The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye, written in 1940 by Toni Morrison, is constructed to reveal a very powerful point that applies not only to the book, but also to many societies of the present day. Morrison's argument is how society can greatly influence a person and how firmly a societies views and ideas can be almost forced on that person. The ideas and views present in The Bluest Eye are related to beauty and what makes one beautiful. The tragedy of Pecola Breedlove beautifully illustrates how this facade of beauty can dishevel one's life until finally leading one to madness. Thus, Morrison demonstrates to the reader what a negative effect society's stubborn ideas and views can have on a person and how those views and ideas can change a persons life forever. In the opening of The Bluest Eye, the passage from the Dick and Jane story, becomes a representation of an ideal white person's life. The race of the Dick and Jane family is never stated in the story, but the reader automatically thinks of a happy, carefree, and white family. The perfect white world of the Dick and Jane story becomes Pecola's reverse reality. The second and third version of the Dick and Jane story take away the punctuation and then the spacing. This turns the story into
In the end of the third section, called Spring, the family of Elihue Whitcomb gives the reader the situation of a mixed person. The character, Claudia, seems aware of the danger the representations of these idealized white people and dolls pose to her and will not allow herself to be fooled. Claudia is angry because society cherishes white skin and blue eyes and thus can never consider her, a black girl, to be beautiful. The cup that bears Shirley Temple's image is blue and white, symbolizing the eye and skin color of the idealized white society. Pecola holds on as tight as possible to the standards of the white world to the very end, even as she begins to go insane. To him, Pecola is nothing, and she in turn can see in his eyes that she means nothing to him. By drawing this connection, Morrison fixes the American standard of beauty with connotations of violence and genocide, because these skin and eye colors, on dolls and little girls, were also symbols of the Aryan ideal of how one should look. Although he is better off than pureblooded citizens, he is still powerless, allowed to operate at the lowest bottom of the government, permitted education but can never be allowed to regulate anything. Pecola's interaction with the shopkeeper is important. Her insanity is not a relief from the idealized forms of white life; her insanity causes her to feel the entire force of whites' perspective of beauty. In concluding the novel, in the last section, called summer, Pecola has conjured up an imaginary friend. Because no human looks at Pecola, she doesn't see her own beauty and eventually loses the ability to maintain her basic sense of identity. Henry makes the girls happy in the beginning by telling the young sisters they look like Hollywood stars, whom are white, which suggest to be a star and be beautiful one must be white. The worship of the idealized white standards and hatred of their African background has turned them into a twisted and self-disgusted people.
Common topics in this essay:
Dick Jane,
Shirley Temple's,
Church's Pecola,
Winter Geraldine,
Cholly Breedlove,
Elihue Whitcomb,
Pecola Breedlove,
Soaphead Church,
Toni Morrison,
Mary Jane,
blue eyes,
dick jane,
dick jane story,
bluest eye,
idealized white,
jane story,
pecola own,
views ideas,
little girls,
dolls little,
imaginary friend,
dolls little girls,
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Acceptance Essays
