Toni Morrison’s fi rst novel, The Bluest Eye is a novel about racism, yet there are relatively few instances of the direct oppression. The Bluest Eye presents a more complicated portrait of racism. The characters are subject to an internalized set of values which creates its own cycle of victimization. This paper tries to show how cultural ideals based on skin color and physical features function as tools of racial oppression. For all races and for all individuals, it is critical to fully understand how society infl uences our values and beliefs. By illustrating the infl uence of cultural ideals and approaching different psychical responses, this paper shows how racial oppression works in the form of white-defi ned beauty internalization and explains its damaging effect on African-Americans. The focal character, Pecola, in The Bluest Eye is victimized by a society that conditions her to believe that she is ugly and therefore worthless, because she doesn’t epitomize white
Western culture’s ideas of beauty. This paper directs a critical gaze at the symbols of the dominant white culture that provides the prevailing images of self-identity. Only after fully comprehending the infl uences that touch and shape the lives of the whole community, can people strive to combat the defective symbols and grow to their fullest potential.
Key terms: The Bluest Eye; internalized racism; cultural ideals; white-defi ned beauty; cultural infl uence
Intoduction
Set in Toni Morrison’s hometown of Lorain, Ohio, Morrison’s fi rst novel, The Bl
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