African American Motherhood

African American mothers play a unique role in the family structure as a result of the discrimination and prejudice that they have come to expect. A role that, though not outwardly feminine or gentile, is nonetheless very significant in the American story of motherhood. This new embodiment of motherhood questions conventional standards of behaviour, standards that associate maternity with specific behavioural traits. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison pokes fun at these traditional ideals of femininity and fragility that act to restrict and dictate the behaviour of women. Commonly in literature, if a woman falls short of fulfilling her patriarchal duties she is portrayed as an archetype, specifically the archetype of the bad mother. Morrison does