Most Beautiful Column In Shirley Temple's The Bluest Eye
Looking back at the past and viewing the list of People Magazine's "Most Beautiful" column, over the last 30 years 87% of people that were ranked first were either white or had lighter skin. The impact of choosing mainly white or light skinned people influences society's opinion on what is considered the beauty standard and further pushes the idea that white is beautiful and black is not. People would use the beauty standard as an excuse to be racist, purposely making fun of the way dark skinned people looked. In The Bluest Eye, this situation happens to Pecola. In her world, Shirley Temple, a famous white child actress, was considered the epitome of the beauty standard and Pecola was the complete opposite of her. Pecola, knowing this, constantly …show more content…
Pecola is used as a representation of someone who does not fit the beauty standard, she had darker skin and ugly facial features. She was treated differently because she did not have the pretty privilege that white people had. When Pecola went to the storefront to purchase a Mary Jane (candy bar), Mr. Yacobowski, the white shopkeeper, immediately became weary and attentive because he didn't feel comfortable with her being in the store. When Pecola was trying to tell Mr. Yacobowski what she wanted to purchase he spoke aggressively towards her even though she was being respectful. After that, she finally ends up purchasing the Mary Jane and as "She holds the money toward him. He hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand" (Morrison 49). Mr. Yacobowski hesitated before touching her hand because she is black. All throughout Pecola's time in the store he kept showing outright racism towards an innocent little girl because she had darker skin. This is not the only instance of white people being outright racist to Pecola. At school, she got bullied harshly by other white kids. They threw things at her and called her names because of her looks. The media at the time glamorized girls that looked like Shirley Temple. This overall impacted the behavior of society and showed that if you did not fit the beauty standards it was acceptable to experience racism or to be treated
Symbolism In Lorna Roth's A Christmas Carol
1430 Words | 6 PagesThe color of Claudia and Pecola skin effected everything they did. It effected their treatment of dolls to their social interactions. The girls had no choice but to confirm to their world that lighter is better, and put themselves down for it. They had no representation and grew up with the notion that lighter is better. Those girls are not the only ones.
Character Analysis Of Connie From 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'
960 Words | 4 PagesConnie from “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates represents a situation opposite of that which Pecola is subject to. Connie “knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Seagull Reader 337). She had “long dark blonde hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” (337). She lived with her parents and sister in a comfortable home.
Comparison Of Frederick Douglas And The Bluest Eye: The Pathing Of Identity
1008 Words | 5 PagesWhen Pecola was just being born she was being called ugly by the person who she needed the most, her mother. This is because the same thing happened to her Mother, and her Grandmother. Racist Societal constructs broke their family
Lorain, Ohio: Chapter Summary
394 Words | 2 PagesIn Lorain, Ohio, 9-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, who take two other people into their home: Mr. Henry, a tenant, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was burned down by her wildly unstable father, Cholly: a man widely gossiped about in the community. Pecola is a quiet, passive young girl with a hard life, whose parents are constantly fighting, both verbally and physically. Pecola is continually reminded of what an "ugly" girl she is, fueling her desire to be white with blue eyes. Most chapters ' titles are extracts from the Dick and Jane paragraph in the novel 's prologue, presenting a white family that may be contrasted with Pecola 's; perhaps to incite discomfort, the chapter titles contain much sudden repetition of words or phrases, many cut-off words, and no interword separations.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Eye By Toni Morrison
1030 Words | 5 PagesPecola’s mother however, looks at her daughter and thinks she will never grow out of her ugliness hurting Pecola deeply, “ she looked different from what I thought. Reckon I talked too much before I conjured up a mind’s eye view of it” (125) From birth, Pecola was ugly to her own mother and could never see past the concept of Pecola’s ugliness causing hate and neglection in Pecola’s life. Cholly, Pecola’s father, has an abusive relationship with Pecola in the novel but doesn’t see her as ugly such as everyone else. Cholly was one of the only characters to show love to Pecola by raping her, no other character could even touch Pecola. The relaionhip with his wife Pauline started to impact Pecola before she
Alienated Self-Hatred In The Bluest Eye And Sula
1627 Words | 7 PagesPecola stands for binary opposition ugliness, unworthiness, invisibility and lack of self-esteem. In fact Pecola prays to have blue eyes so that she could be considered beautiful. Since being white is associated with aesthetics, moral superiority, and power,
Book Defense: The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
558 Words | 3 PagesPecola is now seen searching the garbage and walking up and down, up and down her head jerking to the beat of a drum so distant that she could only hear (Morrison 204). Her baby came too soon and died and now Pecola had grown to convince herself that she had blue eyes and that is the reason no one talks to her, because they are jealous of her blue eyes. Even then after she convinces herself that she has blue eyes, she is heartbroken to even think that someone out there has bluer eyes than she
Racial Discrimination In Pecola's The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
1769 Words | 8 PagesPauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother is also one of the people who made her feel that she is ugly. Pauline wanted a white child more because she thinks that being black is ugly. She encourages her husband’s behavior to be able to bring back her own role as a martyr. The father of Pecola, Cholly, felt like he was trapped in his marriage and has lost his interest in life. One day, Cholly went home and saw Pecola washing the dishes; he rapes her out of the feeling of hatred.
Examples Of Oppression In The Bluest Eye
1379 Words | 6 PagesGeraldine condemns Pecola because Pecola reflects all of the black qualities which she despises in herself, further perpetuating the harmful effects of internalized oppression. Morrison suggests that the venture for and internalization of white ideal of success strips black people of their cultural
The Bluest Eye Beauty Standards Essay
975 Words | 4 PagesPecola and her mother, Pauline, see themselves as ugly because they hold themselves to beauty standards in which light-skinned people are the ideal. Pecola and her mother have a brutal home life due to the drunken violence of Cholly Breedlove, and the constant pressure of beauty standards only adds to their misfortune. Morrison explains this pressure by asserting that “[i]t was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they
The Color Purple And The Bluest Eye Essay
450 Words | 2 PagesShe is teased by her school boys Bay Boy, Woodrow Cain, and light-skinned Maureen Peal. Her only true friend is Claudia, one of the narrators of the novel. Pecola is sexually abused by Cholly Breedlove, her father. The incestuous rape scenes are nearly impossible for a reader to comprehend – but to understand Cholly’s action of raping his own daughter, it
Social And Social Class In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
1356 Words | 6 PagesBut it is not only the race and the colour of their skin what makes them unable to change their situation, but also poverty. Race and wealth are intertwined, and Pecola is the fundamental victim of this relationship, for she is a young black girl suffering from this ideology that determines her life. The dominant class imposes its values upon the other, for they think they are the best ones, reducing thus the personality of the people belonging to other classes, and at the same time, making them unable to change their oppressed situation, for they do not have the chance. They just accept their current position, and thus they will always be
The Bluest Eyes In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
1311 Words | 6 PagesThe novel contains a message that white people are superior everywhere and every era, including the white baby doll given to Claudia. The person who suffers most from white beauty standards is pecola. She connects beauty with being loved and believes that if she gets blue eyes, the cruelty in her life will be removed. Morrison suggests that pecola's family accepts this enforced feeling of ugliness and lack of self-worth without asking its source and it is this accepting of self-hatred, a hatred that comes from outside the family is one of the biggest problem faced the family. This novel reflects the society by presenting characters who hate themselves because of what they are told they are, which sustains anger.
The Bluest Eye Research Paper
1260 Words | 6 Pages1) Society has change the way Pecola perceives herself and she has the idea in her mind that her life would be less miserable if she has blue eyes. She is always thinking that “if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison 46). Pecola has gotten the impression of her life being complete if only she has blue eyes. She would see the eyes of others and become envious of their blue eyes. The boys at school would always pick on her and call her an ugly black girl.
Self-Worth In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
1172 Words | 5 PagesMorrison explains that the master narrative is whatever ideological script is being imposed by the people in authority on everyone else. And in the novel it is evident how Pecola is not the only one who has internalized her ugliness; for instance, we are told that the group of boys who circled and hurled insults at her do so because of “their contempt for their own blackness” and an “exquisitely learned self-hatred”. Moreover, they were ironically bullying her for something they themselves should fully empathize with; something she “had no control [over]: the color of her skin” (63). Even within the black community Pecola finds no solace or support. They all hold whiteness to be the default beauty standard.
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