The Author and His or Her Times Toni Morrison was born in February 18‚ 1931 and is still living. When she taught at Howard University she spent her free time to write her book The Bluest Eye‚ which was written in 1970 and has received multiple awards such as the Pultzer Prize and Nobel Prize. She is African American and is the second oldest of four children and had parents that were not as financially stable compared to other families in her time. Her father had to work several jobs and her mother
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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. 224 pp. New York: Holt‚ Rinehart and Winston. $8.95. The Bluest Eye‚ set during the 1940s after the end of the Great Depression in Lorain‚ Ohio‚ tells the heartbreaking story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove‚ who perpetually prays for blues so she can be as beautiful and loved as blue-eyed‚ white American children. Pecola believes that she’s destined to live a tragic life due to her perceived ugliness‚ which is constantly reinforced by the way the people in her
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The three main characters in “The Bluest Eye”‚ are three young black girls. One of the three notices the white media‚ from Shirley shirley temple to the Mary Janes’ candy wrappers‚ that surrounds them. She gets irritated and angry that the only good roles models she has ever known are white
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Unlike To Kill a Mockingbird‚ in which an African-American is persecuted by whites simply on the basis of skin color‚ The Bluest Eye presents a more complicated portrayal of racism. The characters do experience direct oppression‚ but more routinely they are subject to an internalized set of values that creates its own cycle of victimization within families and the neighborhood. The black community in the novel has accepted white standards of beauty‚ judging Maureen’s light skin to be attractive and
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The Bluest Eye Questions 1. The Bluest Eye provides numerous examples that show the idea that white is beautiful and black is ugly. These white beauty standards deform the loves of black women. There are many examples that white is superior like the white baby doll that was given to Claudia‚ the idea of Shirley Temple‚ how the light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls‚ and Mrs. Breedlove’s preference for the white girl over her own daughter‚ Pecola. The adult women learned to hate
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Pure Hatred Towards an Inanimate Object In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye‚ the speaker’s disdain for the doll is made evident through the drastic changes in tone throughout the piece‚ and the speaker’s use of sentences with many clauses to draw attention to key points. The tone of the piece‚ revealed through the connotations of abstract diction‚ mirrors the speaker’s thoughts towards the doll. The tone of the piece starts pleasant‚ containing words with positive connotations such as “special” and
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Alienation in The Bluest Eye Alienation. A withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment (Merriam Webster). Society has ways of alienating people for multiple reasons such as their race‚ gender‚ class‚ or beliefs. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison‚ the character Pecola was alienated not only by society‚ but by her family as well. Pecola’s alienation was due to the fact that she was raped by her father and carried his baby. This reveals
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In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) and Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)‚ both authors show how oppression manifests itself as internalized racism. The influence of the “Black Is Beautiful” cultural movement is present throughout the novel and the album. Throughout the novel‚ each character deals with oppression differently. It is understandable considering each individual has been raised in a different way. However‚ society is one of the main reasons that each one
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THE BLUEST EYE The Bluest Eye is a brilliantly written novel revealing the fictional trauma of an eleven-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove. This story takes place in the town of Lorain‚ Ohio during the 1940’s. It is told from the perspective of a young girl named Claudia MacTeer. She and her sister‚ Frieda‚ become witness to the terrible plights Pecola is unintentionally put through. Pecola chooses to hide from her disabling life behind her clouded dream of possessing the ever so cherished
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Claudia MacTeer Claudia suffers from the same mentality of most of the characters in the novel; she is insecure about materialistic things and knows that beauty belongs to white people. Claudia does not believe white is beautiful because she sees it‚ but because she is told and exposed to how others view beauty. Claudia believes white is beautiful because everyone who is older says it is. Claudia subconsciously defines beauty as having a good personality. When Claudia is given a doll for Christmas
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