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The Bluest Eye Analytical Essay

742 Words3 Pages

When asked to describe the ideal American family one would most likely say nuclear, working dad, stay at home mom etc. Depending on your own personal believe, the ideal american family can be described in various ways. But, did one of your descriptions include having white skin? When you google ‘ideal american family’ a particular type of family pops up in the images category dominating the first several image slots. These several images have multiple things in common blonde haired white families. Is this a coincidence or do most people really believe blonde haired white people are ideal? In The Bluest Eye one of many themes in the story is that whiteness is beautiful and black is ugly. This theme is greatly expressed throughout the novel. Past society, present society, and in the book it is found that people have a preference for whiteness over things, or people, of color. This builds up the question of is black girls self-hatred influenced by society or is it just natural.

We learn in Chapter 1 Pecola loves to drink out of the Macteer’s Shirley Temple cup. Pecola is so fascinated with the idea of having blonde hair with blue eyes, which is basically what a perfect, beautiful, …show more content…

Pecola’s own mother treats Polly, a young white girl Mrs.Breedlove works for, better than her own daughter. You could assume that maybe it’s because she works for her, or maybe because she’s white, which is my strongest belief considering the fact that this book deals a lot with white people or lighter skinned get treated better than darker skinned people. Was it a natural reaction that she scolded her black daughter who genuinely made an innocent mistake and comforts the little white girl or was yelling at a black child and praising a white one fixed into her

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This can be clearly seen by Claude, “Frieda and she had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn’t join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley” (Morrison, 13). The hatred shown towards Shirley Temple only further proves the jealousy that both the characters Claudia and Pecola have towards the caucasian and blue eyed people. The idealization of being a white-skinned girl with blue eyes would not have changed if the setting were to be in Europe as Hitler had those in favor if they fulfilled his beauty standards. However, even though there was not an ideal person, there was an ideal character which was presented by Hitler.

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The more “ugly” incidents she is subjected to, the more extreme and abundant do her desires evolve to be. The climax is when Pecola is raped by the antagonist of the novel, her own father, Cholly Breedlove. Eventually, she loses her sanity and reaches out to Soaphead to ask for blue eyes. Disgusted with the molestation, people find another reason to despise Pecola and to ignore her. Thereupon, Pecola becomes delusional and surmises that people ignore her because they are jealous of her new blue eyes; “Everybody’s jealous.

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Pecola is also a symbol of the black community’s self-loathing and belief in its own ugliness. She is absented even more from existence by her mother when she tells her of the ordeal and she doesn’t believe her but beat her instead. This cause Pecola to self-loathe and absent herself from existence because she is made to believe that the bad experience she had was her fault. Pecola is pushed furthermore into her imaginary world, which is her only shield against the pain of her existence. This becomes evident of the power that men have over women in this society.

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Many of the black characters, including Pecola, Cholly, and Pauline believe that they are indeed “ugly” and “dirty” because it’s what society has wanted people to think since the beginning of time. This idea that they are worth nothing and that there is no beauty or cleanliness in them has become embedded in their memories considering it is all they’ve ever known while growing up. Pecola and her family “did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly” (38). While some of the black characters in The Bluest Eye are very much confident in themselves, there are characters like the Breedloves, who have succumbed to society’s opinion and have started to believe that they are the equivalent of dirtiness.

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2) The most detrimental case is when Pecola was molested by her own father. Which was a sexual embarrassment not just between Pecola but her father as well. Her father got even more embarrassed because of two racist white men.

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1) 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.

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