in black literature. African-American novelists in the early 20th century offered a predominantly white audience an insight into black culture and vocalized the injustice had by their hands. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye both incorporate controversial female protagonists facing the challenge of mental oppression by both personal and societal belief‚ and physical abuse at the hands of their aggressors. Whilst each arguably feminist bildungsroman faces criticism for
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York: Library of Congress‚ 1994. Pages 3-9<br><li>Harris‚ Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison Knoxville: The university of Tennessee press‚ 1991<br><li>Morrison‚ Toni. Sula. New York: Plume‚ 1973<br><li>Morrison‚ Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume‚ 1970<br><li>Stepto‚ Robert. "Conversations with Toni Morrison" Intimate Things in Place: A conversation with Toni Morrison. Massachusetts Review. New York: Library of Congress‚ 1991. Pages 10- 29.
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Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Whiteness as the Standard of Beauty The Bluest Eye provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. Implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere‚ including the white baby doll given to Claudia‚ the idealization of Shirley Temple‚ the consensus that light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls‚
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The Bluest Eye tells the story of a young black girl growing up in the United States during the late 1930’s and early 40’s. Toni Morrison does an outstanding job of painting a realistic depiction of what life would have been like for a black person back then with almost no original named white characters. Instead‚ she creates a gradient of shades of black characters and shows how racism was internalized among black people. There are different ways is how she shows this‚ whether by age of the character
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In The Bluest Eye‚ Claudia MacTeer narrates the story of her childhood and how she grew up in racism. Morrison shows how it was both hard and easy to grow up as a black during those times. She describes how the blacks’ suffering is never resolved during the time span of the book. In this novel‚ she and her family take in Pecola Breedlove‚ a girl whose family is destroyed by her father’s bad drinking habits. Throughout the story‚ they treat her as if she belongs and does not acknowledge her ‘ugliness’
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RACIAL SELF LOATHING IN THE BLUEST EYE 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
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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 by racism and consequent
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culture and erase the stereotypes of racism‚ sexism and patriarchy. She does not favour the superiority of White over Black‚ the superiority of man over woman in America and the
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The Bluest Eye‚ a fiction novel that shows the story of Pecola Breedlove. Pecola‚ an eleven year old black girl lives a nightmare at the heart of her yearning in this time of her life. She moves with Claudia Macteer‚ who is also a black girl. During the time they are together we can see differences and similarities in both of the children and their families. Pecola and Claudia had similarities and differences. Pecola had always dreamed of having big blue eyes. This was a synonym of beauty
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to look at the horrors of our past so we strive for a better future. With her subjectivity towards racism‚ Toni Morrison paved the way for an entire generation of African American women. With her two famous books “The Bluest Eye” and “Sula‚” she gave a voice to their worthiness and beauty. As soon as Toni Morrison was born‚ her parents moved to the North‚ to escape the problems of southern racism. Morrison’s father‚ George Wofford‚ from an early age discussed
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