Bluest Eye Essay

Sexual Abuse In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye is her first book which talks about a victimized adolescent Black girl who is
obsessed by the White standards of beauty. In this novel, Morrison deals with Black women's
experience in America, their struggle for finding their personal as well as their cultural identities.
Pecola prayed for blue eyes every night. She believes that if she has blue eyes, they will make her
look beautiful and she believes that if she looked beautiful, someone will love her and the
behaviour of others would also be different, positive towards her. Also, perhaps, her parents'
behaviour would be different with her in particular and with everybody in general. Maybe they will
not fight with each other in front of her. She had prayed for one year enthusiastically...show more
content...
Her prayer for blue eyes symbolizes a desire for meeting the repeated messages of White cultural
superiority. She believes that the only way she can escape from this situation is to become beautiful
through acquisition of blue eyes. She shares a bedroom with her brother and lives with her disabled
mother and her drunken father. She is raped by her father and resultantly becomes pregnant. Her rape
by her alcoholic father symbolizes the most prominent type of sexual assault against Black
females by Black males and this is also the most tragic illustration of Black women's abuse as
shown in the novel. Pecola doesn't know the meaning of love and also she could never control her
body. Her sexual experiences are of just being raped by her father.
Morrison shows that Black women suffer fatal types of violence even from their close family
members. Abuse of and sexual assault to Black females in this novel come from both Black and
White males. The Bluest Eye, among other important themes, is also a narrative of incestuous rape.
In this novel Pecola's story ends tragically. Generally each woman in this novel suffers some attack
on her integrity and female
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The Bluest Eyes
I am the father of a 7th grader attending Chelan Middle School. I am writing to you about the book
The Bluest Eyes, written by: Toni Morrison I am grossed out from this book by the content this
book, with all respect I ask for this book to be removed from the Chelan School District. The
Bluest Eye book there is many rape/ sexual assault scenes found on page 43. The rape/ sexual
assault is to inappropriate, they give to much information and are very detailed. I don't want my
daughter reading this explicit book because I don't want my daughter to afraid of me or anybody
else for reading the bluest eyes book and what it explained in the book I don't want her to get a bad
idea of me as her father. In page 44 there is sexual content scenes and

Bluest Eye Metaphors
Jordan Reuille–Dupont
Geanette p.5
Language Arts
26 April, 2018
Metaphors
In the novel, "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison the unorthodox structure and undermining content
inspired and continues to inspire controversy. Morrison's creative narrative approach addresses many
issues of racism and identity. Through the course of the novel some vulgar subjects are also
introduced, such as incest and pedophilia. In the book the point of view founded by the characters
following their upsetting lives helps portray the theme of battling internal conflicts formed through
extended metaphors and horrible societal circumstances.
With very little compassion and love the two main girls, Pecola Breedlove and Claudia MacTeer,
learn from the start that life is...show more content...
Many of the characters who associate with middle–class white culture feel the need to separate
themselves from lower–class blacks whom they identify as lazy and criminals "I destroyed white
baby dolls....The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white
girls." (pg. 22). "White[ness]" is associated with value, virtue, and cleanliness while being black is
associated with immorality, dirtiness, and the sense of being disposable. The novel involves mostly
black characters and due to this the idea of being white exists on a spectrum. Race is not only
decided by the genetic make–up of one's appearance and skin, the shape of one's features, or the
texture of one's hair, but also by one's place of origin, socioeconomic class, and educational
background "... his mother did not like him to play with niggers. She had explained to him the
difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. Colored people were
neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud" (pg. 53). These ideas of race being valuable became a
main point in the story. And by internalizing these ideas about race the main characters ultimately
obtained a racial self–hatred, which created various forms of dysfunction in the characters'

The Uses of God and the Church in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Morrison places a responsibility for the social dilemma; tragic condition of blacks in a racist
America so prominent in the 1940s, on an indefinite God and/or the church. This omniscient being,
the creator of all things, both noble and corrupt, and his messengers seem to have in a sense
sanctioned the ill fated in order to validate the hatred and scorn of the "righteous." In her
introduction of the Breedlove family, Morrison holds accountable the Breedlove's acceptance of
ugliness to a higher power saying, "It was as though some mysterious all–knowing master had given
each one a cloak of ugliness to wear" (Morrison, 39). This divine being not only created ugliness for
...show more content...
His letter, addressed to "He who greatly ennobled human nature by creating it," intends to familiarize
an omniscient being with the "facts which have either escaped his notice, or which he has chosen to
ignore" (Morrison, 176) saying that he forgot about the children.
"You said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and harm them not.' Did you forget? Did you
forget about the children? Yes. You forgot. You let them go wanting, sitting on road shoulders,
crying next to their dead mothers. I've seen them charred, lame, halt. You forgot, Lord. You forgot
how and when to be God…That's why I changed the little black girl's eyes for her…I
did what You could not do. I looked at that ugly little black girl and I loved her. I played You"
(Morrison, 181–2).
This letter not only incriminates God but it also incriminates the church. In their duty to come to the
aid of the unloved and depressed they have failed and instead begun to play God themselves,
judging society's mistakes in the name of righteous superiority. This is evident in Pauline's
successfully achieved martyrdom at the cost of her marriage and the lives of her children.
Pauline Breedlove's personal history is shown to have played out in extreme measures in the life of
her daughter. From the early part of her life she has worn a shroud of shame. The book says that it
is due primarily to her injured foot that she felt a sense of separateness and unworthiness and

Bluest Eye Essay
The value of Morrison's Bluest Eye lies not only in its eloquent prose or elegant stylistic approach,
but in the dimension that it adds to second wave feminism. Taking a departure from the orderly
world of the white households we have read so much about in feminist literature of the time, the
story of Pecola and Pauline introduces us to a world that is vastly unfamiliar, but no less significant
in its existence and validity; a world that is a stark contrast from the Dick–and–Jane world in the
preamble or those we have seen in the worlds crafted by Levin or Kaufman; instead of focalizing
around the challenges that White adult females face in a White patriarchal society, she turns the lens
to black girlhood not only to highlight its peripherality...show more content...
The damage done to her has been so "total" (Morrison, 204) and irrevocable that she is left broken
and her girlhood forever corrupted. Mistreated by her mother, violated by her father, ostracized by
her friends, and foresworn by her friends, she has no choice but to resort to an imaginary
companion, the only one to whom she can share her joy of having her life–long dream fulfilled: a
pair of blue eyes given to her by Soaphead Church. It is in the throes of insanity that she reaches a
state of perfect happiness: an "ugly" girl once rejected, has now become a beautiful one who is
worth being cherished by everyone.
The Bluest Eye adds intricacy and layer to Second WaveFeminism because the devastating and
reductive challenges that begin at black girlhood and last well into black womanhood as relayed by
Morrison, so severely under–represented in among Second Wave Feminist literary works, are
equally, if not much more problematic than troubles faced by white

The Bluest Eye Analysis
The opinions of others, wether one notices or not, greatly affect his or her life. In Toni Morrison's
novel The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl with dark brown eyes, is deemed
ugly. Although she does not possess ugliness; she "put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong
to [her]" (Morrison 38). Pecola believes she is ugly because she does not meet the societal beauty
standard. Pecola convinces herself that all her struggles are rooted in the fact that she not beautiful.
If Pecola was white, blond, and blue–eyed her life would be different–it would be better. Pecola
believes that having blue eyes would change her entire life. Though she would not be given different
friends or a different family, those same friends...show more content...
If Pecola acquired blue eyes she believes she would no longer be an outcast. She believes her peers
will accept her. After seeing how the new girl, Maureen Peal, with "sloe green eyes" and white skin
"enchanted the entire school," Pecola makes the hypothesis that having blue eyes would make her
popular amongst her classmates (62). She believes that to have blue–green eyes and white skin earns
her acceptance. Pecola wants everyone to look at her the same way they look at Maureen. She
desires to be the girl that enchants the school. Though Pecola seeks admiration from all of her
peers, Pecola ultimately seeks Maureen's approval and acceptance. Pecola wants the prettiest girl
in the class to view her as beautiful. However, after a dispute with Pecola, Maureen exclaims, "I
am cute! And you are ugly! Black and ugly e mos. I am cute!" (73). Pecola, after hearing this
proclamation, comes to the realization that the most beautiful girl in school believes that being
black means being ugly. Therefore, Maureen proclaims that being white must be what leads to
beauty and popularity. In fact, at the end of the novel when Pecola is conversing with herself she
asks, "What does Maureen think about your eyes?" (196). This question further proves that if
Maureen admired Pecola in the same manner everyone admired her, Pecola would feel beautiful.
She would be beautiful like Maureen, and everyone will accept her.

Analysis Of The Novel ' The Bluest Eye '
In the novel The Bluest Eye, the author created different sections that tell a story and connect with
the chapters. In these sections are four different seasons, autumn, winter, spring and summer. These
four seasons represent different events in the book and are symbolic to what the novel entails. The
novel is set up with very good structure and the story flows along with the various interpretations of
each different season. Having these different seasons and sections in the novel sets it apart from
other books because of its uniqueness. Although the seasons in the book are in order the events
and characters are very unnatural and do not follow along a straight or ordinary path. The author
almost reverses what is expected in each season because instead of following with the ideas that
relate to each season, she instead shows how opposite and uncanny each event that takes place is.
The first season that starts the book off is autumn. In literature autumn will normally represents a
new coming or a beginning. The leaves falling can represent the ending of the old ways and then a
fresh start. In the novel and during the autumn chapters we are introduced to all of the main
characters. This is where Claudia and Frieda meet Pecola for the first time, and this is also around
the time when the school year starts. In this section Pecola also starts menstruating first the first time
ever which represents her becoming a woman. This part of the novel is very important because it sets

Essay On The Bluest Eye
Expectations Women. When hearing that word alone, you think of weakness, their insignificance,
and how lowly they are viewed in society. Females can be seen as unworthy or nothing without a
man if they are not advocating them and are constantly being treated differently from men. However,
in the book, "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, they live up to their reputations for how they view
themselves. Specifically, being focused on women like Pecola, and Claudia. They are often
questioning their worth from society's judgement of beauty. Though one character, Frieda embraces
it despite being black. With having everything temporary, the desire of grasping and having
something permanent increases. The women desires to be of...show more content...
We will say no. We don't know what we should feel or do if she does, but whenever she asks us, we
know she is offering something precious–"(Morrison, 24). This quote shows how prepared a woman
is to give up her body in exchange for her life because perhaps she does not value herself and has
gone through many situations like this. This event may lead to female's perspective of their
worth decrease, since they are constantly being abused. In the course of The Bluest Eye, Pecola
Breedlove has shown signs of low self esteem. She would always be the one to compare herself to
something she admires to be beautiful. Perhaps, sometimes problems surround her get a little too
much, she has not yet realized the fog will clear up. For example in the autumn chapter, a quote
has said "Thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her,
she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other
people." There is no such thing as a "Pecola's point of view". She lives off of people's judgements
and believe physical appearance is all there is to a person. Her desire to be beautiful is not having
attractive long black hair and golden skin color, but blonde hair with a white pigmentation. Which
causes her to dream and want even more. Claudia, another character who goes through a similar
situation compared to Pecola. She is a young girl who came out from a loving family and is
intrusive, yet sensitive.

Bluest Eye Critique
This was the first time I made an annotated bibliography. When I got an instruction sheet on how
to make one, it was really confusing. I chose to work on The Bluest Eye because I have read it
once in High School and I really like it. On the day that we chose the group, we just simply raised
our hand and Joshua put the names on the board. My group has only four people: Altheas, Tasnia,
Ashlie, and me, however, I forgot to write down the names and to ask my members for their
email. I couldn't contact anyone, but Altheas since we usually talk on a daily basis. Three days
before the annotated bibliography is due, I went on CCNY library website to look for criticisms
on Gale Literature. I used the advance search and found over a hundred and ten criticisms on The
Bluest Eye. I went through so many criticisms to find the ones that I liked. Most of them were
really long. I spent hours reading them and decided to go to sleep since it was kind of late. The
next day, I tried again. I decided to wrote my descriptions on the paper first then post it on the
Blackboard. Unfortunately, someone did the same one so I had to change it. This was because we
didn't communicate as a group so we wouldn't know who was doing which. I started over again by
looking for another criticism. This time, I posted my first entry right after...show more content...
Tasnia was willing to do another extra one since she read many of them, and Nishat was absent
that day so we couldn't tell her. Working as a group, I should have asked my members for their
contacts and talked as a group first. Communication and collaboration are the keys for group
project. One thing that our group did correctly was putting all the entries on the same wiki page.
Joshua told us on Wednesday that other groups created their own wiki page, but he wanted them to
be on the same page. This annotated bibliography will make it easier for the class to find evidence
for an exploratory

The Bluest Eye Analysis
"The Bluest Eye" "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison is a very complex story. While not being a
novel of great length is very long on complexity. It tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young
African American girl immersed in poverty and made "ugly" by the Society of the early 1940's
that defines beauty in terms of blonde haired white skinned , and in this case specifically Shirley
Temple. The novel opens in the fall of 1941, just after the Great Depression, in Lorain, Ohio.
Nine–year–old Claudia MacTeer and her 10–year–old sister, Frieda, live with their parents in an
"old, cold and green" house. What they lack in money they make up for in love, and yet they don't
quite know how to express it correctly. The MacTeers decide to take in...show more content...
She also wrote "No one could have convinced them that were not relentlessly and aggressively
ugly." (Morrison 38), and "You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked
closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their
conviction. It was as though some mysterious all–knowing master had given each one a cloak of
ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question." (Morrison 39). This shows the
attitude that the whole family had about themselves. It says that they felt no one could prove to
them that since they were black, that they were not ugly. They just didn't think very much of
themselves. Then she describes how Pecola and her whole family were reminded every day that
they are not beautiful, not white. In the book Mrs. Morrison wrote that "she also wants a family
unlike her own.". Here the author is pointing out what Pecola wants, she wants a family that is not
like her own. She is feeling as if her family isn't so great, and that she could use a new, more perfect
like family, a white blue eyed family.
She also starts the novel by describing the perfect family, with the Dick and Jane story. She does this
in a way to tease the reader then having the Dick and Jane story run in to one long sentence like it
was flowing down the drain and so too Pecola's perfect family. "Mother, Father, Dick and Jane live
in the green –and– white house. They are very happy." (Morrison 4). This shows

Thesis For The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye
The bluest eye by Toni Morrison is a novel set in Lorain, Ohio in 1941. Toni Morrison wrote this
book to explain about the black people life. She explained her story with using three young girls
who were faced racism, sexism and poverty threat in their life. This book was also covered situation
of community and explained how the community threat to the girls. First, the sexism was the greater
threat to girls, but later racism become the greater threat to girls, because its effect on their life,
personal beauty and their family.
In the beginning, Shirley Temple cup effect on the one main character. Claudia explain her and
Pecola life. Pecola lived in Claudia...show more content...
Breedlove and Mr. Cholly life from young to old. When Mrs. Breedlove was in young age she met
to Cholly and she falled loved with him. They both got married and moved north to Loraine, Ohio.
In Loraine, Pauline begin to miss her family, because in north everyone white. She also noticed in
north black people was very different from south. Living in north she made new black friends
who were different from her. "They were makeup, wear high heels shoes and do the straight hair
(The bluest Eye)". Living in the north, made Pauline to change herself, because her new friends
think she was not pretty and she wear no makeup. In the north black people compare themselves
with white and do not like compare their self as black. The Pauline friends and movies impact on
her personal beauty. After, losing her teeth she think she looked more ugly then she was and she
never wear makeup after losing teeth. After the Mrs. Breedlove, the Soaphead Church explained
about his life and his family. In his family, they were tried to get married with light–skinned and they
donot do like black people. Soaphead Church used pecola for his self and made her kiiled the dog.
He know she was black, if she killed the dog it not going to affect her. Cholly also explained about
his life and explained how sexism impact on his

Essay On The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison in 1970. It was the first novel she ever wrote
while she was a teacher at Howard University. This book was written different since it consists of
different seasons instead of chapter to represent every time period despite the short space of time.
The Bluest Eye is interesting because it shows the life of a young girl that wants really bad to be
something she is not. The purpose of the book is to show how an African American girl wanted to
be a white person back in the early days.
The Bluest Eye is a book about a nine year old girl, Claudia Macteer and her sister Frieda who
decided to take Mr. Henry and Pecola Breedove. Mr. Henry who is a tenant at the house and Pecola
Breedove, a foster child...show more content...
Back in the day black Americans were treated very unfairly and were scrutinized all the time.
Pecola shows that she is very captivated by how white people life and hates that she was born with
the black skin.
The Bluest Eye was written during a time the black power movement as well as the discrimination
of them. This was a wakeup call for whoever might have read the book back in the day. As a reader
now and not being from the United States of America this book captivated my action because all of
the troubles that a black person had to go through just because his or her skin was different then
others.
While reading the book, I have realized how hard times were back in the day. I can see now that
black Americans were severely mistreated much worse than what we have heard and read. We see
that there is an innocent little girl pecola who wishes that she was white. Therefore, she does not
feel ugly or discriminated . The plot matches with the characters and with the Dick and Jane
narrative thrown in gives a much higher meaning to the novel. Each person's role in the book is not
unjust and has an important part to play. Without them and their interesting lifestyle the book would
have no meaning at all. Cholly, Pecola, Claudia, Pauline, Frieda, Mr Henry all had an important part
to

The Bluest Eye Critical Analysis
Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye follows the racial tensions in the primarily black town of
Loraine, Ohio at the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of the Second World War.
Morrison utilizes a combination of first and third person narration in order to convey significant
themes in the novel and shape the novel's tone. The Bluest Eye begins with homages to both styles
of narration: first with a short excerpt from Dick and Jane that later introduces each chapter narrated
in the third person, and then with "Quiet as it's kept..." and a briefly italicized prologue narrated by
Claudia that foreshadows the events that take place later in the novel. This clear division in the
prologue of the novel sets the tone for the shifting narrative perspectives that remain present for the
duration of the novel. These shifting perspectives provide the reader with a more intimate view into
Pecola's story (as displayed in Claudia's storytelling) as well as a contrasting depiction of how
Pecola's situation originated and its impact on the community of Loraine (through the omniscient
third–person narration). The Bluest Eye begins by presenting a passage taken from a classic
American children's book: Dick and Jane. This passage continually deteriorates until the reader is
left with "...hereisthefamilymotherfatherdickandjaneliveinthegre..." which is an unpunctuated,
unspaced, and uncapitalized jumble. A portion of this jumble becomes the title of each chapter that
is narrated in the

The Bluest Eye Character Analysis
Toni Morrison introduces us to Claudia, a young African American girl, in her book The Bluest Eye.
Claudia displays a mature voice–showing awareness of her environment's social constructions and
how the people around her interact with them. Claudia is gifted a doll for Christmas. Morrison uses
this doll to symbolize the standard of beauty that Claudia is growing up with–blue eyes and blond
hair. Right away the doll causes Claudia distress and confusion, not understanding why she was
given the doll. Claudia's responses to the doll display her viewpoint of society's standard. She ends
up "dismembering" the doll, stating that her initial intention was to "discover the dearness, to find
the beauty, the desirability" of the doll (Morrison 20). However,...show more content...
Claudia is isolated and wants to be appreciated. Morrison shows what Claudia wanted: "I did not
want to have anything to own. Or to possess any object. I wanted rather to feel something on
Christmas day" (21). Claudia wanted to be desired and loved, she did not want adults giving her a
doll that denied her that. After the destruction of the doll, Claudia appears confused, stating that she
"did not know why [she] destroyed those dolls" (21). She does not feel bad about the destruction of
the doll, but rather the adult's reaction: they were horrified that Claudia could destroy such a
'beautiful' doll. Claudia's confusion about what is beautiful, her own or white beauty, creates a
tension between her beliefs and her

Essay on Bluest eye
Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, presents the lives of several impoverished black families in
the 1940's in a rather unconventional and painful manner. Ms. Morrison leads the reader through the
lives of select children and adults, describing a few powerful incidents, thoughts and experiences that
lend insight into the motivation and. behavior of these characters. In a somewhat unconventional
manner, the young lives of Pauline Williams Breedlove and Charles (Cholly) Breedlove are
presented to the reader. Through these descriptions, the reader comes to understand how they
become the kind of adults they are. Background information is given not necessarily to incur
sympathy but to lend understanding.
The narrator makes the point that...show more content...
Thus, Pauline's actions as an adult are more easily understood through this knowledge of her
childhood.
One of the most striking images is the description of Cholly Breedlove's is his memory of a
picnic where a family is enjoying a watermelon which the father smashes against a rock. Cholly is
impressed with the image of the father holding the melon high above his head like the devil
holding the earth up, ready to smash it. "He never felt anything thinking about God, hut just
the idea of the devil excited him. And now, the strong black devil was blotting out the sun and
getting ready to smash open the world." This passage is a foreshadowing of Cholly's adult
life. He is attracted to the idea of power, strength and excitement and as a strong black adult, Cholly
feels his freedom and uses it against himself and his family.
Another powerful incident, Cholly's first sexual experience, gives insight into the rage, confusion
and tenderness he feels towards women in his adult life. The narrator describes the incident with
Darlene and the white men through Cholly's eyes. The reader understands the initial excitement of
young sexual energy, and the later humiliation of being caught by the cruel white men. Cholly
directs his anger towards Darlene rather than towards the white men

Writing Techniques Used in The Bluest Eye Essay
Toni Morrison the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born Chloe
Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. She was the second of four children to
George and Ramah Wofford. Her parents moved to Ohio from the South to escape racism and to find
better opportunities in the North.
Lorain was a small industrial town populated with immigrant Europeans, Mexicans and Southern
blacks who lived next door to each other. Chloe attended an integrated school. In the first grade she
was the only black student in her class and the only one who could read.
Chloe attended the prestigious Howard University in Washington,...show more content...
She drinks several quarts of milk at the home of her friends Claudia and Frieda McTeer just to use
their Shirley Temple mug and glaze at young Temple's blue eyes. One day Pecola is raped by her
father, when the child the she conceives dies, Pecola goes mad. She comes to believe that she has
the bluest eyes of anyone.
In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison incorporates various techniques, such as her use of
metaphors, the ironic use of names, and the visual images that she uses. The theme of The Bluest
Eye, revolves around African Americans' conformity to white standards. A woman may whiten her
skin, straighten her hair and change its color, but she can not change the color of her eyes. The
desire to transform one's identity, itself becomes an inverted desire, becomes the desire for blues
eye, which is the symptom of Pecola's instability.
The Bluest Eye opens with a Dick and Jane paragraph, a white American Myth far removed from the
realities illustrated in the novel. Thereafter, the black narrator Claudia MacTeer relates much of the
story, and the reminder, which concerns events that Claudia could not have witnessed, is narrated
mostly by an unidentified voice. Claudia's narrative reveals the guilt that for a long time plagued her
and her sister in connection with another girl's miscarriage. The girl, Pecola Breedlove, was pregnant
with her own father's child

The Bluest Eye Essay
Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) takes place in Ohio towards the tail end of the depression.
The story focuses on the character of Pecola Breedlove who wants to have blue eyes. Pecola
becomes convinced that if she had blue eyes her life would be different. Through the eyes of our
narrator, Claudia, and her sister Frieda we see the pervasive racism and abuse Pecola is subjected
to. Claudia and Frieda act as witnesses to Pecola's disintegration and as a result, they will spend the
rest of their lives grappling with what happened to Pecola.
Towards the first third of the novel, Pecola goes to buy penny candy from Yacobowski's Fresh Veg.
Meat and Sundries Store. As she is walking to the store she notices the dandelions on the path and
...show more content...
Bernstein and Morrison expertly shed light on the way children visually consume the culture around
them. Consequently, when innocence is attributed to whiteness it dangerously allows for perceptions
constructed by society to dictate one's worth.
This scene can be interpreted through the argument Bernstein makes in Racial Innocence
Performing Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, which is that innocence becomes a tool for
dividing children into valued and not valued with race playing a large role in the deciding factor.
Bernstein claims, "White children became constructed as tender angels while black children were
libeled as unfeeling, noninnocent nonchildren" (33). We can see Mr. Yacobowski subscribing to a
similar ideology where innocence is raced in the way that he is an implementer of pain for Pecola.
He doesn't see Pecola due to a set of beliefs that justify the exploitation of black children and in this
instance Pecola, a little girl simply wanting to buy candy is deemed not worthy of respect and
kindness. The perception of Pecola as not–innocent opens the door for Yacobowski to be a wielder
of hurt. Pecola takes this hurtful treatment to be a direct result of the fact that she lacks blue eyes
and is ugly. Pecola's self–perceived ugliness allows her to identify

The Bluest Eye Thesis
In the afterword of "The Bluest Eye", Morrison describes the narrator of the story as "the sayer, the
one who knows...a child speaking, mimicking the adult black women on the porch or in the
backyard" (Morrison 213), in essence, a child acting as the narrator and imitating black women when
speaking, possessing intimate secrets waiting to be divulged to the reader. By having a child act as
the narrator and introduce emotionally taxing topics to the reader, the weight of these topics would
be cushioned by creating skepticism about the truth behind a child's statements in providing lots of
seemingly "trivial information" (Morrison 213) and thereby "altering the priority an adult would
assign the information" (Morrison 213). But rather than just being an arbitrary character in the story,
Claudia can be justified as being the very embodiment...show more content...
It is more plausible that Claudia is the embodiment of Morrison than say Pecola or Freida in that
Claudia is the narrator; if Claudia is the narrator, then Claudia's perspective was written to an
extent, through the similar eyes of Morrison. It can also be argued that Claudia is the external
projection of Morrison's reaction towards racial beauty, with both having experiences of disdain
with blue eyes. As a child where Morrison's friend wanted to possess blue eyes: "She said she
wanted blue eyes. I locked around to picture her with then and was violently repelled by what I
imagined she would look life if she had her wish. The sorrow in her voice seemed to call for
sympathy, and I faked it for her, but astonished by the desecration she proposed, I 'got mad' at her
instead." (Morrison 209). With Claudia, there is the similar experience of expressing the disdain of
blue eyes, but through the blue eyed dolls that are bought for her, which she eventually

Sigmund Freud 's The Bluest Eye Essay
Have you ever wonder why people act the way they do? Do you know what is going on in their
mind? Inspired by his influential, Sigmund Freud observed and researched about human mind and
behaviors. He examined hysterical patients and tried to treat them in various ways. There are causes
and reasons for every act of human beings. There are so many thoughts going on in people's mind
that you would not know until they tell you. Eventually, Freud came up with psychoanalytic theory
and explained it thoroughly in "Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis." Freud's theory has influenced
many writer and is also illustrated in Literatures. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, portrays
psychoanalytic concepts of Sigmund Freud where characters experience displacement, wishful
impulse, and repression of cruel memory in the unconscious. Claudia experience the theory of
displacement which is introduced in Third Lecture. Freud gives an anecdote about the joke of the
critic's opinion on the portraits to illustrate displacement. The critic would not say his actual opinion
about the portraits that he has in his mind. Instead, he makes a joke to make others confused. The
critic knows what he really thinks about the pictures, but he disguises his thoughts. He substitutes
his insult with the joke. In The Bluest Eye, whiteness is an ideal standard of beauty where girls
want to have light skin, blue eyes, and yellow hair. On Christmas day, Claudia gets white doll with
blue eyes for her gift. She hates it

The Bluest Eye Analysis Essay
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison strongly ties the contents of her novel to its structure and style
through the presentation of chapter titles, dialogue, and the use of changing narrators. These
structural assets highlight details and themes of the novel while eliciting strong responses and
interpretations from readers. The structure of the novel also allows for creative and powerful
presentations of information. Morrison is clever in her style, forcing readers to think deeply about
the novel's heavy content without using the structure to allow for vagueness.
Morrison uses dialogue to reveal vital information throughout the text, adding shock value to details
presented. Toward the end of the novel, one of the most shocking and important...show more
content...
This can be seen toward the end of the novel, on page 199, where, in a conversation between
Pecola and a figure of her thoughts, Morrison reveals that Pecola may have been raped twice.
"You said he tried to do it to you when you were sleeping on the couch. 'See there! You don't even
know what you're talking about. It was when I was washing dishes,'" reads the exchange. These
lines also tell the reader that even with this information, Pecola is still internally unsure of what
happened herself. Through internal dialogue, her personal insecurities are projected. Dialogue is key
in presenting major ideas in the novel. Morrison's use of two different narrators through the story
also goes hand–in–hand with the novel's contents. Throughout The Bluest Eye, Morrison uses an
older Claudia MacTeer and a third–person omniscient narrator effectively in telling parts of the
story. Claudia's narration of the events provides a limited view of the story, as she can only relay
what she knows and experienced. This can be seen through simple dialogue between Claudia and
Frieda on page 101, where the girls discuss how a person can be "ruined" based on information fed
to them by their mother. This makes Claudia's narration somewhat unreliable, but her point of view
still allows the reader to interpret more about the content and character presented. This is vital to the
story, as she inserts her own opinions and reflections on the heavy topics

Bluest Eye Essay

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Bluest Eye Essay