack/whiteness. Specifically, white people were positioned at the upper part of the hierarchy, whereas, African Americans were inferior. Consequently, white people were able to control and dictate to the standards of beauty. In her novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and id eals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the different characters. With the juxtaposition of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove, who naively conforms to the barrierRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1103 Words   |  5 Pages Toni Morrison is known for her prized works exploring themes and issues that are rampant in African American communities. Viewing Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye from a psychoanalytical lens sheds light onto how, as members of a marginalized group, character’s low self-esteem reflect into their actions, desires, and defense mechanisms. In her analysis of psychoanalytical criticism, Lois Tyson focuses on psychological defense mechanisms such as selective perception, selective memory, denialRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison Essay1314 Words   |  6 PagesThe Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, encompasses the themes of youth, gender, and race. The African American Civil Rights Movement had recently ended at the time the novel was written. In the book, Morrison utilizes a first-person story to convey her views on racial inequality. The protagonist and her friends find themselves in moments where they are filled with embarrassment and have a wish to flee such events. Since they are female African Americans, they are humiliated in society. One of Morrison’sRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1462 Words   |  6 PagesBildungsroman literature in the 20th century embodies the virtues of different authors’ contexts and cultures, influencing the fictional stories of children’s lives around the wo rld.. The Bluest Eye is a 1970 publication by Toni Morrison set in 1940s Ohio in America, focal around the consequence of racism in an American community on the growth of a child, distinct in its use of a range of narrative perspectives. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid is a novel set in post colonial Antigua, published in 1985Read MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison992 Words   |  4 PagesSet in the 1940s, during the Great Depression, the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, illustrates in the inner struggles of African-American criticism. The Breedloves, the family the story revolves around a poor, black and ugly family. They live in a two-room store front, which is open, showing that they have nothing. In the family there is a girl named Pecola Breedlove, she is a black and thinks that she is ugly because she is not white. Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, goes through humiliated