ipl-logo

Toni Morrison Racial Injustice

1022 Words5 Pages

Toni Morrison: The Woman of Racial Justice
When an individual looks back on the Civil Rights Movement, they often remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcom X; but what about Toni Morrison? As the 1940s continued to perpetuate the idea of a divided America through segregation and racial violence, Toni was beginning to speak out through her works as a writer. Toni Morrison, who was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford, proved to be a strong supporter of the “Black is Beautiful” campaign and became an active voice for black men and women whose goal was to bring about change in a time of injustice. By including themes of racial pride, beauty, racism, and even bildungsroman in her novel, The Bluest Eye, she was and is still able to engage her readers …show more content…

Early within the story, Morrison sets the tone by having Claudia describe the way they are treated: “When we trip and fall down they glance at us; if we cut or bruise ourselves, they ask us are we crazy. When we catch colds, they shake their heads in disgust at our lack of consideration” (Morrison 10). This white treatment towards African Americans continues throughout the story and the sincerity of its depiction concludes that Morrison is most likely projecting personal experiences. Pecola wants to buy candy from a store but immediately receives a disgusted look and ill-treatment from the owner (Morrison 48-49). This racism not only perpetuates the divisions in society but also strengthens the inferiority blacks feel. Therefore, it is understandable when Pecola is so desperate for blue eyes that she prays for them for an entire year and even visits a spiritualist in order to attain something she feels will make her beautiful (Morrison 46, 173-174). Racism and white standards were commonplace in society while Toni Morrison was growing up, and by including her perspective and situation within the novel, she was able to fulfill many of the values her family instilled in her as a

Show More
Related

  • Angela Davis Term Papers

    1902 Words  | 8 Pages

    In the white man’s world, the strongest antagonist is an educated black woman, conscious of her value and power in society. Angela Davis is one of these black women. She was educated not only formally through schooling, but through experiences as an oppressed member of society. Davis illustrates how necessary knowledge of self, a sense of community, drive, and organizing are in the Freedom Liberation Movement. Angela Davis’s purpose for writing her autobiography was to preserve and validate the struggles, efforts, and intentions of the many men and women, including herself, educating future generations on the past, in hopes that they will continue the fight towards freedom that is not yet won.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Bluest Eye And Song Of Solomon

    368 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Toni Morrison has written several novels known for their epic themes and vivid dialogue.” Some of the novels include “The Bluest Eye” and “Song of Solomon”. In both novels, Morrison references the ongoing issue of racism. Morrison uses the settings and the goal that each main character strives to achieve as similarities.

    Read More

  • Societal Isolation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein '

    1483 Words  | 6 Pages

    She wrote that her inspiration for the story was a conversation she had had when she was little with another little black girl who had a fascination with blue eyes, much like her character Pecola Breedlove. Morrison is known for her stories that circle around how racism and misogyny affect black women. For The Bluest Eye, a little girl named Pecola Breedlove goes insane from the inhumane treatment she faces as an eleven-year-old african american girl in the Great Depression. There are many points in the book where she is dehumanized and treated less than dirt, even by her own parents. Her father in a bid to feel in control despite how much white men have controlled him, rapes his daughter and she becomes pregnant with his child.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Black Culture In Beloved By Toni Morrison

    1837 Words  | 8 Pages

    African-American author Toni Morrison 's book, Beloved, describes a black culture born out of a dehumanising period of slavery just after the Civil War. Culture is a means of how a group collectively believe, act, and interact on a daily basis. Those who have studied her work refer to Morrison 's narrative tales as “literature…that addresses the sacred and as an allegorical representation of black experience” (Baker-Fletcher 1993: 2). Although African Americans had a difficult time establishing their own culture during the period of slavery when they were considered less than human, Morrison believes that black culture has been built on the horrors of the past and it is this history that has shaped contemporary black culture in a positive way. Through the use of linguistic devices, her representation of black women, imagery and symbolic features, and the theme of interracial relations, Morrison illustrates that black culture that is resilient, vibrant, independent, and determined.

    Read More

  • Racial Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    476 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up in a small town in the South, Scout is exposed to the racism and prejudice that exists in her community. She witnesses the unfair treatment of Africain Americans and the way in which they are discriminated against on a daily basis. However, it is during the trial of Tom Robinson that Scout’s perspective is truly challenged. She sees firsthand the way in which racism can influence the legal system and how despite overwhelming evidence that Tom is innocent, he is convicted simply because he is black.. This experience forces Scout to confront the reality of the world she lives in and to question the values and beliefs of those around her.

    Read More

  • Let The Dead Bury The Dead: A Literary Analysis

    1857 Words  | 8 Pages

    Most individuals are able to succeed in life based on their past occurrences. Normally, everyone’s life is the way it is based on what they have done or experienced in the past. However, how one reacts to to their experiences determines their outcome in life. History, memories, and the past encounters are never entirely separated from current events. In order for things to be set in motion in the present, past transgressions precede to teach valuable lessons that connects to the present.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Conflict Essay

    873 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the book we see those young black girls (Pecola, Frieda, Claudia) living day-to-day in this society. Being as they are young girls transitioning into the stages of becoming young adults, there are many roadblocks that society is putting forward to them and they are ill prepared for everything that is going to hit them down the line. For example, on page 27 the author says, “Blood was running down her legs. Some drops

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination In Pecola's The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

    1769 Words  | 8 Pages

    The main character of the novel, The Bluest Eye, who is Pecola Breedlove, loves Shirley Temple and she believes that beauty is being white and that she is ugly. Pecola move back in with her family, with her father who is a drunk, her mother is distant, and they usually fight with each other. Pecola has a brother names Sammy who often runs away from home. Pecola believes that if she is gifted with blue eyes, she will be accepted by the society and that everything that is being done and said to her would eventually stop. She experienced a lot of racial oppression and receives a confirmation of her own sense of ugliness.

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Beauty Standards Essay

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is the most pressing issue facing society today? In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison argues that it is beauty standards, even calling physical beauty “the most destructive idea[] in the history of human thought” (122). While this may seem outrageous in a world of terrorism, global warming, homelessness, and hunger, beauty standards and the feelings of inferiority that stem from them affect everybody. In severe cases, these feelings can even manifest themselves deeply inside of a person and lead to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, self-hatred, and even suicide. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the insecurities of the female characters to demonstrate that beauty standards are a danger to society, as they perpetuate racism and self-hatred.

    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

  • Identity In The Bluest Eye

    835 Words  | 4 Pages

    Root, Identity and Community have always been the underlying theme of Toni Morrison. Through the accounts of her novels, Toni Morrison shows several ways in which slavery, which was the most oppressive period in the black history, has affected the identity of African American. In Bluest Eye, Morrison shows that a black woman who searches for her true identity feels frustrated by her blackness and yearns to be white because of the constant fear of being rejected in her surroundings. Thus Morrison tries to locate post colonial black identity in the socio-political ground where cultures are hybridized, powers are negotiated and individuals are reproduced as resistant agents. She not only writes about claiming the superiority by the white but also

    Read More

  • Theme Of Racism In Toni Morrison's Sula

    1194 Words  | 5 Pages

    The discrimination against the white race begins with a gradual distinct treatment of the African Americans who appear to have a trace of the white race. Helene proves to have a more formal dialect as she asks for “the bathroom” (23) and the black woman cannot understand until Helene finally refers to it as “the toilet” (23). The difference in word choice distinct Helene from the African Americans in the Bottom. The fact that Helene also has fairer skin than the African Americans gives the black woman a reason to believe Helene has a trace of white. Therefore, when Helene approaches the black woman on the train, “[the woman fastens her eyes]…on the thick velvet, the fair skin, [and] the high tone voice” (23), as if surprised and shocked to see an African American women appear in such a manner.

    Read More

  • The Nature Of Racialised Beauty In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

    800 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel shows black people who are aware of the danger of conforming to Western standards of beauty. In the beginning of the novel, Claudia describes herself as indifferent; She realizes that she does not really hate Maureen but instead hated “the thing that made her beautiful” (Morrison, page 58). Claudia always asked herself “What was the secret? ... Why was it important? And so what?”

    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

  • Self-Worth In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    1172 Words  | 5 Pages

    Toni Morrison, in numerous interviews, has said that her reason for writing The Bluest Eye was that she realized there was a book she wanted very much to read that had not been written yet. She set out to construct that book – one that she says was about her, or somebody like her. For until then, nobody had taken a little black girl—the most vulnerable kind of person in the world—seriously in literature; black female children have never held centre stage in anything. Thus with the arrival of the character Pecola Breedlove, a little hurt black girl is put to the centre of the story. Pecola’s quest is to acquire “Shirley Temple beauty” and blue eyes – ideals of beauty sponsored by the white world.

    Read More

More about Toni Morrison Racial Injustice

Open Document