Sunday, December 29, 2019

The Effect of Standard of Beauty toward Pecola in The...

â€Å"The Bluest Eye† is taking place around 1940 in Lorain, Ohio. During the year of 1940, discrimination, especially toward African Americans, was still a serious problem. People believe that whiteness is the standard of beauty. The main character, Pecola, who was a nine-years-old African-American, was influenced by how people view beauty. Pecola suffered and felt that she is inferior to others. Pecola believed that having a pair of blue eyes would made people think she is pretty, and would be the key resolving all the problems. What is beautiful? How do people define beauty? People view differently. Usually, we judge people, first, from his or her appearance then to their inherence. It is a common fact that appearance has an indirect†¦show more content†¦This concept affected Pecola how she views beauty. Pecola evaluated herself ugly, and wanted to have a pair of blue eyes so that every problem could be solved. Pecola was an African-American and lived in a family with problems. Her father ran away because of crime, her brother left because of their fighting parents, and was discriminated simply because she has dark-skin. Pecola is a passive person. She is almost destroyed because of her violent father, Cholly Breedlove, who raped her own daughter after drinking. Because of this, Pecola kept thinking about her goal- to reach the standard of beauty. However, she was never satisfied with it. Pecola believed once she become beautiful, fighting between her parents would no longer happen, her brother would come back, and her father would no long be a rapist. No problem would exist anymore. Besides the inherent self-confident issue, the outside voice from community is also affecting Pecola’s view. For example, in the â€Å"accident† when Pecola went into Junior’s house, Junior killed the cat and impute to Pecola. His mother, Geraldine, saw Pecola was holding the dead cat. Without any thought and didn’t even ask for the truth, Geraldine simply called Pecola a â€Å"nastylittle black bitch.† This event, again, reinforces Pecola’s view of what beauty means. Tonis Morrison slightly defined the value of beauty and demonstrated Pecola’s desire to beShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Toni Morrison s The Bluest Eye1232 Words   |  5 Pagesperception of beauty. Many women who are subjected to society s’ views of beauty often aim to convert to theses said beauty standards. This desire can, at many times, become unhealthy and lead to problems such as anorexia, bulimia, and self-hate. There is clearly a need for re-self-identification within the Black female community. With focus on self-hate one can see that this problem particularly becomes apparent in African American communities, author Toni Morrison in her novel The Bluest Eye not onlyRead MorePerception Of Oneself Through The Eyes Of The White Culture1695 Words   |  7 PagesOneself through the Eyes of the White Culture: A Feminist Perspective Alongside its umbrageous depiction of African American female identity and its shrewd criticism of the internalized racism cultivated by American cultural definitions of beauty, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been inspiring a propagation of literature written by African American women about their experience as women of color. Inspired by a conversation Morrison had with one of her students who wished for blue eyes, the novel portraysRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison Essay1314 Words   |  6 PagesThe Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, encompasses the themes of youth, gender, and race. The African American Civil Rights Movement had recently ended at the time the novel was written. In the book, Morrison utilizes a first-person story to convey her views on racial inequality. The protagonist and her friends find themselves in moments where they are filled with embarrassment and have a wish to flee such events. Since they are female African Americans, they are humiliated in societ y. One of Morrison’sRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye 1484 Words   |  6 PagesWithin The Bluest Eye, as in real life, black people, no matter their wealth or education, are constantly faced with the assumptions and demands of a Eurocentric dominated world. Some of these involve encounters with actual people, as when white furniture movers refuse to take back the Breedlove’s torn couch, or when a white candy store owner displays his contemptuous indifference towards Pecola because she’s black. In the novel,Morrison looks deeply into the personality of her characters, exploringRead More Conforming to Beauty in The Bluest Eye Essay1300 Words   |  6 PagesSun The characters within The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, all attempt to conform to a standard of beauty in some way. This standard of beauty is established by the society in which they live, and then supported by members of the community. Beauty is also linked with respect and happiness. Both people who reach the standard of beauty, and those who try, are never really satisfied with who they are. This never-ending race to become beautiful has devastating effects on their relationships and theirRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesand dictate to the standards of beauty. In her novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and ideals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the different characters. With the juxtaposition of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove, who naively conforms to the barrier of social classes, we are able to understand how African American’s in 1940’s America, specifically Ohio, had to adapt to the white ideals/standards of beauty, which subsequentlyRead MoreThe Bluest Eye Toni Morrison Essay2185 Words   |  9 PagesSociety, especially western, conceptualizes beauty through the use of publicity and cinema. We are under constant bombardment from consumer related magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and movies about what â€Å"beautiful† people look like and how we should imitate them. This standard is overwhelmingly portrayed as white beauty. Starting from a young age this standard of beauty is forged in our minds; we want to look like these actors and models; we want to be thin, fit, youthful lookingRead MoreRacism In The Bluest Eye Essay1730 Words   |  7 Pages Racism In The Bluest Eyes The Bluest Eye tells a tragic story of a young girl named Pecola who desperately wishes for beautiful blue eyes. Pecola believes that the only way she will ever be beautiful is if she has blue eyes. This story takes place in the 1970’s, a time where African Americans were second class citizens in society. They were often exploited and dehumanized because of the way they looked, and this will leave a long lasting effect. Americans would often think that the only wayRead MoreRacism Is A Damaging Ideology1669 Words   |  7 Pagesconstruct highlights how racism has consequences and effects that ultimately shape how we see ourselves as well as how we see others. We live in a society where our daily lives are affected by race whether we want to accept it or not. As humans we have been conditioned to see the world through a racial lens that divides the world into black, white, Asian, Mexican, further disuniting the human race as a whole. In correlation, the novel The Bluest Eye , written by American author and Professor Toni MorrisonRead MoreAnalysis Of Tony Morrison s The Bluest Eye 2073 Words   |  9 PagesRace and Gender in the Bluest Eye In the Bluest Eye, Tony Morrison shows beauty and the value of it from the viewpoint of the black’s and how people in black society impose the white standards onto its people. Pecola Breedlove is an African American girl who longs to be loved and accepted in all communities especially her own. She lives in a world where members of her own race define aesthetic beauty based on white culture. Pecola has an odd transfixion of having the bluest eyes as she sees that it

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.