The Bluest Eye Character Analysis

The language that Sylvia uses give the reader sense of her personality and her attitude when she describes Miss Moore’s arrival to her neighborhood, “this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup” (Bambara 337). Throughout the story, Sylvia expresses hatred toward Miss Moore and criticizes about how Miss Moore is educated. This tells the reader that Sylvia is not used to being around educated people and feels threatened by Miss Moore’s arrival. Therefore constantly expressing hatred towards Miss Moore by saying, “I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddam college degree” (337). As Miss Moore is determined to teach and show the children a different side of the world, Sylvia tries to distribute her negative attitude on other children by discouraging them with her rude remarks. For instance, when Rosie Giraffe showed an interest in the microscope in the show window of F. A. O. Schwartz, Sylvia made comments such as, “That there” You don’t even know what it is, stupid. Whatcha gonna do with a microscope, fool?” (340).

Shortly after Thanksgiving, she created this art piece. “Never has a bird been so tortured to provide a such a lousy dinner.” (Anderson, 61) It started as a memorial to the turkey that was brutally prepared for nothing for Thanksgiving, but in the end showed deeper meaning, a door to Melinda’s thoughts. Mr. Freeman sees and analysis what the art truly shows, representing the theory that the image can be represented in a rational way, even if the patient, in this cause Melinda has no idea what it means. Every component of the sculpture speaks for her thoughts. Barbie head shows her inability to speak about what had happened to her at the party and how it traps her. The turkey bones, as Mr. Freeman said, represent the awful Thanksgiving dinner that shows a singular moment that strips her. Along with the Thanksgiving dinner, the rape, the thought of her being an outcast, and most events happening at school are stripping her piece by piece, until all that is left is her bones. “It’s scary.” (Anderson,

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

No matter how ugly, mean, pitiful one can be, the family is always meant to support, raise, guide, nurture and be a means of inspiration in anyone’s life. In the novel, this isn’t the case for Pecola, which is why she gets mentally unstable as she couldn’t bear the torture of ugliness of not having blue eyes. Blue eyes are the one and only reason she could blame as per to her ability and thought process. In fact, she doesn’t get the real ugliness of how her father rapes her, the ugliness of how the mother choose the white girl over her, the ugliness of the fights between her parents is coming from their unpleasant past. After all, she doesn’t have that mentor in her life to explain what was happening. Everybody in her family is occupied with their own mindset. She is very young to understand and analyze on her own. The narrator Claudia even gets to compare between her and Pecola and starts accepting life and feel blessed for having a supportive family, which she doesn’t feel until Pecola enters in her life. So, this shows how young kids psychology is totally built upon the type of family environment she/he gets. There is a saying that young kids are like a raw clay ready to be shaped into the different form of objects by the potter. Undoubtedly, it stands so true. Indeed, kids shape themselves according to the type of environment they grow up with. By all means, Pecola’s family is the

The affiliation between beauty and whiteness limits the concept of beauty only to the person’s exterior. The characters are constantly subjected to images and symbols of whiteness through movies, books, candy, magazines, baby dolls and advertisements. Another example of the images and symbols in the novel is when the black protagonist, Pecola, feasts on a ‘Mary Jane’ candy.

This goes on to show that the narrator (who expresses herself as young, poor girl) does not have any women in her family and Lucy is someone she can run to and be her female barrier through life, as a sister which she says, “And we look at each other, our arms gummy from Popsicle we split, we could be sisters right?(5)”.Relating to she wants so much to be close to this girl, and she imagines them as sisters. In addition to, there are no male presence around except for her brothers which makes her feel like she can not relate to “their”world. Another reference of identity is in the story “Barbie-Q”, the little girl is playing with Barbie dolls with her friend, and the barbie dolls are very basic with not much clothing. Moreover, there is no “Ken” Barbie dolls around either. This compares that there is no masculinity as well as how poor these two girls are since the dolls only have few clothing. As a result, these girls have to share . Before long, they have an opportunity to buy some barbie dolls when there is a sale on burnt dolls due to warehouse that caught on fire. “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie's MOD'ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left foot melted a little—so?”(16). The girls do not care or take notice to the damage, they are grateful for what they have.

The desire to feel beautiful has never been more in demand, yet so impossible to achieve. In the book “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the story of two black families that live during the mid-1900’s. Even though slavery is a thing of the past, discrimination and racism are still a big issue at this time. Through the whole book, characters struggle to feel beautiful and battle the curse of being ugly because of their skin color. Throughout the book Pecola feels ugly and does not like who she is because of her back skin. She believes the only thing that can ever make her beautiful is if she got blue eyes. Frieda, Pecola, Claudia, and other black characters have been taught that the key to being beautiful is by having white skin. So by being black, this makes them automatically ugly. In the final chapter of the book, the need to feel beautiful drives Pecola so crazy that she imagines that she has blue eyes. She thinks that people don’t want to look at her because they are jealous of her beauty, but the truth is they don’t look at her because she is pregnant. From the time these black girls are little, the belief that beauty comes from the color of their skin has been hammered into their mind. Mrs. Breedlove and Geraldine are also affected by the standards of beauty and the impossible goal to look and be accepted by white people. Throughout “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison uses the motif of beauty to portray its negative effect on characters.

By contrasting the homes of Claudia and Pecola throughout the entire novel, Morrison stresses the importance of home in defending against a predatory, racist society. In Claudia’s home, her parents truly care for her and her sister. In one instance, her father took out a gun to fend off a tenant that touched Freida’s breast. This completely contrasts with Pecola’s home, where her parents are both hateful and self-hating, and her father actually raped her. Even though both households are

The dolls of the narrator are chosen to represent her childhood because dolls are a children’s toy and commonly associated with small girls. The fact that these dolls are being put away “like dead children in a chest” show that the narrator is being forced to face reality, as the dolls become children, and that this reality that she is facing has caused the death of her childhood, or the loss of her child innocence. This is further reinforced by the fact that she will “carry this chest with her until she marries”. As the poem progresses the narrator speaks of the “little trickle of blood” that the narrator physically experiences as a women that show she really is going through this loss of her childhood and that she is becoming a women. This shows her full maturity into a woman by the end of the poem when her “she is waiting for each hour to release

The poem “Barbie Doll” represents the struggles of young girl who wants to fit into the ideas of feminine beauty that sets by the society. The poem begins “This girlchild was born as usual” (Piercy Line 1). The author depicts a normal young girl who is healthy, brilliant and plays with doll. In the poem the girl was being bullied by her classmate and told her that that she has a “big nose and fat legs” (Line 6).Then she was advised to go on a diet and exercise .The girl struggles to become what the others want her to be .She feels being unaccepted because of her imperfections. Just like the speaker in the poem “Suicide Note” who struggles to meet her parent’s expectations .Both women can’t handle the pressures sets by others and commit suicide.

Claudia's fantasies of her mother metaphorically symbolize the situation in town after the public becomes aware of Pecola's pregnancy. The tornado symbolizes Pecola's pregnancy, which threatens to reveal the self-hatred and ugliness of the community, Claudia's vision of her mother shows how individuals ignore reality. The removal of Pecola from school because her pregnancy is the outcome of racial-self-hatred, self-perceived ugliness, sexual violence, and oppression, which exposes these underlying facts of their lives. The baby's death would provide the ultimate solution to this problem, removing the symbol of their hidden reality so everyone can comfortably ignore it. Claudia and Frieda have been blinded by racism and violence, perhaps because

Katherine Mansfield's "The Dolls House" seems to be a simple story about children receiving a own ideas and opinions. Even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion it is often bizarre to see how our opinions are based on those of others. This essay will outline the events that occurred in the story which are a big part in regards to the two different worlds of adults and children, and how they are separated from each other.

For decades there has been an ongoing discussion on society’s standards of beauty and what makes someone beautiful. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye she challenges white standards of beauty. Just like today, the society in Loraine, Ohio establishes a standard of beauty, and this beauty is defined as being as close to white as possible, having blonde hair, blue eyes, and a “Jack and Jill” family. Most of the characters in The Bluest Eye attempt to conform to society’s standards (complicating this idea) and believe if they can achieve at least one of the aspects of beauty their life will be better and they will be treated in higher regards. Through the female characters of Pecola, Claudia, Maureen, Geraldine, and Rosemary it is prevalent that there is a spectrum of beauty and the person who is closest to this standard, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, is considered pretty and is respected by society, while a person who is not close to this standard is considered ugly and is treated poorly by society. By ascribing to society’s expectations of beauty, Geraldine extends the role of white supremacy and undermines her own self-worth.

Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, Father. Dick and Jane live in the green-and-white house. They are very happy. See Jan. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat. It goes meow-meow. Come play. Come play with Jane. The kitten will not play. See Mother. Mother is very nice. Mother, will you play with Jane? Mother laughs. Laugh, Mother, Laugh. See Father. He is big and strong. Will you play with Jane? Father is smiling. Smile, Father, Smile. See the dog. Bowwow goes the dog. Do you want to play with Jane? See the dog run. Run, dog, run. Look, look. Here comes a friend. The friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game. This is the beginning passage of the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. To the normal person this passage would seem like the ideal life. This is in contrast to the tone of the entire book. This beginning sequence titles the chapter throughout the book. This essay will summarize the novel The Bluest Eye, show one interpretation of the novel, and then explain three arguments that relate back to my thesis. This essay argues that Claudia’s description of character suggests she is afraid.

Toni Morrison offers a means for a little black girl to feel worthy of love even if the world tells her differently. She uses Claudia MacTeer to illustrate this idea. Claudia feels worthy of love because of her family. For example, Claudia tells us “I had only one desire: to dismember it… to find the beauty… all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink- skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (22). She mentions later I destroyed white baby dolls” (22). White baby dolls are symbols of beauty. Claudia dismembers the white baby dolls to find out what is inside of them. She finds nothing inside of the dolls to justify their beauty, only the white skin on the outside. She learns that being black means you are not beautiful and unworthy of love. In order to be beautiful according to society, you must be white. Claudia destroys white baby dolls because she wants to destroy the idea that you have to be physically white to be beautiful. Despite society considering Claudia not being beautiful, she still feels that she is unworthy of love. For Christmas, Claudia wishes she could be with her grandmother and grandfather in the kitchen. This shows that