Bluest Eye Essay

Venus and Mars Gender definitions, particularly during the early half of the 20th century, impose strict, unalterable parameters for men and women. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison initiates her novel with a Dick and Jane passage that demonstrates society’s standards for men and women. Morrison then expands these standards with the introduction and development of additional characters, comparing them to society’s gender definitions to ultimately undermine and condemn them. Through her characters

Ignored as a person. Denied as a species. ‘The total absence of human recognition” (Morrison, 36). For decades, African-Americans have not only been looked down upon by white people, they have been dehumanized. Toni Morrison is controversial for pillorying this topic, that has been silenced by white society for years, not from the ‘Master Narrative’ perspective, that is the white male one’s, but from the exact opposite of this: an African-American girl. By doing this, she does not only awake pity

society thinks is the way to live. In my opinion, people believe they should act or feel a certain way because of what is broadcast on television, featured in magazines, and even brought into the limelight by celebrities. While Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” (1970) and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” (1973) both target ongoing social problems, Morrison structures her story to reveal just how pervasive and destructive social racism is, whereas Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” focuses on the character’s conflicting

Drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Sia Figiel utilizes some of the same techniques and covers similar themes in her novel Where we Once Belonged which primarily centers around Alofa, a girl growing up in a village Samoa.  Although the narrative voices of Claudia from The Bluest Eye and Alofa from Where we Once Belonged differ in their presence and focus, they both offer a young female adolescent’s perspective on life in their communities and how the influences of different cultural

The narration of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is actually a compilation of many different voices. The novel shifts between Claudia MacTeer's first person narrative and an omniscient narrator. At the end of the novel, the omniscient voice and Claudia's narrative merge, and the reader realizes this is an older Claudia looking back on her childhood (Peach 25). Morrison uses multiple narrators in order to gain greater validity for her story. According to Philip Page, even though the voices are divided

to look a certain way to be beautiful and if not they are considered ugly. They change their appearances in order to conform to the established beauty standard and often lose a part of their identity in the process. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she captures the struggle young girls and women face to meet the expectations popular culture has on the ideal beauty in the early 1940s. To better understand the mindset of the characters and society as whole during the early 1940s, one must

and racism can have on a whole culture and how African- Americans will tear each other apart in order to fit into the graces of white society. The desire to be considered beautiful in the white world is so compelling, that the characters in The Bluest Eye loathe their own skin color and feel shame for their culture. These feelings of self-loathing and contempt pass on from the adults to their children, creating a

Those who judge character through beauty are blind. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye determines how the individuals are alienated from their society through physical appearances. Throughout The Bluest Eye, the factors that determine, contribute, and provide an escape from, segregation are discussed. This novel emphasizes the unfortunate life of protagonist Pecola Breedlove by exhibiting her class conflict, mental state, physical attractiveness, and much more. Pecola is a subject to characteristics

Beauty and the Fetishization of Whiteness in Black Culture In Toni Morrison’s novels, The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child, the main characters, Pecola and Bride, both display elements and the fetishization of whiteness within the black community. Pecola and Bride’s propensity to embrace whiteness and mask their blackness speaks to the pervasive nature of white culture over that of others. The use of masks, disguises, and dreams of being more white to attain society’s view of what is beautiful

beauty. “The idea of the social construction of beauty is simply whatever culture or society says it is. Beauty arises in a cultural context. No one ever denies that. But there's also a natural response people have to it” (Dutton, 1985). “The Bluest Eye provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women” Morrison narrates the struggles of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven year