The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison: Chapter Analysis

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is about a young black girl named Pecola Breedlove. During the Great Depression in 1941, Lorain, Ohio, Pecola’s family life is violent and lacking in structure, love and support. Throughout her story, you hear the voices of many black individuals and how they battle internalized racism. They are always in search of beauty because the world around them finds white or light brown skin and blue eyes beautiful. Blackness is the symbol for ugliness, powerlessness and nastiness. It is also something to be feared and avoided. They make various attempts to rid themselves of their blackness in order to be and feel accepted. Whiteness is the symbol of purity, beauty and cleanliness. This is what Pecola and some of the
The first prolong is a Dick and Jane narrative to paint the picture of a happy and innocent upper class white family. At the end of the narrative the words begin to run into each other, symbolizing that this life is a fairy tale and that this perfect white world is not realistic. The second prolong is a brief and suspenseful summary of Pecola’s life. The prolong shows the violence, rape of racism and ultimately the real world. Chapters are broken into seasons to demonstrate the natural cycle of racism and the pain of each character’s experience. Within each chapter as well, there is an omniscient voice who is an all knowing narrator and there is the child and adult point of view of Pecola, Claudia, Cholly, Pauline and other characters to better understand the major conflict of the book because there are always two sides to a
Claudia is the opposite of Pecola, instead of accepting what happens or what others do to her she stands up for herself and finds her own answers. She has a loving and stable family. Unlike Pecola, Claudia has not experienced self-hatred and her vision stays clear through all the racist remarks and violence seen and encountered. She is the voice of wisdom and truth in the black community. Claudia is a strong believer in funkiness which is the passion, soulfulness and human emotions that black people have. She never once gives in to wanting to be white, instead she wants to understand what makes white people more beautiful than her. When Claudia is given a white doll, she tears it apart trying to understand what is so special about the white doll. In the end, she finds that the white doll is hollow inside symbolizing that white people have no emotion or funkiness. She learns that the quest for blue eyes and trying to mimic white idols is a false hope and that it will not make you