toni morrison's the bluest eye
Perhaps the most destructive of ideals have been the concepts of physical beauty; particularly in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere, when the white baby doll is given to Claudia and the overwhelming idealization of Shirley Temple. It is only when these ideas of physical appearance are characterized under set presumptions, as seen in Morrison's novel, that it is through the beliefs of the characters of Geraldine and Mrs. Breedlove that whiteness was most closely associated with beauty and cleanliness. As a result, this separation of the nature of the races, for means of characterization, is narrow-minded, that is to say that it favors existing bias and preconceptions of beauty. So, once there is a predetermined standard beauty, such notions may swell up in envy, insecurity, and self-hate, such as with the young, impressionable black girl, Pecola, as illustrated in this quote in Morrison's novel; "Jealously we understood and thought natural - a desire to have what somebody else had; but envy was a strange, new feeling for us," (Morrison 74). By wishing for blue eyes rather than l
She could only receive this wish, in effect, by blinding herself: ". Throughout the novel, the main character Pecola has been subjected to many horrible things, one of which was being raped and impregnated by her own father. This act was just another validation to Pecola that if she had just been born beautiful as the white girl that her mother so eagerly comforted, her mother just as that little white girl would love her. Although Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, was written during the 1940's most of the events that occur mirror that time period, the main conception of beauty transcends to this day and age. Morrison's message throughout the novel was how influential society can be on an individual and how strongly its ideas and views are impressed upon that individual. This hopeless desire leads ultimately to madness, suggesting that the fulfillment of the wish for white beauty may be even more tragic than possessing the wish in the first place. However, for the reason that they were separated at birth, one twin is destined to be a slave hand or sold "down the river," while the other is to be heir of Victorian Code. Claudia does not give into this idealization of the beauty of Shirley Temple as Pecola does.
Common topics in this essay:
Bluest Eye,
Geraldine Breedlove,
Puddn'head Wilson,
Temple Morrison,
Christmas Claudia,
Victorian Code,
Breedlove Pecola,
Oh Lord,
Shirley Temple,
Chambers Tom,
blue eyes,
bluest eye,
white girl,
shirley temple,
morrison's novel,
morrison's bluest,
morrison's bluest eye,
little white girl,
little white,
twain's puddn'head wilson,
black girl,
twain's puddn'head,
throughout novel,
lives black girls,
white beauty standards,
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Acceptance Essays
