The Bluest Eye Language Analysis

Diana Bautista
English
July 24, 2015
AP Language & Composition - ELA III Essay
For my AP Language & Compositions ELA III Essay I chose the book, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The main theme established by the author is that believing european features are the epitome of beauty. Having blonde or ginger hair, blue eyes, and pale white skin made you beautiful, but if you were to have curly hair, brown eyes, and dark skin then you are not beautiful, those features made you ugly. You are to be mocked by peers, family, and everyone else around you for the way you look. You were wrong to believe that you were anything, but ugly.
On page 20 of the section "Autumn", Claudia MacTeer says, "Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window
"It had occurred to Pecola sometime ago that if her eyes.. -if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different." (Page 46, section "Autumn"). Pecola longs for someone to love her, before her father, Cholly, burned down her family's home her parents continuously brutal arguments and would beat each other, her brother Sam would then get himself involved in these fights and would beat his father in order to prevent him from continuing to beat their mother. As all of this was simultaneous occurring Pecola would do nothing. She didn't know what to do. She laid in her bed listening to everything happen. She thought that if her eyes were blue instead of brown then she'd be beautiful, she'd finally be loved by someone, her family wouldn't have harsh arguments and brutal fights, she believed that her whole life would perfectly fall into place like she wish it would if only she had blue eyes instead of her ugly brown eyes. She prays for blue eyes, the same blue eyes that White people have. They have perfect lives, they are always happy, they are loved, they are wealthy, and most importantly, they are beautiful.
During the winter, there was a new girl named Maureen Pearl attending school. Her family was wealthy, she had green eyes, she was beautiful.., and she was black. Maureen entranced the entire school, the Black and White
And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!" (Page 63, section "Winter"). However, the girls were confused, because Maureen was also black. How could she be both black and beautiful? Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda were black, but they were perceived as ugly. The girls attempted to overlook Maureen's harsh words, but they failed to do so, they knew that although Maureen's words were harsh they were also true. But what made her different from them? Claudia wondered, "The Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful, and not us." (Page 74, section "Winter"). The "Thing" that made Maureen different from the rest of the girls was that she wasn't dark skinned like they were, she was light skinned. The other girls had experienced the prejudice and discrimination for having a darker skin tone. Even though Maureen wasn't White, she was beautiful for having a lighter skin tone than the other Black girls. Although, the three girls weren't aware that the simple difference in skin tone was what made them ugly and Maureen beautiful. It was more difficult for them to realize since she wasn't the blue-eyed, pink-skinned, and yellow-haired person/doll they had been so accustomed into believing that was the essence of beauty.
Overall, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a terrific novel. Many of the characters in this novel, especially the young black girls, experience discrimination,