Preview

The Bluest Eye Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
218 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Bluest Eye Research Paper
Pecola in the novel, who is a victimized child, was really Morrison’s representative to vocalize the issue that she was responding to in the 1970, was racial beauty. Morrison, in The Bluest Eye, set out to describe “how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female” (Morrison xi). Through this book she executes her theme of beauty by having her protagonist, a young black girl, surrounded by the high standards of being beautiful was equivalent to being white. Her life is hard because she is abused by everyone in her family. Her mother calls her names and her father sexually assaulted Pecola. And the only way to make her life

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. The history of the Breedloves' home is that it use to be a store. The Breedlove's lived in a store front. It is a very unattractive building within the community. "...pedestrians, who are residents of the neighborhood, simply look away when they pass it."(Morrison 33). That statement shows me that no one cared about this abandoned store. Before the store was abandoned it was a pizza parlor, a real estate office, and a gypsies base of operations. I believe that no one remembers the Breedlove's living in the store because no one ever took notice of the store also the Breedlove's were not active with in the community to be noticed by anyone. The book states that the Breedlove's did not make a wave in the mayor's office.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The theme of the story, “The Bluest Eye” written by Toni Morrison, demonstrates the connection between the self-esteem of African-American people (beauty and ugliness), racism and hate. The reason why this theme is discussed was because, we can go back to the origins of African-Americans, it relates to the African diaspora, Jim Crow era, and how people negatively look at blacks today in society, and white supremacy destroyed black imaginary. But before this goes on furthermore, the audience needs to understand the importance of the dominant society which strongly removed the identity of African-American. Claudia and Maureen play perfect roles during the story. They show…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One reason critics praise Toni Morrison’s, The Bluest Eye is because of the way the novel accurately portrays the way society views itself and others (Hoffman). She precisely shows in her work, that mankind is flawed in this aspect. Similar to that, Toni Morrison asks the novel’s readers “to think about perspectives of all types” (Hoffman). With the book’s inclusion of racism and self loathing the author wants the readers to connect with the protagonist, on an emotional basis, and try to first-hand understand Pecola’s perspective. Perhaps the most significant reason critics cite in favor of the novel not being banned is the story’s potential to incite analyzations about self-esteem and body image (Lalami). Readers and educators alike could read the book in detail, and have discussions about the author’s…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin, "The Bluest Eye" is Toni Morrison's first novel. This novel tells a story of an African American girl's desire for the bluest eyes, which is the symbol for her of what it means to feel beautiful and accepted in society (American). In the novel, women suffer from the racial oppression, but they also suffer from violation and harsh actions brought to them by men (LitCharts). Male oppression is told all throughout the story, but the theme of women and feminity with the actions of male oppression over the women reaches its horrible climax when one…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Bluest Eye

    • 755 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The characters in “The Bluest Eye” are exposed to social standards and norms. The book opens with an excerpt from the book “Dick and Jane”. This excerpt represents the perfect, ideal, suburban, white family. Each chapter in the book also begins with a quote from this book. This makes the lives of the black families in the book seem worse. The comparison of Dick and Jane’s family and life to that of the black families in the book demonstrates how the black families would compare themselves to the white families. The blacks in “The Bluest Eye” feel conflicted because their self-identity does not match up with society’s social norms. An example of this is when Geraldine does everything she can to be that same as white families. She straightens her hair, uses lotion so she does not become ashy, has a steady income, and keeps in house in exceptional shape. But no matter how similar her life style is to theirs, she still does not feel as if she fits in because she knows she is black. This theme can be seen in everyday life when comparing the first and second floor cafeterias at Osbourn Park. It is more usual for white people to sit on the second floor while more colored people sit on the first floor. No one said the setup had to be that way, but it is normal for the students and it is what they are used to.…

    • 755 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The character Pecola idolizes the young actress Shirley Temple and believes that if she had blue eyes the hardships in her life will be ended and she will be respected and even showered with affection, and lighter-skinned Maureen is seen as cuter than the dark-skinned girls. The black mothers in this novel, such as Pauline Breedlove and Geraldine, understand the general consensus is that white is superior, and seem to take their hatred for this out on Pecola, with Geraldine blaming Pecola for killing her cat because she is a “nasty black bitch,” when it was actually her son Junior. The only character who appears to disagree with this racism is Claudia and Frieda MacTeer. Claudia believes that Pecola’s baby will be beautiful despite being black. However, several times, it is implied that racial self-loathing the characters face is brought on by maturation, and Claudia will soon face the issue…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pecola Beauty Standards

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beauty standards set by society for black women fuels into their insecurities and drives them towards self-hatred. From the start, Pecola’s community, classmates, teachers and parent’s drill into her head that she is unattractive. Pecola Breedlove comes to admit she is ugly as she starts obsessing over the idea of having the bluest eyes to make her attractive. Pecola full-heartedly believes that blue eyes are a necessity for beauty and if she were to by some means acquire them, all of her problems in life would disappear. “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes” (46). Pecola assumes blue eyes are the key to gaining admiration from her community and love from her family. While Pecola Breedlove is constantly reminded of everything she is: ugly, poor, and black; her innocence is also stolen from her as she is figuratively raped by society and literally raped by her father.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Bluest Eye, written in 1970, is novel by Toni Morrison. It is Morrison's first novel and was written while she was teaching at Howard University. The Bluest Eye tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl growing up in Morrison's hometown of Lorain, Ohio, during the hard times following the Great Depression. In this novel, Toni Morrison addresses a timeless problem of white racial dominance in the United States and points to the impact it has on the life of black females growing up in the 1930's.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Geraldine's Dysmorphia

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Morrison uses these figures who show how they are admired for their cleanliness and whiteness. These characters parallel Pecola, Cholly, Pauline, Claudia, Frieda and Mrs. MacTeer, who are all reflections of “blackness” which is perceived as dirty and undesirable. These characters all show how everyone in the community is a victim of racism and in return set out to change themselves, developing body dysmorphic disorder. These characters all wish to change their physical appearance and look and act more like the mixed race characters, only to gain acceptance from their community. Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye tells the story how racism and societies standard of beauty leads to body dysmorphic disorder and the demise of a village when they fall to the pressures of what is accepted by…

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Critical Lens

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses a number of literary elements in order to illustrate Pecola’s desperation to try and become beautiful and thus improve her life. One of the most important literary elements used is setting. The setting of the novel as stated earlier is Lorain, Ohio during the 1940s when discrimination for being black was rampant. Located in the Midwest, Pecola grew up knowing that she was not beautiful, because she was black. Everywhere she went everyone looked down upon her and mocked her and her entire family.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    a teenager in a field with Darlene by two white men, "never did he once consider…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reviewing my grade on The Bluest Eye essay, I can honestly say that I did a great job considering I got 83% on the previous essay. I was more prepared and I took my time to write it. Going over the notes on the book as well as doing a little bit of research gave me the information I needed to write my essay. I noticed that my writing has improved significantly compared to where I started at the beginning of the year. On this particular essay I demonstrated several strengths in my paper as well as some weaknesses when it came to my essay as a whole.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bluest Eye

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At the end of chapter 8 in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the reader is reminded of a graphic scene that was mentioned on the first page of the book between a father and his daughter. In this chapter, Cholly comes home very drunk and rapes his daughter, Pecola. While almost all of Morrison’s readers cannot understand, at the beginning of the book, how a man could impregnate his own daughter, they later start to grasp at why Cholly could do such a thing because of his past. Tragically, Cholly is capable of raping his own daughter because of the madness and affection that is built up inside of him.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although Claudia and Frieda are embarrassed and hurt for Pecola, their sorrow is intensified by the fact that none of the adults seem to share the same feelings of grief and their hopefulness tries to heal their disjointed society. In the passage Claudia begins to describe how she can see the baby, the living human that everyone else wanted dead. The baby that is still in the womb, she pictures the baby, in a dark place this could symbolize death of the baby later. She paints a picture for the reader saying that the baby’s hair like great O’s of wool as in sheep leading us to think that the baby might be a Jesus figure. She describes the baby’s eyes as clean, pure because it hasn’t yet seen the evil of the world. The flared nose, as if the baby is mad or out of breathe again symbolizes death. She says kissing-thick lips, shining a light on the more sexual side making it seem like thats all your lips should be used for. She concludes by saying “the living, breathing silk of black skin”, to express that this baby is living, it is a human, it is taking a breath just like everyone else. Silk is an expensive fabric, something of worth just like this baby’s life. “No synthetic yellow bangs suspended over marble-blue eyes, no pinched nose and bowline mouth.” Claudia goes on to describe the baby as a doll, saying that they are nothing alike, dolls are fake in fact worse they are “synthetic”, and they are far from perfect, they have pinched noses, pinched towards the sky like a snooty white girl. But not like this baby, Claudia felt a yearning, a burning for someone to care for this baby to love it and want it to live. “Just to counteract the universal love of white baby dolls,” she wanted this baby to come into the world to change it, to change how the world viewed black babies, to “counteract” set off the balance, of the whole universe meaning everybody and the love it had for a doll rather…

    • 1246 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Bluest Eye

    • 2035 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Pecola, the heroine in The Bluest Eye suffers what Philomela does, for she is raped by her own father. Moreover, she suffers from emotional rape from her mother.…

    • 2035 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays