Bluest Eye - 1268 Words

â€Å"No one believed that a black African could write a good book† (Satwase). In the Bluest Eye Toni Morrison uses wrong and discomfort to show the crushing consequences that come from racism. In 1950 America, racial discrimination was implied by different skin colors. The Bluest Eye shows ways in which white beauty standards hurt lives of black females, blacks that discriminate on each other and the community’s bias on who you were. Toni Morrison uses the racism of the 1950 s and shows that It is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes. Characters that faced uncomfortable racism include Claudia MacTeer, Pecola Breedlove, and Geraldine. Many female characters were discriminated by the†¦show more content†¦She becomes a reminder of human cruelty and an emblem of human suffering† (Watkins).As much as Morrison concentrates on the aspect of white racism, she includes other aspects of racism that involve black attitudes toward each other as well as white attitudes toward blacks. Geraldine is a middle-class African American woman has devoted her life to removing any sort of â€Å"Funk,† whether it is dirt, disorder, or sex. Geraldine has sacrificed any pleasure she could have had for this â€Å"beauty.† She, in fact, maintains this beauty because she is fixated with society’s ideal of what makes a person beautiful. She associates beauty with skin color in much the same way as Pecola does, and therefore has learned to hate her own skin because she is not white. â€Å"She is so full of self−loathing that she wants to eliminate any trace of her color, in favor of pale skin and strai ght hair† (Satwase). She also decides to eliminate what she considered to be the emotional characteristics of blacks, in an effort to change her color. In her mind, the elimination of blackness meant â€Å"the careful development of thrift, patience, high morals, and good manners† while getting rid of â€Å"passion†¦nature†¦ [And] the wide range of human emotions†(Colson). So she devotes her life to changing herself, and makes a â€Å"successful† transformation. She is now as pretty as a doll, and as soulless as one. Geraldine did not want to consider herself a black female do toShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye Analysis921 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Bluest Eye† â€Å"The Bluest Eye† by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl immersed in poverty and made â€Å"ugly† by the Society of the early 1940’s that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley Temple. The novel opens in the fall of 1941, just after the Great Depression, in Lorain, Ohio. Nine-year-old ClaudiaRead MoreEssay on Bluest eye1102 Words   |  5 Pages Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, presents the lives of several impoverished black families in the 1940’s in a rather unconventional and painful manner. Ms. Morrison leads the reader through the lives of select children and adults, describing a few powerful incidents, thoughts and experiences that lend insight into the motivation and. behavior of these characters. In a somewhat unconventional manner, the young lives of Pauline Williams Breedlove and Charles (Cholly) Breedlove are presentedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Bluest Eye 818 Words   |  4 PagesIn The Bluest Eye, Pecola the protagonist is taken under the Macteer family’s wing much like â€Å"The African family is community-based and the nurturing quality is not contained within the nuclear family, but is rather the responsibility of the entire community† (Ranstrà ¶m). In traditional Africa each child has a place and is welcome in the community. The act of parenting another child was not odd because every adult that lived in each community believed that any child is welcome in anyone’s home. ThisRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1587 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"We were born to die and we die to live.† Toni Morrison correlates to Nelson’s quote in her Nobel Lecture of 1993, â€Å"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.† In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she uses language to examine the concepts of racism, lack of self-identity, gender roles, and socioeconomic hardships as they factor into a misinterpretation of the American Dream. Morrison illustrates problems that these issues provoke throughRead MoreThe Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye1317 Words   |  6 Pages The Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye nbsp; Morrison has divided her portrayal of a fictional town of blacks, which suffers from alienation and subjugation, into four seasons.nbsp; I believe that her underlying message is to illustrate the reality of lifes travails: the certain rhythms of blessings and tragedies.nbsp; Some blacks understand and acccept this philosophy and Morrisons use of the seasons portrays and echoes the bible verse, To every thing there is a season, andRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison992 Words   |  4 PagesSet in the 1940s, during the Great Depression, the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, illustrates in the inner struggles of African-American criticism. The Breedloves, the family the story revolves around a poor, black and ugly family. They live in a two-room store front, which is open, showing that they have nothing. In the family there is a girl named Pecola Breedlove, she is a black and thinks that she is ugly because she is not white. Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, goe s through humiliatedRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesblack/whiteness. Specifically, white people were positioned at the upper part of the hierarchy, whereas, African Americans were inferior. Consequently, white people were able to control and dictate to the standards of beauty. In her novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and ideals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the different characters. With the juxtaposition of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove, who naively conforms toRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye 1115 Words   |  5 Pagesbeliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, t heir economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all. In The Bluest Eye, characters experience aRead MoreThe Bluest Eyes By Toni Morrison1118 Words   |  5 PagesFood and appetite is a relatable experience for everyone. Many believe food is strictly just for enjoying while you eat, however within Toni Morrison’s novel â€Å"The Bluest Eyes† she makes many distinct references to food. Through these means, she creates each individual personality of the characters. She goes on to use this association for most food references within her novel. The result enables the reader to have a more relatable experience with each of her characters regardless of color. OverallRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of The Bluest Eye1889 Words   |  8 Pages Love Doesnt Last The Bluest Eye is a novel based in Ohio on 1941. One of the narrators from of the novel is Claudia, she is a nine-year-old African-American girl that lives with her mother, father and her ten-year-older sister in an old green house, they didnt have much money but they made up for it with love. The family had so much love they accepted the main character of The Bluest Eyes, Pecola Breedlove in to their house, a 11 year old African American girl that hated the melanin in her skin