The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
Every society has different views on women and mental health from how they should act, look and behave. These expectations from society that are giving have an effect on a women’s mental health as they will question things that they do that isn’t normal to society’s standards, which leads to them and people thinking they are going crazy and have some type of mental condition. In “The Bluest Eye” the perspective of what beauty based on race is and what is considered ugly affects women’s mental state also, as they lose sense of who they are and try to change. While in the “The Yellowest Wall-Paper a person is diagnosed when an illness they start to think differently as if there is nothing they can do, which convinces there mind that they have
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to accept what is happen, when they should be fighting it. In the Silas Weir Mitchell's "Rest" they address a treatment for mental health that works, but the treatment doesn’t really help both genders with mental problems and it also shows that women are treated with less respect in society as well.
Society depicts how a person should be based on a race and what gender they are and this cause the person to look at them and compare them to what is considered the standard in society. This is especially true for women in society as they are taught what is considered beautiful and if they are different then they are ugly. There is some type of expectation for women to look a certain way. In “The Bluest Eyes” by Toni Morrison depicts beauty for women as being those with white light skin and blue eyes, better known as “white beauty” and those with dark skin to be ugly. So race is also playing a part in this because it’s saying that those who are black or of different color aren’t beautiful, but ugly. This has a psychological effect on women as people would make fun of them and treat them differently causing them to have confidence issues. As well as since they didn’t look a certain way it would cause them to try and change to meet society’s definition of beauty at the cost of losing themselves. An example of this is in the book Pauline (Mrs. Breedlove) learns of society’s standard of beauty and its starts to change her in a negative way to fit that image. She begins to believe and see that beauty is nothing more than just appearance’s and
nothing else matters. Its states “In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it and collected self-contempt by the heap." (Morrison 123) This quote is saying that physical beauty was the same as virtues so it didn’t matter if she throws away her virtues and beliefs for appearances. This has an effect on the mind on Paulina and women as they became consumed with appearances and only cares about appearance and not with the development of the person itself. It comes some women to wish for changes that can’t happen. It affects the way the world is seen through the eyes, as it says “ …to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one she absorbed in full..”. Paulina was only able to look at the world as what was beauty and what was not and determine to what extent was the person’s beauty. This later affects her daughter Pecola as growing up she is thought that beauty is those with blue eyes and does anything she can to achieve them causing her to go insane as well. Society’s definition of what is considered beauty brainwashes women in to changing themselves into things that they are not even if it cause them to lose their mind. It also causes them view the world with a judgmental eyes and minds that are only looking at appearances and this teaches the younger girls to do the same thing.
Aside from how society expects women to look, its expectation of what women should be doing changes our idea of mental health. There are certain expectations that society has of women, which most include dealing with all the domestic work and nothing more. As if a woman is doing something out of the ordinary such as writing, then she must have some type of mental problem causing her to do such things. In “The yellowest Wall-Paper” the narrator is diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression called Neurasthenia is when condition where the person has physical and mental exhaustion. Her depression has had a negative effect on her overall health and because of this she lacks energy which prevents her from doing basic duties that she would normally be able to do on a daily basis. This text shows that women didn’t always have the same equal rights has men and have struggled for many years to get that equal rights. The narrator in the text goes mad because her role is society is very limited compared to her husband and she can’t express herself creatively. In the text it states “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (Gilman 648) In other words, this statement shows that the narrators’ husband holds more authority and she always hears his voice in her mind before she does anything. She always hears him telling her what to do and what to think. She feels like she doesn’t have her mind. And on top of that people around her don’t think she shouldn’t be writing because she is a women and this makes it more difficult for her because she chooses to write to express her emotions however because she is a women society feels she shouldn’t. Another thing that is causing the narrator to go mental is that she is not always thinking about her own unhappiness. In the text it also states, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself-before him, at least, and that makes me very tired. I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it.” (Gilman 648) This statement shows that the narrator isn’t able to express her own voice because of her husband. She depends on drugs to help with her mental illness as she has no control of herself and her husband controls her because of the mental state she is in. This text shows how women especially women with a mental health problem didn’t have the same rights as people thought they couldn’t do anything for themselves and had to control them for their own good. There have been attempts to cure mental illness with different treatment plans. In the Silas Weir Mitchell's "Rest" they address a treatment for mental health where you taking out the things in the person’s life that causes them stress, and fatigue and bringing them in to a more peaceful and stress free environment with the absence of drugs to help with the recovery process. These treatments allow the patient to rest and reset their bodies through the foods and daily planned activities. But the plan doesn’t help both genders as women with mental health problems aren’t taken seriously and don’t receive the same treatment as men. In the article the Dr. Mitchell writes “And here lies the trouble: there are women who mimic fatigue, who indulge themselves in rest on the least pretense, who have no symptoms so truly honest that we need care to regard them” (Mitchell 1). Here it’s saying that women are hard to diagnose because they are coming in for treatment without even having any problems except for minor fatigue, but just to have the pleasure of resting and having not to do a thing. He prefers to deal with men as they tend to have more control and can handle themselves better. Because of this the women who have actually mental problems don’t receive the treatment that they should, when all patients should be getting the same treatment regardless of their gender. This shows that women aren’t treated with the same respect as men with the same mental conditions. That it would be unclear if she had a problem or was just stressed and need relaxation. Women are treated with less respect then men in society as well as there is a certain expectation of that a women to do and what they are need for. Its states in the article “If you find a woman who is in good condition as to color and flesh, and who is always able to do what it pleases her to do, and who is tired by what does not please her, that is a woman to order out of bed and to control with a firm and steady will.” (Mitchell 2). The author is showing that women are except to listen to men and have them make decisions for them, which is taking away a women’s right to choose the way they want to life their life. The quote is also saying that a woman who does what she pleases is a woman who in society standards needs someone to control her for her own good. When it shouldn’t be that way as it will cause the women to lose their independence and start to think in their mind that they don’t have a say in anything in their life when they do. That they should be treated with the same respect no matter the mental state or what society says. Women in society are treated differently, as society has different views on women and mental health from how they should act, look and behave. Women shouldn’t treated different because of the way they look and because they don’t fit and certain look. I learned that when people shame other because they don’t look a certain way or fit a certain image it causes a psychological response in the persons mind to want to achieve that look even if it means that lose their virtues. Also those women with mental problems shouldn’t give into it just because someone tells them something. That they have their own mind and should think for themselves. Women especially women with a mental health problem didn’t have the same rights, as people thought they couldn’t do anything for themselves and had to control them for their own good. This also relates to how treatment is giving for these illnesses as women weren’t treated seriously as men were with the same illnesses. That there was no respect for women for that as it was thought they would be lying about their conditions even if it was minor. That because of this even the most minor of things would then be considered mental illnesses in other mind, as there was no way of telling what was serious and what was not.
to accept what is happen, when they should be fighting it. In the Silas Weir Mitchell's "Rest" they address a treatment for mental health that works, but the treatment doesn’t really help both genders with mental problems and it also shows that women are treated with less respect in society as well.
Society depicts how a person should be based on a race and what gender they are and this cause the person to look at them and compare them to what is considered the standard in society. This is especially true for women in society as they are taught what is considered beautiful and if they are different then they are ugly. There is some type of expectation for women to look a certain way. In “The Bluest Eyes” by Toni Morrison depicts beauty for women as being those with white light skin and blue eyes, better known as “white beauty” and those with dark skin to be ugly. So race is also playing a part in this because it’s saying that those who are black or of different color aren’t beautiful, but ugly. This has a psychological effect on women as people would make fun of them and treat them differently causing them to have confidence issues. As well as since they didn’t look a certain way it would cause them to try and change to meet society’s definition of beauty at the cost of losing themselves. An example of this is in the book Pauline (Mrs. Breedlove) learns of society’s standard of beauty and its starts to change her in a negative way to fit that image. She begins to believe and see that beauty is nothing more than just appearance’s and
nothing else matters. Its states “In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it and collected self-contempt by the heap." (Morrison 123) This quote is saying that physical beauty was the same as virtues so it didn’t matter if she throws away her virtues and beliefs for appearances. This has an effect on the mind on Paulina and women as they became consumed with appearances and only cares about appearance and not with the development of the person itself. It comes some women to wish for changes that can’t happen. It affects the way the world is seen through the eyes, as it says “ …to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one she absorbed in full..”. Paulina was only able to look at the world as what was beauty and what was not and determine to what extent was the person’s beauty. This later affects her daughter Pecola as growing up she is thought that beauty is those with blue eyes and does anything she can to achieve them causing her to go insane as well. Society’s definition of what is considered beauty brainwashes women in to changing themselves into things that they are not even if it cause them to lose their mind. It also causes them view the world with a judgmental eyes and minds that are only looking at appearances and this teaches the younger girls to do the same thing.
Aside from how society expects women to look, its expectation of what women should be doing changes our idea of mental health. There are certain expectations that society has of women, which most include dealing with all the domestic work and nothing more. As if a woman is doing something out of the ordinary such as writing, then she must have some type of mental problem causing her to do such things. In “The yellowest Wall-Paper” the narrator is diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression called Neurasthenia is when condition where the person has physical and mental exhaustion. Her depression has had a negative effect on her overall health and because of this she lacks energy which prevents her from doing basic duties that she would normally be able to do on a daily basis. This text shows that women didn’t always have the same equal rights has men and have struggled for many years to get that equal rights. The narrator in the text goes mad because her role is society is very limited compared to her husband and she can’t express herself creatively. In the text it states “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (Gilman 648) In other words, this statement shows that the narrators’ husband holds more authority and she always hears his voice in her mind before she does anything. She always hears him telling her what to do and what to think. She feels like she doesn’t have her mind. And on top of that people around her don’t think she shouldn’t be writing because she is a women and this makes it more difficult for her because she chooses to write to express her emotions however because she is a women society feels she shouldn’t. Another thing that is causing the narrator to go mental is that she is not always thinking about her own unhappiness. In the text it also states, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself-before him, at least, and that makes me very tired. I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it.” (Gilman 648) This statement shows that the narrator isn’t able to express her own voice because of her husband. She depends on drugs to help with her mental illness as she has no control of herself and her husband controls her because of the mental state she is in. This text shows how women especially women with a mental health problem didn’t have the same rights as people thought they couldn’t do anything for themselves and had to control them for their own good. There have been attempts to cure mental illness with different treatment plans. In the Silas Weir Mitchell's "Rest" they address a treatment for mental health where you taking out the things in the person’s life that causes them stress, and fatigue and bringing them in to a more peaceful and stress free environment with the absence of drugs to help with the recovery process. These treatments allow the patient to rest and reset their bodies through the foods and daily planned activities. But the plan doesn’t help both genders as women with mental health problems aren’t taken seriously and don’t receive the same treatment as men. In the article the Dr. Mitchell writes “And here lies the trouble: there are women who mimic fatigue, who indulge themselves in rest on the least pretense, who have no symptoms so truly honest that we need care to regard them” (Mitchell 1). Here it’s saying that women are hard to diagnose because they are coming in for treatment without even having any problems except for minor fatigue, but just to have the pleasure of resting and having not to do a thing. He prefers to deal with men as they tend to have more control and can handle themselves better. Because of this the women who have actually mental problems don’t receive the treatment that they should, when all patients should be getting the same treatment regardless of their gender. This shows that women aren’t treated with the same respect as men with the same mental conditions. That it would be unclear if she had a problem or was just stressed and need relaxation. Women are treated with less respect then men in society as well as there is a certain expectation of that a women to do and what they are need for. Its states in the article “If you find a woman who is in good condition as to color and flesh, and who is always able to do what it pleases her to do, and who is tired by what does not please her, that is a woman to order out of bed and to control with a firm and steady will.” (Mitchell 2). The author is showing that women are except to listen to men and have them make decisions for them, which is taking away a women’s right to choose the way they want to life their life. The quote is also saying that a woman who does what she pleases is a woman who in society standards needs someone to control her for her own good. When it shouldn’t be that way as it will cause the women to lose their independence and start to think in their mind that they don’t have a say in anything in their life when they do. That they should be treated with the same respect no matter the mental state or what society says. Women in society are treated differently, as society has different views on women and mental health from how they should act, look and behave. Women shouldn’t treated different because of the way they look and because they don’t fit and certain look. I learned that when people shame other because they don’t look a certain way or fit a certain image it causes a psychological response in the persons mind to want to achieve that look even if it means that lose their virtues. Also those women with mental problems shouldn’t give into it just because someone tells them something. That they have their own mind and should think for themselves. Women especially women with a mental health problem didn’t have the same rights, as people thought they couldn’t do anything for themselves and had to control them for their own good. This also relates to how treatment is giving for these illnesses as women weren’t treated seriously as men were with the same illnesses. That there was no respect for women for that as it was thought they would be lying about their conditions even if it was minor. That because of this even the most minor of things would then be considered mental illnesses in other mind, as there was no way of telling what was serious and what was not.