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. When that happened, Pecola told her mother about what happened and she didn’t believe her. The worst thing that happened was her mother beat her because she thought that Pecola was lying about what Cholly did to her. After that incident, Pecola went to Soaphead church and ask for blue eyes.
The social standards of beauty and the idea of the American Dream in The Bluest Eye leads Mrs. Breedlove to feelings of shame that she later passes on to Pecola. The Breedloves are surrounded by the idea of perfection, and their absence of it makes them misfits. Mrs. Breedlove works for a white family, the Fishers. She enjoys the luxury of her work life and inevitably favors her work over her family. This leads Pecola to struggle to find her identity, in a time where perception is everything.
Dee show that she wants her mother to proud of her because she is trying to fight the oppression her mother was just used to. This confused her mother because she just thought that it would always be like, but Dee 's friends have shown her hope in becoming equal whether she thinks this or not. The reason this was implied was because of her devotion to the cause of becoming equal. This was a big boost for the identity crisis to start because she did not know that the dream of becoming equal was possible. This influenced Dee to become Wangero because she has becoming a supporter of becoming free.
Likewise, Morrison also uses symbolism for the duration of the novel to establish how people can judge a person based on their economic standing. For instance, symbolism is represented through the blue eyes that is repeatedly mentioned in the novel. The blue eyes represent the idealistic white middle class life that Pecola dreams of having since white people commonly have blue eyes. The reader can infer this suggestion because whenever Pecola is experiencing bad things she wishes to have blue eyes. Morrison writes, "If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different and Mrs. Breedlove too…Each night, without fail, she prayed for the blue eyes…To have something as wonderful as that happen would take a long, long time"(46) This line from the text shows that to Pecola this white feature represents beauty and the end of her problems.
The Bluest Eye: Beauty People often say that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” in The Bluest Eye this takes a new meaning. The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison 's first novel published in 1970. Set in the author 's hometown in Lorrain, Ohio, it narrates the story of a black little girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for blue eyes like the ones her idol Shirley Temple has, because that way she will be beautiful and loved. Throughout the novel Toni Morrison takes us on Pecola 's journey to self-destruction because she lives in world that doesn 't find her beautiful or even worth to be looked at.
In contrast, Abu-Jaber and her “immigrant kid friends” espouse a view in which women are not afraid to be large and full. Hammad similarly rejects the Western model of womanhood as petite and calorie-conscious. For her, the ideal woman is like baklava--layered, sweet, nourishing—as spelled out in her poem “mama sweet baklava.” Comparing a woman to this rich treat is immediately a departure from an American model. As quickly seen, exercise and dieting are in no way a part of this portrait. Instead, Hammad focuses on “mama’s ” strength: “she is baklava / back bone strong foundation,”118 “her center / pistachio walnut crushed / years of rough pounded heart”119 These lines quickly dismiss the American dieting model, stressing instead the importance of fortitude in women, especially for Arab and Arab American women.
With the help of salonists, they beautify Mulan because women were based on looks. “Wait and see, when we’re through boys will gladly go to war for you” (Disney 9-10). This is significant because only the ‘pretty’ and ‘well fit’ women could be married. This ties back to feminism because women are constantly being judged by their looks. The salonists also include that Mulan must be “like a lotus blossom soft and pale How could any fellow say no sale?” (Disney 26-27).
In the literature, Laura has been the most emphatic among her families. It can be seen from the way she insisted to cancel the garden party because of her “other side” neighbor passed away (361). Compares to her sister, Jose, Laura really has no interest in class distinctions. It shows how Laura really cares about her lower-class neighbor, since she still went and asked her mother to cancel the party, even after her sister refused. However, Laura was tempted when she was given a beautiful black and gold hat from her mother (362).
Destructive Nature of Racialised Beauty Toni Morrison published her first book, The Bluest Eye, in 1970. In this novel, Toni Morrison shows how societies racist and false beliefs on beauty can be seriously destructive if believed and taken to heart. Toni Morrison displays the destructive nature of racialised beauty through the character in the novel named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola lacks self esteem and believes that she is the blackest and ugliest girl, and she believes that white is the only beautiful race. Morrison challenges Western standards of beauty and demonstrates that the idea of beauty is socially constructed.
The character Lila had to leave her schooling and stay at home to look after her two sisters. Women experience social evils in society. They have been treated cruelly which affects them both physically and mentally. In Desai‟s novel Fasting Feasting, Uma‟s cousin Anamika has to face the cruel torture imposed by her husband and her mother-in-law. “Anamika was beaten regularly by her mother-in-law while her husband stood by and approved – or at least, did not object.”(Fasting Feasting, 71) She is beaten by her husband even when she is pregnant.