Essay about Beauty in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

She also starts the novel by describing the perfect family, with the Dick and Jane story. She does this in a way to tease the reader then having the Dick and Jane story run in to one long sentence like it was flowing down the drain and so too Pecola’s perfect family. "Mother, Father, Dick and Jane live in the green -and- white house. They are very happy." (Morrison 4). This shows

She realizes that her problems are not as important because in her hand, she holds nine pieces of Mary Jane candy. The Mary Jane candy seems to be making every disappointment in life become something more attractive, something better. “ A picture of little Mary Jane, for whom the candy is named. Smiling white face. Blond hair in gentle disarray, blue eyes looking at her out of a world of clean comfort…She eats the candy, and its sweetness is good. To eat the candy is somehow to eat the eyes, eat Mary Jane. Love Mary Jane. Be Mary Jane”(Morrison 50). Pecola is more than obsessed with these full- blown artificial images, making it obvious that she is unstable about her appearances, therefore, wanting to replace it with something that she believes is better (Weever 3/5). All over town, there are many little girls just like Pecola, buying into the products of Shirley Temples and Mary Jane.

To begin the novel, Morrison quotes a “Dick and Jane” book, a children’s book describing an ideal, happy family. Immediately, Morrison provides an example of how American children are bombarded, as soon as they learn how to read, with ideas about what it means to be beautiful. As well, in the first chapter, she exemplifies how American children, both black and white, view beauty, from Claudia and Freida giggling when they are called the names of beautiful white actresses to Freida and Pecola’s admiration of Shirley Temple. In contrast to the broad examples of Polly’s and Cholly’s childhoods, the examples of these 1940s children are discrete and relevant to the period which Morrison wrote the novel. Evidently, Morrison criticizes the effect of the whiteness of American ideals on children, in particular American movies which define societal standards; however, Morrison also makes an important point: these effects are not the same for every individual.

Morrison uses the examples of Shirley Temple, a popular, white child actress during the time period, and popular dolls in the 1940s to show the effect that mass culture had on young black women. It is ironic when Claudia states that unlike older, young black girls around her, her hatred for whiteness has not yet turned to love. As a naive child, Claudia, who doesn’t see the beauty that others see in popular children’s dolls, takes apart her doll to find its beauty, thinking that its beauty must be physically inside of it. She has yet to learn that, in the society she lives in, beauty is dictated by cultural norms, meaning that the doll itself is only beautiful because popular culture views whiteness as superior to everything else. Claudia’s

Although Claudia has not given in fully to the pressures of society, Pecola has completely accepted them. She defines beauty as white, blonde haired, and most importantly, blue eyes. Claudia explains how Pecola was “fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face”(Morrison, 23). Shirley Temple is an icon to Pecola and many other young girls, and she wishes to be just like her. Pecola sees how loved and respected Shirley is, and associates this with Shirley’s blue eyes. This leads to Pecola’s desire for, and obsession with blue eyes. According to W.E.B. Du Bois, blacks understand what it means to be American in the same way that whites do, but because of their race, are treated much differently. In his writing “The Souls of Black Folk”, he states that he “was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil”(Dubois, 4). Pecola believes that if she were to have blue eyes that she would not only be viewed different by the world, but that she would view the world differently as well. She sees how Shirley Temple is treated by others, and concludes that the reason she is treated so much better must because of her blue eyes, which make her beautiful. As a result, blue eyes become a symbol to Pecola of the happiness and beauty that she associates with the white, middle class world. She wishes to have blue eyes so that she could see the world without the veil shutting her out. By showing the idealization of Shirley Temple, Morrison demonstrates how the media creates a standard of beauty that is impossible for young black females to achieve. Pecola even goes as far as to buy Mary Janes from the candy store, just to admire the pretty little white girl with blue eyes that adorns the wrapper. Pecola’s

At the beginning of the book, it explains why Pecola goes to stay with the MacTeers and the experience they all had from the point-of- view of the MacTeers youngest daughter Claudia. Claudia narrates on how shy Pecola is and how she loved drinking of their Shirley Temple glass because she enjoyed looking at the face of Shirley Temple. The Shirley Temple glass represents everything that is beautiful to her, and longs for but cannot have. Pecola and Frieda, Claudia’s older sister, liked talking about how beautiful Shirley Temple was. Claudia didn’t understand why they enjoyed Shirley Temple so much because she hated white baby dolls she could not find the beauty that everyone else sees in them.

Growing up, the one thing Pauline Breedlove really desired was a nickname, but instead, as an adult, she ends with a “pet-name”. Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye follows young Pecola Breedlove through her dismal life as she is repeatedly worn down by the pressures from both the dominant white society and the African-American community she is a part of. Pecola is neglected or ignored by almost everyone she encounters, including her own mother. Mrs. Breedlove, however, also suffered from an abnormal childhood, causing her to focus on working for a white family rather than her own, perpetuating the cycle in which a problematic childhood problematic parenting. To cope with her dissatisfaction of

Pecola truly believes that her own blackness is ugly, and that whiteness equates to beauty. Pecola loves Shirley Temple, and wishes above all else that she had blue eyes, like this movie star. Eyes represent the inner nature

To Pecola, blue eyes, blond hair and white skin equals beauty, which leads to happiness. It is difficult to fault a young girl for this misinterpretation. Certainly both white and black communities in her world seem to support the idea. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison presents the whole community as having taken the white criteria of beauty for their

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, presents the reader with some of the strong racial imbalances present in the African American communities in the United States. The novel, The Bluest Eye, addresses many themes such as, feminism, rape culture, repetition in rupture, abjection, oppression, racism and the innocence of youth (Morrison 1970). The evident issue in the novel is the way that the African American people oppress not only themselves but others, to the standards of the white American standards of things such as beauty. The characters, Pecola and Pauline, are the major characters in the novel and are, as written by Morrison (1970), the ciphers of the way African Americans treated each-other and themselves in a time of racial oppression

The Bluest Eye was written in 1970 and yet in the year 2017 there is still a false since of beauty in America. Children learn from a young age to admire this false sense of beauty unconsciously. When looking at television children see skinny girls with white skin, and long silky hair, when in reality that is not how all people look. Morrison exposed the effect that a false sense of beauty has on a child, and today that effect continues to repeat itself. Beauty isn’t something that is just about appearance, but it is also about how a person is inside. Although this has been established and many people are beginning to embrace their inner beauty, history still repeats itself in making young children the victims of false beauty stereotypes. The theme of beauty in The Bluest Eye is something that still many books, and people focus on. Some people base their life on living up to the standards that the world has set for beauty. Peacola wanted to be beautiful, and because no one ever told her she was beautiful the only thing she could rely on to teach her was society, and in return they did her an injustice because she was beautiful all along. The idea that white beauty is the only beauty still happens today, as more people of color try to change themselves in order to form white

Yet, because of the inverse socioeconomic setting, the judgement of beauty is different. In Lorain, Ohio, a woman’s life choice is confined to marrying and having children, working for a white family, or become a prostitute. Women in this community aspired to “whiteness” because society’s perception of beauty promotes this and leads the women to believe they can gain more opportunity. Women presume that this would bring them beauty, and therefore respect. “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs-all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl treasured. ‘Here,’ they said, ‘this is beautiful, and if you are on this day “worthy” you may have it,’” (Morrison 20). It is this view in society that causes Pecola, a thirteen year old girl, to drive herself to the point of insanity. Morrison emphasizes Pecola’s deep wish for blue eyes, through her consumption of three whole quarts of milk, just to gaze upon Shirley Temple’s “beautiful” eyes. Pecola concludes that if she has blue eyes, she will then be beautiful, so therefore she will gain love, affection, and respect. She believes people often don’t look at her or listen to her, especially her parents and school teachers, because she is ugly. Pecola’s desire blue eyes, her desire for people to notice her, is what she drives her to the point of insanity. Morrison communicates the harm and disdain that is inflicted upon women by society focusing on their

One motif I have noticed so far is that blue eyes represent the cultural beauty of being white in America. For example, Claudia resents the blue eyes of her white dolls, but Pecola strives to have blue eyes. She believes that is she had blue eyes people would see her with a different perspective and give her the reassurance of being beautiful to the white Americans. Pecola also believes that with blue eyes she would live a carefree life of a white middle class child. Morrison`s purpose is to demonstrate how we depict certain cultures and how we discriminate between white and black people. Throughout the book there is a great amount of detail regarding the lives inside and outside of the homes of black and whites.

What would happen if societal views on beauty were taken as gospel and followed religiously? That is exactly what happens in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Consequently, this warped view on the world ruined lives and relationships for the characters in the book. What motivated the characters to react in such a way? How did Toni Morrison’s use of characterization, direct and indirect, form believable characters and situations? In this essay, I will explore all of these points.

The omniscient perspective narrates the shop-owner’s reluctant acknowledgement of Pecola, explained through, “her blackness is static and dread… that creates… distaste in white eyes.” Emotive language is used to illustrate the antagonist, when the man is characterised unfavourably, speaking with ‘phlegm and impatience in his voice’, extending the author’s attitude towards racists and the social construct they represent. When Pecola leaves the store, the weeds on the ground she had previously embraced as pretty despite other’s opinions, is then identified as ugly as she rejects them - and with them, herself. This demonstrates how the experience taints the protagonist as she metaphorically conforms into society’s intolerant culture, and negatively affects her impression of her own acceptance in society. As the novel draws to a conclusion, Pecola’s sense of belonging is irrationally justified when she becomes insane and believes she has blue eyes, a theme throughout the book that represents Pecola’s internalised Eurocentric beauty ideals, a byproduct of the white-prejudiced society she is exposed to. Claudia, a narrative bystander in Pecola’s life, sympathises with Pecola’s mental deterioration saying, “This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear… the land kills of its own volition,” with Morrison again metaphorically blaming