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The Bluest Eye Analytical Essay

Decent Essays

It is very common for people to be self-conscious about their appearance. It is human to be insecure about one’s fashion choices, hairstyles, and blemishes. This becomes a problem when the self-consciousness lasts and becomes consuming. It can really wear away at a person’s confidence and self-esteem. Pecola, the protagonist of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye, feels pressure to look like the majority white culture that surrounds her and oppresses her. Johnny “Drama” Chase, a key character in the hit HBO show Entourage, feels pressure to fit in with his exceptionally good looking and successful Hollywood friends. Both Pecola and Drama crave adoration from society and obsess over their insecurities and their beliefs that their dreams are out of reach because society views them as ugly.
Both characters obsessively think about what they feel to …show more content…

Pecola’s ultimate goal is to find someone to love and care for her. This idea is demonstrated in the book when Pauline, who “regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit” expresses her values with Pecola (122). She convinces her that she must desire love and introduces her to “probably the most destructive idea in the history of human thought”, physical beauty (122). Feeling as though she cannot fulfill society’s standard of female beauty, Pecola feels hopeless in her search for love. Even the toys she plays with do not resemble her making her feel so much less than adequate or even worthwhile - she clearly believes that valuing the majority culture’s view is best. This is why Pecola becomes infatuated with the adoration the young television star Shirley Temple receives because of her beauty. Unlike Pecola, Claudia rejects the girls adoration for Shirley Temple valuing her own looks and feelings over what she represents. Her self esteem is clearly not as damaged as

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