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Eichelberger states that Morrison's work shows that the novel "in its particular cultural setting portrays domineering aggression as the true motivation for many cultural conditions that are commonly regarded as agents of freedom" (2). This ideology (i.e. The dominant mindset) is what characters use to destroy other characters' sense of self.
Both the Bluest Eye and When the Legends Die have a resounding theme of homelessness and this relates to the sense of self. Pecola has a house and a family, but she does not have safety, which is what truly makes a home a refuge. She is raped by her father and chastised and beaten by her mother and she doesn't have a sense of home. Likewise, Tom's quest for his identity leads him to the wilderness, back to Pagosa, and on the road as a bronco rider. He is sent from place to place and thus there is no sense of one place being home for him. He was persuaded to leave the wilderness by Blue Elk and then he is sent from place to place back in Pagosa. This leaves Tom feeling as if he doesn't really belong anywhere. The subjugation of Tom by others indicates a desire for humans to dominate one...
For Pecola, her only way of finding peace was to go mad and convince herself that she does have the bluest eyes; this is the only way she can live with the world as it affects the ways she sees and is seen for her. Tom as well eventually finds a kind of peace that he can live with and though he doesn't go mad, he has had to struggle against manipulation and cruelty to get to the point of solace. Both characters therefore are able to remain in the world without suffering anymore.
Works Cited
Borland, Hal. When the Legends Die. Laurel Leaf; reprint edition. 1984.
Eichelberger, Julia. Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and Eudora Welty. Louisiana State
University Press. 1999.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage. 2008.
Works Cited
Borland, Hal. When the Legends Die. Laurel Leaf; reprint edition. 1984.
Eichelberger, Julia. Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and Eudora Welty. Louisiana State
University Press. 1999.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage. 2008.
She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness.... Phlegm and impatience mingle in his voice. (Morrison 49) but Pecola endures this discomfort and rejection, not so she can establish her empowered Blackness as a consumer, but so she can purchase candy. The candy is not to satisfy her bodily, physical sexual or even stomach's appetite. Rather,
Many scholars and scientists truly believed that physical beauty and grace were indicative of other "internal" traits, and that the "less beautiful" races (i.e. all non-whites, though there were gradients established in this regard) were of poorer moral quality and intelligence, and had other undesirable internal characteristics as well (Gibson 1990). This means that the concepts of beauty that are expressed in the book have both direct and symbolic
Her mother, like her daughter, is said to be filled with a sense of self-hatred and rejection. "She [Pecola's mother] was confronted by prejudice on a daily basis, both classism and racism, and for the first time, the white standard of beauty. These experiences worked to transform Pauline into a product of hatred and ignorance, leading her to hold herself up to standards that she didn't fully understand nor
Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye is deals with the historical and psychological effects of defining beauty according to race. The Bluest Eye is essentially about how concepts of beauty are instilled from a very young age. It is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio. The novels focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl who is trying to conquer a bout with
It is possibly or probably Morrison speaking from her own personal heart, maybe remembering her own childhood as a black girl in a time when black children were not very often used as characters in books; meanwhile, author Morrison has Claudia saying (62) "What was the secret?" Of Maureen's magical whiteness and social power. "What did we lack? Why was it important? And so what?" Morrison also offers readers a little
On the evening of her first menstruation, for example, she asks, 'How do you do that? I mean, how do you get somebody to love you.' And, after a visit to Marie, Poland, and China, Pecola ponders, 'What did love feel like?... How do grownups act when they love each other? Eat fish together?' " (Bloom, 26) The question of how to get somebody to love you is significant for