Analysis Of The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
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.
The narrative begins with the “educational” Dick and Jane story, “Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane” (p. 6). Although we are told …show more content…
“They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly…Except for the father, Cholly, whose ugliness was behavior, the rest of the family- Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove- wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them.” (p.38) This ugliness that did not belong to them was always portraying itself their lives; everywhere they looked among themselves, they saw nothing but hideousness. Societal standards ingrained into their beings from adolescence leads to the whole family's …show more content…
The lower-middle class consists of Mr. Henry Washington and the MacTeers. Finally, the lower class, those who everyone frowns upon, are the Breedlove's. These economic differences place great pressure on the members of the black society and its future and are displayed in the attitudes of the people towards one another. When Geraldine arrives home to see Pecola in her house she “saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head…the cheap soles, the soiled socks…the safety pin holding the hem of the dress up…She had seen this girl all of her life…they were everywhere…Get out, you nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (p. 92). The middle class, usually light skinned African-Americans, treated the lower class Breedlove's like scum. There was a superiority complex, not only among blacks and whites, but inside the black community as well, making the lives of the Breedloves all the more
The narrative begins with the “educational” Dick and Jane story, “Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane” (p. 6). Although we are told …show more content…
“They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly…Except for the father, Cholly, whose ugliness was behavior, the rest of the family- Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove- wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them.” (p.38) This ugliness that did not belong to them was always portraying itself their lives; everywhere they looked among themselves, they saw nothing but hideousness. Societal standards ingrained into their beings from adolescence leads to the whole family's …show more content…
The lower-middle class consists of Mr. Henry Washington and the MacTeers. Finally, the lower class, those who everyone frowns upon, are the Breedlove's. These economic differences place great pressure on the members of the black society and its future and are displayed in the attitudes of the people towards one another. When Geraldine arrives home to see Pecola in her house she “saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head…the cheap soles, the soiled socks…the safety pin holding the hem of the dress up…She had seen this girl all of her life…they were everywhere…Get out, you nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (p. 92). The middle class, usually light skinned African-Americans, treated the lower class Breedlove's like scum. There was a superiority complex, not only among blacks and whites, but inside the black community as well, making the lives of the Breedloves all the more