The Bluest Eye

In the course of The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove has shown signs of low self esteem. She would always be the one to compare herself to something she admires to be beautiful. Perhaps, sometimes problems surround her get a little too much, she has not yet realized the fog will clear up. For example in the autumn chapter, a quote has said “Thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people.” There is no such thing as a “Pecola’s point of view”. She lives off of people's judgements and believe physical appearance is all there is to a person. Her desire to be beautiful is not having attractive long black hair and golden skin color, but blonde hair with a white pigmentation. Which causes her to dream and want even more.

The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison in the year 1970, places two things together in the twentieth century in the United States. The novel is mainly about the tragic life of the main character, Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl, in the year 1940 that experienced different kinds of social issues that were depicted in the novel. The narrator of the story, Claudia Macteer, who is Pecola’s friend, narrated the novel through the use of her own point of view in both of her childhood and adult life. The novel portrays the advantages that black migrants from the South experience as they move their life to the North in the mid twentieth century. Because of the need to find new opportunities, they moved away from the different

Pecola obsesses over all things white because the town makes fun of her blackness. Pecola is alone due to her lack of beauty. In one scene Pecola is laughed at called “e mo” and other names as other black children make fun of her blackness. Morrisons uses collective voice to show the racial segregation at the time was not only white people, but it was the different shades of black. Something that someone cannot control. The boy bullying Pecola “had extemporized a verse made up of two insults about matters over which the victim had no control: the color of her skin”(Morrison, check page#). Pecola, only a young girl begins to become outcasted from society especially after

The Bluest Eye tells a tragic story of a young girl named Pecola who desperately wishes for beautiful blue eyes. Pecola believes that the only way she will ever be beautiful is if she has blue eyes. This story takes place in the 1970’s, a time where African Americans were second class citizens in society. They were often exploited and dehumanized because of the way they looked, and this will leave a long lasting effect. Americans would often think that the only way to be beautiful is to have white characteristics like pale skin, blue eyes, and to be very feminine. Racism in the 1970 and in the setting of the Bluest Eye caused self hatred in the black community. The effects of self hatred and racism in the

If Pecola acquired blue eyes she believes she would no longer be an outcast. She believes her peers will accept her. After seeing how the new girl, Maureen Peal, with “sloe green eyes” and white skin “enchanted the entire school,” Pecola makes the hypothesis that having blue eyes would make her popular amongst her classmates (62). She believes that to have blue-green eyes and white skin earns her acceptance. Pecola wants everyone to look at her the same way they look at Maureen. She desires to be the girl that enchants the school. Though Pecola seeks admiration from all of her peers, Pecola ultimately seeks Maureen’s approval and acceptance. Pecola wants the prettiest girl in the class to view her as beautiful. However, after a dispute with Pecola, Maureen exclaims, “I am cute! And you are ugly! Black and ugly e mos. I am cute!” (73). Pecola, after hearing this proclamation, comes to the realization that the most beautiful girl in school believes that being black means being ugly. Therefore, Maureen proclaims that being white must be what leads to beauty and popularity. In fact, at the end of the novel when Pecola is conversing with herself she asks, “What does Maureen think about your eyes?” (196). This question further proves that if Maureen admired Pecola in the same manner everyone admired her, Pecola would feel beautiful. She would be beautiful like Maureen, and everyone will accept her.

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison confirms the existence of racism within the African American community. Unbelievably, many African Americans suffer from what is termed internalized racism. Internalized racism produces the same effect as racial racism: feelings of worthlessness, inferiority, and unattractiveness. In addition, the effect can produce the opposite feelings: superiority, hatred, and feelings of self-worth. Pecola, an 11-year-old black girl, desires to have the physical characteristics of a white person, namely blue eyes. Polly, Pecola’s mother, prefers the white culture living rather than her own. The feelings that the black race experience stem from the programming of a racist society to think that the white race is better. As a result, African Americans long to be white or look white. This consumption of whiteness represents internalized racism.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrision deals with the struggle of colored women in the 1930 's dealing with the ideals of beauty. The standard of beauty can be described as a community standard that if the women of this story do not live up too, they will be deemed ugly. This standard of beauty can be perpetuated through the treatment of certain characters based on how they look. There are three main symbols that the book and author convey. The first is the standard of beauty. The second is the concept of self-image that is warped to fit white standard of beauty, instead of cultivating a woman 's individuality. Self-image describes how a person perceives themselves through their own actions and internalized emotions. Many things can contribute to a person 's self-image such as, how they are treated by others, how their parents treat them, and how do they treat themselves through life experiences. The third concept of self worth and it is related to self-image. Self-worth is an understanding of personal satisfaction with who you are and the choices you make. For example, as we are first introduced to Pecola. We find that she moves into the Macteer 's house hold because her father is in jail for setting her house on fire. As she lives in this house hold, she falls in love with Shirley temple. This was the standard of beauty for young girls at the time. Pecola love to drink milk out of her Shirley Temple mug. I believe that Morrison added this detail to the story to symbolize her

The Bluest Eye is a story written by Toni Morrison in 1970. The Bluest Eye gives readers a deep descriptions of the ways white beauty standards deformed the lives of blacks girls and women.provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. Pecola let white beauty standards deform her life. People believe that having the “ bluest “ eyes would change the way people viewed her and her view of others. Whiteness being superior is shown throughout the entire text through implicit messages.

The novel The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is subjected on a young girl, Pecola Breedlove and her experiences growing up in a poor black family. The life depicted is one of poverty, ridicule, and dissatisfaction of self. Pecola feels ugly because of her social status as a poor young black girl and longs to have blue eyes, the pinnacle of beauty and worth. Throughout the book, Morrison touches on controversial subjects, such as the depicting of Pecola's father raping her, Mrs. Breedlove's sexual feelings toward her husband, and Pecola's menstruation. The book's content is controversial on many levels and it has bred conflict among its readers.

From Pecola’s point of view, people are disgusted by her when they see her ugliness. She spends “long hours [...] looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness” feeling bad for herself because that ugliness makes “her ignored and despised” (45). To fix her ugliness, Pecola thinks that she needs to have blue eyes because “if she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different and Mrs. Breedlove too” (46). Pecola also expects that her change will adjust other people’s image of herself as well, making them less disgusted by her. Having these altered

Many young girls feel insecure of their body; these adolescent girls would often wish they had the body of a model. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is about a young girl named Pecola, who is obsessed with blue eyes because she is insecure about hers. The novel points out how beauty can shatter the mind of an innocent young girl, Pecola, for instance, who has been abused by mostly everyone about her looks. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison explains how beauty can ruin lower one’s self-esteem, cause one to become self-obsessed, and how it made Pecola a representative to others to be thankful for the body they have. Morrison explains the psychological effect of beauty on young girls such as Pecola.

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

“The Bluest Eyes” by Toni Morrison centers on a character name Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is an eleven year old black girl whom the story revolves. Pecola role is the protagonist. she is abused by almost everyone in the novel and eventually suffers two traumatic rapes.Pecola is a fragile and delicate child when the novel begins, and by the novel’s end, she has been almost completely destroyed by violence. I pick Pecola because I can relate to her. Through Pecola Breedlove’s lonely,sensitive,and imaginative she is a symbol of the black community’s self- hatred and belief in its own ugliness.

Morrison questions the foundation of white supremacy imposed by the standards of beauty in The Bluest Eye. In the novel many characters attempt to conform to the white standard of beauty. Pecola Breedlove the eleven-year-old African American protagonist of the novel, has been told her entire life that she wasn’t ‘good’ enough, or ‘pretty’ enough by society. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held pictures, and knew the sights – if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Pecola believes that if she had blue eyes not only will she be viewed as beautiful by her community, but she believes beauty will change her status in society. Pecola’s desire to become beautiful illustrates her psychological oppression. Pecola associates beauty with status. She believes by meeting the standard of white beauty, her life will be better. Feminist theory describes the psychological effects oppression has on the individual. “Feminist psychoanalytic theory is interested in patriarchy’s influence on women’s psychological experience creativity. Its focus is on the individual psyche, not on group experience. For the oppression of women is not limited to the economic, political and social” (Tysons 99). Pecola’s