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The Bluest Eye Identity Essay

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Identity can be defined as knowing who you are in relation to the people around you. It involves having an understanding of how you function in society, and because of this, it is often shaped by the way that others treat you. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the way characters interact is revealing of their self-perception and identity. While there are a whole slew of factors that help to shape characters identities, many of them can be put into three different groups. In this novel, identity is affected by race, socioeconomic status, and appearance. Race is a big part of how identity is determined in The Bluest Eye. Set in the 1970’s, racism is certainly alive and well at this time. As one might expect, whiteness is glorified and the …show more content…

On pg 39, it says “No one could’ve convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly,” and it goes on to say that they “wore their ugliness...although it did not belong to them...and they took the ugliness...and went about the world with it. Dealing with it each according to his way.” This passage tells us that their appearance means more to the Breedloves than what we may think. For them, it is not just about how they look, they use their appearance to shape who they are. Mrs. Breedlove used it to feel bad for herself. Sammy used it to make others feel bad. Pecola used it as a way to hide. Every member of the Breedlove family used their appearance to define who they are, how they acted, how they chose friends, and it controlled every aspect of their lives. For example, Pecola desires nothing more than to change her eyes to blue. Because of the passage above, we know that Pecola wanted more than just to change the way she looked. Her appearance is so tied up in her identity that to her, it is almost the same thing. Changing her appearance is equivalent to changing who she is, which is really what Pecola

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