The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

Food and appetite is a relatable experience for everyone. Many believe food is strictly just for enjoying while you eat, however within Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eyes” she makes many distinct references to food. Through these means, she creates each individual personality of the characters. She goes on to use this association for most food references within her novel. The result enables the reader to have a more relatable experience with each of her characters regardless of color. Overall, these food and appetites references allow the reader to have a more hands-on approach and bring about a greater understanding of her character 's mentality while helping to disregard racial associations.

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

Although written decades apart, Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye both explore the trials and tribulations that young black girls must endure as they begin to step into womanhood. While the burdens that the protagonists in each of these texts differ in some key ways, one of the most interesting things that both Woodson and Morrison depicted was a sense of difficulty in coping with these changes, and rather than having any semblance of mastery over their circumstances, these young protagonists would instead project their emotions onto something else as they try to discover what causes their suffering.

Social class is a major theme in the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison is saying that there are dysfunctional families in every social class, though people only think of it in the lower class. Toni Morrison was also stating that people also use social class to separate themselves from others and apart from race; social class is one thing Pauline and Geraldine admire.Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda are affected by not only their own social status, but others social status too - for example Geraldine and Maureen Peal. Characters in the book use their social class as another reason for being ugly. Readers are reminded of the theme every time a new character enters into the book.

Exposed. The gravel comes in contact with the knee grazing it ever so slightly, but just enough, to bring the crimson blood to percolate from the naked and raw flesh, just waiting to be infected. The older sister runs into the house in a stir of panic as she hears the abating cry of her little sister. She rushes into the medicine cabinet of the bathroom, gripping the box ever so tightly rushing back to a pool of tears sitting on her driveway. Hurriedly, she peels back the thin paper tab and pulls out the defense against unwanted parasites; pressing it against her sister’s dark skin. “It looks funny, it stands out”, the little girl complained. It was true, the ivory Band-Aid was prominent against her black complexion. “It's just the way society is” the older sister replied.

In the 1960s a second wave of feminism rushed through America; focused on dismantling barriers in the workplace and changing the image of the ‘ideal woman.’ However, many women of color were not included in the feminist movement. Toni Morrison recognizes the feminist issues concerning black women and “interrogates and deconstructs the long-held stereotypical images of black women” through characters in her book (Chick). Her portraits are complex and revealing in the way they go beyond the simple patriarchy. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses historical context to represent the ideals of beauty and the psychological effect it has on the adolescent mind. Growing up

Toni Morrison is known for her use of poetic language. In many of her writings Morrison captures the pursuit of African Americans identities(Parnell). Considering Morrison never experienced the horrific tragedies she writes about, she is a witness to many identities that were destroyed by society depiction of them. The themes that Toni Morrison illustrates in her works Beloved and The Bluest Eye demonstrates how Toni Morrison works show individuals struggling with self-shattered identities that stem from society 's distorted expectations of them.

The Bluest Eye describes the insecurities and low self esteem of young girls. In the book, Toni Morrison writes through the eyes of a black girl in the 1940s named Pecola who wishes to be blue eyed and beautiful. As a naïve adolescent, Pecola believes that her physical appearance is the reason for problems in her life and if she looked better her life would be better as well. Though the novel particularly describes body image associated with race, this message is one that many readers, especially other girls, can relate to, too.

Pecola Breedlove is one of the main characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes. Pecola is a young black girl growing up in the 1940s, in northern Ohio, a dominantly white world. She idolizes the young, white movie actress Shirley Temple and wants to be like her. Pecola never realizes how unattainable this dream is and the hardships she faces makes it even more impossible. Some of the hardships Pecola faces in her life include being bullied at school, an unstable home life, and the feeling of ugliness. Pecola is constantly called ugly by classmates, strangers, and even her own mother. She has been called ugly so much she believes that she is truly ugly but, Pecola thinks if she had blue eyes then all of her problems would be solved. She would be pretty if she had blue eyes. People would not make fun of her and call her ugly if she had blue eyes. Blue eyes may even be able to prevent her parents from fighting so vigorously. She believes blue eyes are the solution to all of her problems. However, blue eyes are metaphor for something much more powerful than a genetic trait, love.

In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, fantasies are the result of a desire to escape poverty and limiting circumstances of the characters social conditions. Elaborate fantasies consume characters and take them away from their struggles, but the standards they attempt to meet set by society are unattainable. Although this common feeling among the characters in the novel is alleviating at first, it is ultimately, in the long run unhealthy. Characters in The Bluest Eye fall victim to the master narratives, forcing them to try and fit these impossible social norms. In the long term, this strive for an artificial life is the downfall of these characters because the standards of beauty, family, and love pushed, are far from real life reflections. More

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

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison brings to light the often unrecognized struggle that many people in the black community face. She exposes the “whitewashing” that has been prevalent in society for decades and the societal imposition of impossible beauty standards. Morrison uses the book to show us the psychological tolls on children and adults that stem from these unattainable goals. Children, like Pecola Breedlove, are so indoctrinated by society and the quest for superficial “perfection” that they lose sight of what truly matters. Those desires for superficial superiority even carry over into adulthood, as seen by Mrs. Breedlove’s “skin deep values.” The Bluest Eye even shows that anyone and everyone is affected by the desire to become perfect; even the Maurine Peals of the world have their own insecurities.

In Toni Morrison’s “From the Bluest Eye,” she writes about a girl who is in conflict with the societal norms of the time period. The girl was given dolls to play with, but she does not understand why she has to play with them and what makes the dolls beautiful. It is made clear that the girl never wanted dolls and nobody ever asked her what she wanted as a toy, yet the society she lives in tells her that girls play with dolls and nothing else. This story raises several interesting ideas, such as why were dolls made and why does society want girls to play with dolls? A larger question that the story raises is whether or not there is negative or positive effects on girls who play with dolls.

living condition after the Great Depression, but these movies also ingrain into her mind the concept of beauty that is measured by race and skin color, bringing her torturous feelings of shame and envy when she returns to the realm of reality into her own skin and life. After their interactions with accessible dolls and movies, Pecola and her mother are left miserable as they become more aware of their dark skin color and how far away it is from white.

Throughout The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison exposed various ways in which white Americans stripped black Americans of their identity and their freedom by making them feel inferior and ugly. She also highlighted various ways in which society beauty ideals, and how a perfect family should look, took a negative toll on all the characters in the book.In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the author portrays conflicts that make various character ugly.