Innocence Beauty standards set by society for black women fuels into their insecurities and drives them towards self-hatred. From the start‚ Pecola’s community‚ classmates‚ teachers and parent’s drill into her head that she is unattractive. Pecola Breedlove comes to admit she is ugly as she starts obsessing over the idea of having the bluest eyes to make her attractive. Pecola full-heartedly believes that blue eyes are a necessity for beauty and if she were to by some means acquire them‚ all of her
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only by the evil of fulfillment.” This quote from The Bluest Eye is the meaning of the story in a sentence. Toni Morrison is the author of this very powerful and emotional novel and through her use of symbolism‚ Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove‚ an African American girl‚ and her struggle to achieve the acceptance and love she desires from her family and friends. The society that the story takes place in plays a factor in how Morrison conveys her symbolism. Each symbol represents something
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Ian Tsai 00121145 Professor Grace Ma Selected Reading in English & American Novels 20 June 2013 Freudian Criticism: Reading Characters ’ Trauma In Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita & Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye According to Sigmund Freud‚ the unconscious of every individual are residual traces of prior stages of psychosexual development‚ form earliest infancy onward‚ which have been outgrown‚ but remain as "fixation" in the unconscious of the adult. When triggered by some later event in
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as Claudia puts it‚ a “minority in both caste and class” (17) due to the color of their skin. This demonstrates society’s alienation of that which is unfamiliar‚ or does not meet its standards. More specifically within the novel‚ Pecola and the Breedloves exemplify this. They are considered inferior on every level—they are black‚ low-class‚ and lacking in confidence. Even among fellow African Americans‚ they are looked down upon. These traits make it obvious that they are not what society would deem
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Although my students were unaware of it‚ in a sense what they were questioning from the standpoint of literary criticism is not only the theory of postmodernism with its emphasis on race‚ class and gender‚ but the theory of naturalism as well: the idea that one ’s social and physical environments can drastically affect one ’s nature and potential for surviving and succeeding in this world. In this article‚ I will explore Toni Morrison ’s The Bluest Eye from a naturalistic perspective; however‚ while
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Eye‚ we are introduced to the adverse circumstances that surround the characters involving sex. We are asked to recognize that the major male characters—Cholly Breedlove‚ Mr. Henry‚ and Soaphead Church—are all attracted to young girls and the majority of these young girls are all victims in a short scholarly essay “The Bluest Eye Theme of Sex”. Cholly rapes his daughter Pecola‚ Mr. Henry fondles Claudia’s sister Frieda‚ and Soaphead acts on his eroticized thoughts towards children‚ especially little
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idealization of white beauty in the movies‚ and Pauline Breedlove’s preference for the little white girl she works for over her daughter. Adult women‚ having learned to hate the blackness of their own bodies‚ take this hatred out on their children—Mrs. Breedlove shares the conviction that Pecola is ugly‚ and lighter-skinned Geraldine curses Pecola’s blackness. Claudia remains free from this worship of whiteness‚ imagining Pecola’s unborn baby as beautiful in its blackness. But it is hinted that once Claudia
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In "The Bluest Eye"‚ author Toni Morrison builds a story around the concept of racial self-hatred and how it comes to exist in the mind of a young child. "The Bluest Eye" deals directly with the individual psychology of the main character‚ Pecola Breedlove. So intense are Pecola’s feelings of self-loathing and inferiority that she would do anything to soothe them. In her young mind‚ she needs a miracle; she needs the bluest eyes. All of the tragedies in this novel can be directed back to one main issue
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Chapter 2 In the novel The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison‚ I have seen that there is more suffering caused by a diseased mind than by a diseased body. The idea of a “diseased mind” is a mental illness while the “diseased body” is a physical illness or injury and though the former is more dominant‚ yet both are displayed by the characters in the novel. The Bluest Eye is Morrison’s first novel and also a very powerful study of how African-American families and particularly women are affected
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She is the centripetal force bringing all the characters together. Cholly’s last name Breedlove becomes irony since deprived of love by his parents & society‚ he is expected to cultivate love. Geraldine’s cat‚ Bob the dog‚ and Pecola are scapegoats expected to cleanse American Society through their involvement is some violent rituals. And
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