The Bluest Eye
Toni Morisson's novel The Bluest Eye is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio, in the late 1930s. This family consists of the mother Pauline, the father Cholly, the son Sammy, and the daughter Pecola. The novel's focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl who is trying to conquer a bout with self-hatred. Everyday she encounters racism, not just from white people, but mostly from her own race. In their eyes she is much too dark, and the darkness of her skin somehow implies that she is inferior, and according to everyone else, her skin makes her even "uglier." She feels she can overcome this battle of self-hatred by obtaining blue eyes, but not just any blue. She wants the bluest eye. This short novel counterbalances two points of view: one, the tragic consequences of racism, and two, agency and resistance to that racism. The Breedlove's constant bickering and ever growing poverty contributes to the emotional downfall of this little girl. According to Heinze, "Pecolas's tragedy is the ultimate expression of an entire community infected with distorted notions of worth"( Heinze 4). Pecola's misery is obtained through the touch of her father's hand and the v
" In fact, it breeds hate; hate of blackness, and thus hatred of oneself. "I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. Each excerpt has, in some way, to do with the section that follows. "Why, she wonders, do people call them weeds? She thought they were pretty". Pecola's experiences would have less meaning coming from Pecola herself because a total and complete victim would be an unreliable narrator, unwilling or unable to relay the actual circumstances of that year. This spiral for Pecola includes assuming that everyone is jealous of her new found beauty, her blue eyes. The other flower, the dandelion, is important as a metaphor because it represents Pecola's image of herself. Morrison speaks to the masses, both white and black, explaining how a racist social system wears down the minds and souls of people. Pecola passes some dandelions going into Mr. Soaphead Church represents, as his name suggests, the role of the church in African-American life. What would I look like with blue eyes? Nothing much"(194). Instead of conventional chapters and sections, The Bluest Eye is broken up into seasons, fall, winter, spring, and summer. Morrison unravels the metaphor throughout the book, and, through Claudia, finally explains it and broadens its scope to all African-Americans on the last page. Pecola's self-centered mother, has also source for Pecola's developed insecurities.
Common topics in this essay:
Bluest Eye,
Dick Jane,
Heinze Pecolas's,
Lorain Ohio,
Mary Jane,
Soaphead Church,
Claudia MacTeer,
Imitation Life,
bluest eye,
Pecola African-Americans,
Toni Morrison,
blue eyes,
dick jane,
shirley temple,
pecola's life,
bluest eye toni,
images white,
excerpts dick,
name character,
narrative structure,
black girl,
novel bluest eye,
excerpts dick jane,
|
Acceptance Essays
