ipl-logo

The Bluest Eye Identity Analysis

501 Words3 Pages

In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison demonstrates how a person’s identity affects a person 's actions. The two character who demonstrates this would be Cholly and Pecola. Cholly is an African American man who was abandoned by his mom when he was little later on, he married Polly and had a daughter Pecola. Pecola is a eleven who is African American and dreams of having blue eye because she believes she will finally be pretty. In this novel Morrison argues a person does not have control over their own identity.

Cholly doesn 't have control over his identity. After Cholly gets discovered by some white men as he is engaged in sexual activity with Darlene, the narrator explains his reaction. The narrator explains, “He was, in time, to …show more content…

When Pecola goes to get candy at Mr. Yacobowski store he ignores her he’s trying not to see her. The narrator explains how Pecola felt when he looked at her, “Yet this vacuum is not new to her. It has an edge; somewhere in the bottom lid is the distaste. She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness” (49). In this quote when Mr.Yacobowski looks at her he see nothing and Pecola noticed this look in not only Mr. Yacobowski but in all the white people 's eyes and it’s because of her blackness. She has no control over identity in this situation because she’s black and that how she view because of her skin color. Later when she’s eating her candy she cames to believe that being white and having blue eyes like the girl in the candy wrapper is pretty which leads her into the action of wanting blue eyes and visiting Soaphead Church.

Just like in this novel Morrison demonstrates that identity have a big effect on a person 's life. Just like in the real world people are judged because of who they are and it affects their action later on in there life. Just like in this novel a person doesn 't have control over identity same goes in the real world we don’t all have control over our

Show More
Related

  • How Does Tom Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird

    638 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee wrote about a family of three. Atticus, a widow husband, raises his children, Jem and Scout, along with a maid named Calpurnia. The book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. Throughout the book, the reader is presented with racism which is something that Jem and Scout did not understand in the beginning. A big, specific event in the book was Tom Robinson’s case.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Jem's Transformation Analysis

    465 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jem’s transformations in To Kill A Mockingbird One year ago my family and i were in a car accident that changed me to grow up a little more . I think my experience is similar to Jem’s because he experienced a lot of things in life and he had to grow up a little faster than most kids his age. The book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a young girl thoughts about her brother named Jem who had to learn a lot of hard things in life and how he also had to grow up fast, that also lead him into becoming more like his father Atticus . In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows us how much Jem changed from a child like kid to a more grown teen in order to be more like his father Atticus who is his role model .

    Read More

  • Identity In The Sapphires

    381 Words  | 2 Pages

    Our identity is what makes us unique and it always changing. This differentiates us from each other. Discovering our identity can be challenging journey to find who we truly are. Through the characters in the ‘Sapphires’ by Wayne Blair, ‘Brown Skinned Child’ by Gary Cooper and the song ‘Hello’ by Adele we learn the difficulties faced when forming our identity.

    Read More

  • Milkman Identity Analysis

    964 Words  | 4 Pages

    Now that the names have been presented it’s time to connect how the characters' names play a part in knowing the characters' identity opposed from knowing their self. Ms. Morrison made it very clear throughout her novel how identity, and self aren’t the same. Also showing that just because someone has an identity that was formed doesn’t necessarily mean that’s who they have to be, and nor does it mean that one must partake down a certain road. First let's talk about the difference between identity, and self. Identity is what people see you as, and self is what one sees their self as.

    Read More

  • Labeling In The Bluest Eye

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    Similar to the flower, she is treated by the way she has been labeled: as a poor, ugly, black girl. It is noticeable that the author points out Pecola’s ability to recognize the negative label of the flower and still find beauty within. After arriving at the store, the clerk treats her harshly due to her appearance and because of this Pecola has a hard time finding her confidence to do such a simple task such as buying a piece of candy. When leaving the store, Pecola is overwhelmed with shame and embarrassment of herself due to the ugly way the clerk interacted with her. While passing the flowers again, the narrator writes, “She thinks, ‘They are ugly.

    Read More

  • The Gathering Of Old Men Analysis

    1343 Words  | 6 Pages

    In The Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines, and The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the authors follow the story of different black communities and how they are affected by oppression. In The Gathering of Old Men a white man, Beau, is found dead in a black man’s yard, Mathu. Mathu’s ‘daughter’ brings together all of the black men in the surrounding neighborhoods to say that they were the ones who shot Beau. In The Bluest Eye a black child, Pecola, is oppressed in many ways throughout the story and near the end is raped by her father. The most substantial part of the story however, is afterwards and how she eventually becomes insane from the onslaught of oppression she faced.

    Read More

  • Finding Identity In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

    1624 Words  | 7 Pages

    So, what makes a person themself? Children are very influential, and many factors of daily life can impact the construction of their identity. The identities that we form as children will stick with us throughout adulthood while altering slightly along the way. “Sonny’s Blues,” a short story by James Baldwin, highlights the endeavors of an African American boy on the path to finding his true self. Although there are countless influences on Sonny’s identity, the circumstances that his parents place him in as a child are the largest impacts on his road to finding his identity.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Beauty Standards Essay

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pecola 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

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In The Bluest Eye

    1648 Words  | 7 Pages

    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…

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Bluest Eye

    1647 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Social And Social Class In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1356 Words  | 6 Pages

    But 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

    Read More

  • The American Dream In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1002 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Identity In The Bluest Eye

    835 Words  | 4 Pages

    Morrison 's first novel, The Bluest Eye, examines the tragic effects of imposing white, middle-class American ideals of beauty on the developing female identity of a young African American girl during the early 1940s. Inspired by a conversation Morrison once had with an elementary school classmate who wished for blue eyes, the novel poignantly shows the psychological devastation of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who searches for love and acceptance in a world that denies and devalues people of her own race. As her mental state slowly unravels, Pecola hopelessly longs to possess the conventional American standards of feminine beauty—namely, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes—as presented to her by the popular icons and traditions of white culture. Written as a fragmented narrative from multiple perspectives and with significant typographical deviations, The Bluest Eye juxtaposes passages from the Dick-and-Jane grammar school primer with memories and stories of Pecola 's life alternately told in retrospect by one of Pecola 's now-grown childhood friends and by an omniscient narrator. Published in the midst of the Black Arts movement that flourished during the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Bluest Eye has attracted

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Motherhood In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    3280 Words  | 14 Pages

    It is the mother’s vulnerability to the racial standards of beauty that is transmitted to the daughter and ultimately leads to her victimization. In fact, the reason of Pauline’s vulnerability to the racially prejudiced notions of beauty lies in her relationship with her own mother. The relationship between Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, and her mother, Pauline Breedlove, is ironically characterized by lack of love, and emotional attachment, indifference, frustration and cruelty. Set in a small town in Ohio, during the Depression, The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, who, victimized by the racist society, yearns for blue eyes, which, she believes, will make her worthy of love, happiness and acceptance in the

    Read More

  • Theme Of Double Consciousness In The Bluest Eye

    1542 Words  | 7 Pages

    Toni Morrison, the first black women Nobel Prize winner, in her first novel, The Bluest Eye depicts the tragic condition of the blacks in racist America. It examines how the ideologies perpetuated by the dominant groups and adopted by the marginal groups influence the identity of the black women. Through the depictions of white beauty icons, Morrison’s black characters lose themselves to self-hatred. They try to obliterate their heritage, and eventually like Pecola Breedlove, the child protagonist, who yearns for blue eyes, has no recourse except madness. This assignment focusses on double consciousness and its devastating effects on Pecola.

    Read More

More about The Bluest Eye Identity Analysis

Open Document