That quote is from the book‚ “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. The story takes place at the end of the great depression. Claudia and Frieda MacTeer are two young girls that live with their very poor parents in Lorain‚ Ohio. The family takes in a border named Henry Washington and a young girl named Pecola. Pecola comes from a harsh family and is in love with Shirley Temple. She believes that being white is beautiful and that because she’s dark that she is ugly. When Pecola moves back with her family
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Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Whiteness as the Standard of Beauty The Bluest Eye provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. Implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere‚ including the white baby doll given to Claudia‚ the idealization of Shirley Temple‚ the consensus that light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls‚
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A Search For A Self Finding a self-identity is often a sign of maturing and growing up. This becomes the main issue in Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eyes. Pecola Breedlove‚ Cholly Breedlove‚ and Pauline Breedlove are such characters that search for their identity through others that has influenced them and by the lifestyles that they have. First‚ Pecola Breedlove struggles to get accepted into society due to the beauty factor that the norm has. Cholly Breedlove‚ her father‚ is a drunk who
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The main characters in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison were Pecola Breedlove‚ Cholly Breedlove‚ Claudia MacTeer‚ and Frieda MacTeer (Morrison‚ 2007). Pecola Breedlove is an eleven-year-old black girl around whom the story revolves. Her innermost desire is to have the "bluest" (Morrison‚ 2007) eyes so that others will view her as pretty because that is what the white people have. In the end that desire is what finishes her‚ she believes that God gave her blue eyes causing her to become insane.
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Violent Women in The Bluest Eye and Beloved The black female characters within Toni Morrison’s novels are often scarred by their surrounding‚ oppressive environments. Whether they are racially exploited‚ sexually violated‚ or emotionally abused‚ these women make choices that cannot be easily understood in order to coexist with these scars. Specifically‚ many of Morrison’s female characters turn to violence. She resists the temptation to portray only positive or idealistic characters‚ but rather
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females. In her six novels‚ Morrison tells the bias images of black women as powerful or powerless. In two of her works‚ "The Bluest Eye" and "Song of Solomon"‚ one of the many themes are Women and Feminity and Abandonment of Women. 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
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in black literature. African-American novelists in the early 20th century offered a predominantly white audience an insight into black culture and vocalized the injustice had by their hands. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye both incorporate controversial female protagonists facing the challenge of mental oppression by both personal and societal belief‚ and physical abuse at the hands of their aggressors. Whilst each arguably feminist bildungsroman faces criticism for
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The Destructive Force in Beauty Beauty is dangerous‚ especially when you lack it. In the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison‚ we witness the effects that beauty brings. Specifically the collapse of Pecola Breedlove‚ due to her belief that she did not hold beauty. The media in the 1940 ’s as well as today imposes standards in which beauty is measured up to; but in reality beauty dwells within us all whether it ’s visible or not there ’s beauty in all; that beauty is unworthy if society brands
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York: Library of Congress‚ 1994. Pages 3-9<br><li>Harris‚ Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison Knoxville: The university of Tennessee press‚ 1991<br><li>Morrison‚ Toni. Sula. New York: Plume‚ 1973<br><li>Morrison‚ Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume‚ 1970<br><li>Stepto‚ Robert. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" Intimate Things in Place: A conversation with Toni Morrison. Massachusetts Review. New York: Library of Congress‚ 1991. Pages 10- 29.
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RACIAL SELF LOATHING IN THE BLUEST EYE In "The Bluest Eye"‚ author Toni Morrison builds a story around the concept of racial self-hatred and how it comes to exist in the mind of a young child. "The Bluest Eye" deals directly with the individual psychology of the main character‚ Pecola Breedlove. So intense are Pecola’s feelings of self-loathing and inferiority that she would do anything to soothe them. In her young mind‚ she needs a miracle; she needs the bluest eyes. All of the tragedies in this
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