Have you ever felt that you must be destined for something greater than what; you are currently doing? Many individuals often suffer from this fear, and that they missed something earlier in their life, and that they are meant to be doing something more productive with their lives. This internal struggle is shared with many characters in The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison. They believe that once they obtain certain spiritual, mental, or physical characteristics that they will be able to depart from their current, nauseating living conditions. The Bluest Eye varied in the amount characters that are seeking spiritual characteristics to depart from their current living conditions. Cholly Breedlove is seeking spiritual characteristics to escape his family life. Cholly is upset with his living conditions, so he tries to burn down his house, as seen by Claudia MacTeer stating “Mama didn't know what got into people,” but that old Dog Breedlove had burned up his house, gone upside his wife’s head, and everybody as a result, was outdoors” (Morrison 16-17). Then, he can change spiritually for a short period, by the consumption of alcohol. He becomes more violent …show more content…
Pauline Breedlove, loves to watch movies because they provide an escape from her dreadful, home life. “Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another-physical beauty” (Morrison 122). This shows the mental aspect of her wanting to depart from her family issues. She witnesses her favorite actress, Jean Harlow, and how beautiful she is. This causes her to see her, as the face of beauty, so she attempts to look like her, in having the same hair style. But, she also places it on her daughter, Pecola, by the statement “Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (Morrison 126). This is how she describes her newborn child, as ugly, compared to her idea of beauty (Bouson
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.
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes place in Ohio in the 1940s. The novel is written from the perspective of African Americans and how they view themselves. Focusing on identity, Morrison uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, dictation, and symbolism to help stress her point of view on identity. In the novel the author argues that society influences an individual's perception on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove. Furthermore, the novel explains how society shapes an individual's character by instilling beauty expectations. Morrison is effective in relaying her message about the various impacts that society has on an individual's character through imagery, diction, and symbolism by showing that
Self-hatred is something that can thoroughly destroy an individual. As it was fictitiously evidenced in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, it can lead an individual to insanity. Toni Morrison raises the idea that racism and class can detrimentally influence people’s outlook on themselves.
The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, demonstrates the internal struggles that plagued the African American working class due to the socioeconomic conditions during the early 1940s. These external pressures shaped the lifestyles of the characters both in their internal struggles and their physical surroundings. Pauline Breedlove unknowingly displays her own internal conflicts through the way in which she keeps her own home. Additionally, she further demonstrates her battle with acceptance and her obsession with beauty in the way she cares for the home of the Fishers. Another character, Geraldine, keeps her home clean with an obsessive determination. However,
The plot in The Bluest Eye is the tragedy of Pecola Breedlove, an African-American girl whose fondest wish is to miraculously awaken one day with blue eyes, thinking that perhaps it will make her mother attentive and her father loving:
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and “Junior,” and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home.
Parents are the first role models that children are exposed to, making them immensely influential in the development of a child’s personality. The diverse group of parents in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, demonstrate the consequences of bad parenting on a child. Being set in 1940’s America, the black community in the book is still not fully accepted by society, and racism plays a significant role in the character’s lives. Here, readers are introduced to the Breedloves, a dysfunctional black family that is outcast from their community. Throughout the book, the parenting experienced by the Breedloves alters their perception of love, setting them up for failure as a
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison strongly ties the contents of her novel to its structure and style through the presentation of chapter titles, dialogue, and the use of changing narrators. These structural assets highlight details and themes of the novel while eliciting strong responses and interpretations from readers. The structure of the novel also allows for creative and powerful presentations of information. Morrison is clever in her style, forcing readers to think deeply about the novel’s heavy content without using the structure to allow for vagueness.
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, depicts characters desperately seeking to attain love through a predetermined standard of beauty established and substantiated by society. Morrison intertwines the histories of several characters portraying the delusions of the ‘perfect’ family and what motivates their quest for love and beauty. Ultimately, this pursuit for love and beauty has overwhelming effects on their relationships and their identity.
The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison that reveals many lessons and conflicts between young and adult characters of color. The setting takes place during the 1940s in Lorain, Ohio. The dominant speaker of this book is a nine year old girl named Claudia MacTeer who gets to know many of her neighbors. As a result of this, Claudia learns numerous lessons from her experience with the citizens of Lorain. Besides Claudia, The Bluest Eye is also told through many characters for readers to understand the connection between each of the adults and children. Many parents in the novel like Geraldine and Pauline Breedlove clearly show readers how adults change their own children. Furthermore, other adult characters like Cholly Breedlove
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison narrates the lives of two families, the MacTeer family and the Breedlove family. The novel digs into the themes of love, envy, and weakness, while maintaining a thick and interesting plotline. These themes are conveyed thoroughly through Morrison’s literary style. Toni Morrison’s powerful writing and structural techniques add depth to the novel, enhancing certain emotions while developing a riveting plot.
In the novel, The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison integrates many social and structural forces and themes throughout the story that are central to understanding the character’s experiences. Varying forms of oppression, and issues surrounding gender, race and social class are prevalent in the book, affecting each character in their own way. As the story progresses we gain more insight into the lives of the characters which helps complete the picture of the intersection of the forces of gender, race and class. Each character in the story experiences an interaction between these forces, rather than only experiencing one or the other. Therefore, it is important to note that even though I will be breaking down each
The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is a very remarkable and noteworthy work of English Literature. ‘The bluest eye’ brings fourth the perception of community in which a racist belief is internalized. Toni Morrison presents a complicated depiction of racism of an African American girl called Pecola Breedlove who hurts because of her physical appearance, colour and family origin. These sufferings are distinctly psychological as opposed to being physical. The novel poignantly illustrates the psychological devastation of Pecola, who is in an endless pursuit for acceptance and love in a world that wholly denies and degrades people of her own race, Pecola longs for blue eyes so that she can be portrayed as beautiful by western cultural criterions.
Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye in order to discuss race, gender, and class. She does a careful and intentional dance along the axis of oppression she is speaking on. Her pointed stories of abuse, self loathing, and rape are juxtaposed to the soft imagery of nature. The book is separated into four sections named after the seasons. Rarely does a page go by where Morrison does not wax poetic about marigolds, or set a scene with forsythia. And yet, though she uses these images to soften the setting in which atrocities take place, they are often used in such a manner that the harshness of the events bleed into the imagery. Creating the malevolent force that is nature in the novel, and the streak of ironic imagery that runs through Morrisons writing.