Analysis Of ' The Bluest Eye '

As stated before, it is based or should one say inspired by the life of the slave Margaret Garner, who was an African American slave . She attempts to escape in 1856 Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, which was a free state. A mob of slave owners, planters and overseers arrived to repossess her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue

Pecola was a product of a loveless marriage and suffered because of that. Her father was a violent drunk and her mother tries to emulate white celebrities. One night she even witnesses their lifeless marriage. “Into her eyes came the picture of Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove in bed. He making sounds as though he were in pain, as though something had him by the throat and wouldn't let go. Terrible as his noises were, they were not nearly as bad as the no noise at all from her mother. It was as though she was not even there. Maybe that was love. Choking sounds and silence.” It is clear throughout the book that Pecola is character that never experienced love, which of course explains the lack she has for herself. It gets to a point that Pecola believes with blue eyes, her parents would begin to love her. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. Her teeth were good, and at least her nose was not big and flat like some of those who were thought so cute. If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they’d say, “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.” This quote shows how Pecola feels that being white and “beautiful” would help her home situation along with how her guardians

At this time black people weren’t treated with respect and were constantly discriminated against in all types of ways. Pecola grew up in a rough environment with her dad abusing her mother constantly and constantly getting in fights “Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove fought each other with a darkly brutal formalism”(Morrison 43). Pecola decided to surround herself with people that can help her like the Macteer’s. In addition Pecola believed she was ugly and reason for this was because she didn’t have blue eyes like the Shirley Temple doll that everyone adored. Pecola never tried to persevere through the tough times and make people believe that she isn’t ugly but had just settled to believing that she was granted blue eyes and just felt sorry for herself “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty.

Because "The Bluest Eye" crystallizes the negative affect society can have on people, specifically African American girls in this novel, it is a teachable book for kids to determine the difference between what society wants and what is right. In the novel, Claudia says “We looked hard for flaws to restore equilibrium” (Morrison 68.) Claudia was referring to a white girl in her school. This is significant because society lead these African American girls to drool over white girls because they are supposedly perfect or worthier then them. It teaches kids the effects of society’s actions, and makes them realize self-worth does not come from the way you look. On page 22 of the novel Claudia states, “I try to discover what eludes me” (Morrison

In order to fulfill her greatest desire of having blue eyes, Pecola decided to seek out Soaphead Church for help. Growing up “ugly” resulted in Pecola having internalized self-hatred. She often sat wondering and “trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored and despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike.” To Pecola, eyes were everything; “everything was there, in them” (Morrison 45). Because her eyes were so important, she thought that if her eyes were different– she would be different, too. Pecola thought that this was the key to obtaining the respect that her peers had. Although she did not understand that she was pressured into believing her non-white features, her low self-esteem resulted from these predominantly white beauty standards. Being surrounded by the idealization of white girls with blond hair and blue eyes as the definition of beauty, Pecola began to pray for those blue eyes that were often idolized by whites and blacks alike. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, through a marxist point of view, Pecola’s wish for blue eyes depicts beauty as unattainable as long as European beauty standards continue to be idealized.

A woman’s race and the time period she lives in influences not only whether she will be a victim of sexual assault but also, the punishment of the offender. Toni Morrison, The author of The Bluest Eye, a victim of segregation, deals with sexual assault and segregation in her book. Chole Anthony Wofford, who goes by the name of Toni Morrison when writing her books, was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. Her father had several jobs to support their family, while her mother worked as a domestic worker. Toni lived in an integrated neighborhood. However, she did not become aware of segregation until she was a teenager. Her and her family eventually moved to the North to get away from

Women. When hearing that word alone, you think of weakness, their insignificance, and how lowly they are viewed in society. Females can be seen as unworthy or nothing without a man if they are not advocating them and are constantly being treated differently from men. However, in the book, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, they live up to their reputations for how they view themselves. Specifically, being focused on women like Pecola, and Claudia. They are often questioning their worth from society’s judgement of beauty. Though one character, Frieda embraces it despite being black. With having everything temporary, the desire of grasping and having something permanent increases. The women desires to be of

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl immersed in poverty and made “ugly” by the Society of the early 1940’s that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley Temple.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) takes place in Ohio towards the tail end of the depression. The story focuses on the character of Pecola Breedlove who wants to have blue eyes. Pecola becomes convinced that if she had blue eyes her life would be different. Through the eyes of our narrator, Claudia, and her sister Frieda we see the pervasive racism and abuse Pecola is subjected to. Claudia and Frieda act as witnesses to Pecola’s disintegration and as a result, they will spend the rest of their lives grappling with what happened to Pecola.

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.

In Toni Morrison’s novel, “The Bluest Eye”, a character named Pecola Breedlove had always been wishing to have blue eyes, because it was considered as pretty in the novel’s world. Also, a lighter skins African American, Maureen Peal, bullied the Pecola, who have darker skin, because Maureen Peal thinks herself is cute while Pecola is ugly. Similarly, Pecola always thought of herself in a negative way, in which, she calls herself ugly. On the other hand, Maureen Peal, think highly of herself, because she came from a wealthier family and more people like her. Furthermore, Pecola did not have an easy life due to all those hardships that she had to come across through her life. Morrison’s novel shows a contrast between the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant world and the world the characters of the novel live in by showing us how the characters in the novel are not living a good life and they get treated differently because of their skin color, and they are in a lower class than the others. Also, the kids are being neglected by their parents and there are child molestation in the family. I think today’s world is slowing changing but still has some similar divisions, because there is still racism out there. However, people are starting to stand up for themselves and appreciate their own culture and ethnicity more in today’s world.

Racial supremacy has been an issue through the world. It has been demonstrated by slavery in America and the genocide by Hitler in World War 2. Racial supremacy was a big thing in America where white people were seen as the right people and the only people and the other people were just minorities. In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison racial supremacy is shown by a young girl named Pecola who wants blue eyes so she could have better life. White culture has been the dominant culture for many people who are brought up thinking that it is the perfect lifestyle.

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

If she had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines, people would not want to do ugly things in front of her or to her. The accuracy of this insight is affirmed by her experience of being teased by the boys—when Maureen comes to her rescue, it seems that they no longer want to behave badly under Maureen’s attractive gaze. In a more basic sense, Pecola and her family are mistreated in part because they happen to have black skin. By wishing for blue eyes rather than lighter skin, Pecola indicates that she wishes to see things differently as much as she wishes to be seen differently. She can only receive this wish, in effect, by blinding herself. Pecola is then able to see herself as beautiful, but only at the cost of her ability to see accurately both herself and the world around her. The connection between how one is seen and what one sees has a uniquely tragic outcome for

“The Bluest Eye” is taking place around 1940 in Lorain, Ohio. During the year of 1940, discrimination, especially toward African Americans, was still a serious problem. People believe that whiteness is the standard of beauty. The main character, Pecola, who was a nine-years-old African-American, was influenced by how people view beauty. Pecola suffered and felt that she is inferior to others. Pecola believed that having a pair of blue eyes would made people think she is pretty, and would be the key resolving all the problems.