Racism! Racism in The Bluest Eye! A sensitive issue, more or less which is prevalent all over the world. It is discrimination, prejudice against individuals on the basis of their skin color – considering black people as inferior and typically marginalized according to the white standards of beauty. Basically which is racialization of image of beauty by white culture.
Since centuries, black community are deprived of their rights. It was Toni Morrison who talked about it explicitly, depicting the struggles of the marginalized ones through the character of Pecola Breedlove, a girl with dark skin, and various others in The Bluest Eye. Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. She was born in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. The Bluest Eye was her first novel, which was published in the year 1970. Her writing style uses the modernist techniques of stream-of-consciousness, multiple perspectives, and deliberate fragmentation.
Toni Morrison has created racialized communities crippled by racism in The Bluest Eye. Morrison has created a dualistic tale of the oppressors and the oppressed. The novel illustrates how racism exists within the African-American community, where the black family are oppressed and subjected by the white people. The novel shows the psychological impact of black characters due to racism and how the effect of oppression have corroded the characters self-esteem and sense of self-worth. The black characters feel contempt for their own blackness and prejudiced to be ugly, savage, unclean and immoral. Through the character of 11-Year-Old Pecola Breedlove, Toni Morrison wanted to show the damage that internalized and institutionalized, Racism in The Bluest Eye. Whilst the vulnerable ones in a community of white people cherishing physical beauty.
Style aiding to concept
The way Toni Morrison starts the novel with the prologue of Dick-and-Jane, distinguishes the state of a white, brown and black family in that community (American culture). The first paragraph, without any error signifies the whites being a happy family. An ideal family with Big strong father to take care of them. It is the Fisher family in The Bluest Eye. The next paragraph with space and no punctuation marks signifies the browns being degraded but not as the black ones. The mother still takes care of the kids with little communication and compassion. Lastly, the third paragraph is in such a state where nothing can be understood. There is complete communication gap with no place for love and sympathy. Father, instead of being Big father and protecting its family, Cholly Breedlove rapes his own daughter, Pecola Breedlove.
Cholly Breedlove’s such heinous act denotes the oppression he faced since he was young. When Cholly Breedlove was having the first intimacy of his life with Darlene, they came across sexual encounters. Two white men humiliated them and forced them to complete the act in their presence as they kept mocking them. Cholly then develops hatred for all women but he should have hated white skin people for shaming him. Furthermore, he understood that he can never dominate the white population or humiliate them. As the theme of race makes him, the black colored people weaker and lower in class in society.
Is black doll admired?
The mind-set of the society that only white skin is regarded as standards of beauty, can be exhibited from another incident. On Christmas, when Claudia was gifted a white doll with blue eyes and yellow hair. She hated it and described what for the society is standards of beauty or notion of beauty. White skin, blue eyes, yellow hair and anything other than that is never considered to fall in beauty standards. How people admire Shirley Temple and not any black colored women. She feels annoyed, neglected and unloved when at the party only white girls are approached with “aww” and not her or any black child. Even a child is made to sense the white standards and ultimate racialization of beauty making racism in The Bluest Eye more prominent.
Discrimination led to insanity
The person who suffers the most from racialization of beauty is Pecola, who belongs to a black family. School students tease her for her dark appearance. Maureen who first befriends her too calls her ugly and dirty though not a white girl but brown. Even being a brown girl, still her notion of beauty is like that of the white characters. Pecola always suffers from inferior complexity. She thinks that if she possessed that bluest eye, the cruelty in her life would be replaced by affection and respect. As a result, her pain would go away and she be considered among the beauty standards of the society. The impact of racism had been so cruel that it marginalizes her to such an extent that led her to descent into madness at the end of the novel. That’s when she believes that now she possesses blue eyes and is beautiful.
The Bluest eye as a challenge for Toni Morrison
The female writer Toni Morrison, a black woman herself, took the audacity to raise voice against the white beauty standards. So she picked up the setting as her own native place and people, i.e. African-American characters. Through the characters psychology, she beautifully portrayed the impact of racism on the oppressed. The Bluest Eye was even banned in school board for being an adult book and explicitly talking about the racialization of beauty. I think even after going through this piece of work, one might surely consider before being judgement and about their attitude in their approach towards people of all skin color. Let us stand together hand in hand regardless of any skin color, religion, beliefs, perspectives, and so on.
