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Discrimination In The Bluest Eye

Good Essays

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?
A study into children of the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Outlines
Illustrate how children are influenced by symbols of supposed trust and how that influences the way in which they perceive their roles in society.
How Morrison uses the children to illustrate the perception of beauty according to skin colour and how beauty defines their importance as people.
How Morrison compares and contrasts the attitudes of the three key child characters that represent the different attitudes towards internalised racism
In “The Bluest Eye”, by Toni Morrison, one of the main purposes is to highlight the discrimination of black children. Discrimination is most clearly represented through the child characters - namely
Claudia, Maureen …show more content…

Her use of the words “turned-up”, “glassy” and “yellow” shows her describing this white doll as having negative attributes, almost in the same manner that black people are looked down on. Her destruction of the doll demonstrates her refusal to treat them like items of worship. It also shows Claudia’s hatred not being directed towards white people but just the idea that people are so obsessed with being white.
The fact that the majority of the children described in Morrison's novel are girls naturally attributes them to their value in society in terms of their beauty. Morrison develops the theme of systematic racism to show the difference between black and white lifestyle as well as illustrate the relationship between race and beauty. This is shown when Maureen says to Claudia and Frieda “I am cute, you ugly” Morrison (Page number). Her condescending tone highlights how she establishes her importance over other black children simply because she is further along the spectrum to being white. Pecola perhaps takes this idea of whiteness being the ultimate beauty too strongly and suffers psychological trauma as a result. “The girls hand’s covering her mouth she backed away

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