Blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin was the envy of most young African American girls in the 1940's. In the tragic novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old black girl is a victim of racial self-loathing and also rape by her father which results in pregnancy. Described as submissive, ugly, and ignorant, she is labeled the outcast amongst the black community of Lorain, Ohio. Though Pecola does have some friends, Claudia and Frieda Macteer, she wants to be accepted and loved by others.
Pecola grows up in an abusive and un-loving family. She longs to disappear from the face of the Earth to rid her of her problems; however, it soon drives her into a yearning to become beautiful. Pecola gets the idea that if her brown eyes were to turn blue, her world would be different. For a year Pecola prays for blue eyes, but her wish never came true. When she gets raped by her father, she thinks he does it because of her ugliness. Pecola goes to a spiritualist later on to ask for blue eyes and is led to believe that she will gain her wish. She is then truly convinced that she really does have blue eyes and goes insane as a result. (p. 204) "She spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulder, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air like a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach--couldn't even see--but which filled the valleys of the mind.".
The tragedy of Pecola Breedlove is of oppression and violation in children. Children learn from the adults around them and believe everything adults say or do. The emphasis on Europeans in Pecola's community gives her the idea that only white people are beautiful and loved. Her belief in white superiority results in internalized racism.
Toni Morrison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her first novel, "The Bluest Eye," was published in 1970. ... In 1965 she started writing 'The Bluest Eye." ... " The characters in the bluest eye show exactly why such a movement was needed. ... Pecola Breedlove is the central figure in "The Bluest Eye." ...
In the novel "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, Morrison provides an interpretation of how whiteness is the standard of beauty, which warps the lives of black women and children, through messages everywhere that whiteness is superior and beautiful. ... "The Bluest Eye" has many elements that relate to Toni Morrison's own personal life. ... Through "The Bluest Eye", Morrison makes a statement about how vulnerable a young black girl, such as herself, is as she is exposed to this implied white beauty and superiority and racism. ... After twenty years later Toni ...
Bluest Eye Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio, in the late 1930s. ... She wants the bluest eye. ... The name of the novel, "The Bluest Eye," is meant to get the reader thinking about how much value is placed on blue-eyed little girls. ... There are two major metaphors in The Bluest Eye, one of marigolds and one of dandelions. ... In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison tells the story of a little black girl who thinks that if she can live up to the image of the blue-eyed Shirley Temple and Dick and J...
The variety of passionately displayed themes, interactions, and events presented in The Bluest Eye provide an understanding of Toni Morrison's inner thoughts and beliefs which were highly impacted by her various life experiences. ... In The Bluest Eye, Morrison thoroughly uses her previous experiences in aid to create the feeling of hardship and the melancholy tone of the novel. Toni Morrison was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931, to parents Ramah and George Wofford. ... It wasn't long before Toni met Harold Morrison, a young architect, who also taug...
The Eyes of Society In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the central theme is society's negative influence on the individual. ... In The Bluest Eye, Claudia MacTeer provides a child's point of view-sometimes from an adult perspective while an omniscient voice relates information unknown by Claudia, like Pecola's thoughts. ... For example, the name of the novel, The Bluest Eye, is meant to get the reader thinking about how the desire for blue eyes dominated society and ruined the life of a child. ... The Bluest Eye illustrates the possible consequences of depend...
Portrait of a Victim: Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye The Bluest Eye (1970) is the novel that launched Toni Morrison into the spotlight as a talented African-American writer and social critic. ... In The Bluest Eye, Morrison's uses her critical eye to reveal to the reader the evil that is caused by a society that is indoctrinated by the inherent goodness and beauty of whiteness and the ugliness of blackness. ... Narration in The Bluest Eye comes from several sources. ... Morrison says, "First I wrote it [the section in The Bluest Eye about Pecola's mother] out as an I' sto...
In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the chapters are separated by the evolutions of seasons. ... Memory plays a crucial role in the major themes of The Bluest Eye. ... Pecola provides an extended depiction through her ideals of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of blacks, especially black women, in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. ... Toni Morrison's The Blues Eye is composed of sections that are labeled by the seasons: autumn, winter, spring, and summer. ... Evidently we can conclude from the readings: Toni Morrison's The Bluest Ey...
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye tells the sad story of Pecola Breedlove, a poor prepubescent black girl, who wants to be loved and cared for by her family and society. ... She idolizes images of blond haired, blue-eyed white girls like Shirley Temple. ... The child is stillborn and Pecola goes insane withdrawing into a fantasy world where she has the bluest eyes of all. ... It would be ridiculous for Morrison not to include such a character and his motivations. ... Morrison would alienate the same readers she is trying to appeal to. ...
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye tells the sad story of Pecola Breedlove, a poor prepubescent black girl, who wants to be loved and cared for by her family and society. ... She idolizes images of blond haired, blue-eyed white girls like Shirley Temple. ... The child is stillborn and Pecola goes insane withdrawing into a fantasy world where she has the bluest eyes of all. ... It would be ridiculous for Morrison not to include such a character and his motivations. ... Morrison would alienate the same readers she is trying to appeal to. ...