Essay about The Bluest Eyes - 1180 Words

A Search For A Self Finding a self-identity is often a sign of maturing and growing up. This becomes the main issue in Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eyes. Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, and Pauline Breedlove are such characters that search for their identity through others that has influenced them and by the lifestyles that they have. First, Pecola Breedlove struggles to get accepted into society due to the beauty factor that the norm has. Cholly Breedlove, her father, is a drunk who has problems that he takes out of Pecola sexually and Pauline physically. Pauline is Cholly’s wife that is never there for her daughters. Pacola is a little black girl has a hard time finding herself. Brought up as a poor unwanted girl, she†¦show more content†¦Finally the rape by her father is the last evidence Pecola needs to believe completely that she is an ugly unlovable girl. While in most cases a father figure is one who little girls look to for guidance and approval, Cholly is the exact opposite. He hurts Pecola in a physical way that in one attempt measures up to the years of hurtful mockery. After this event, Pecola went insane, forever stopping her from finding what she really is. Cholly Breedlove the father of Pecola is an alcoholic bastard. He was born to an unwed mother that abandoned him three days after his birth; and his father ran away once he was born. This eventually is the main cause why he had acted like he acted towards his family and especially towards Pecola. After his legal guardian, his aunt, dies, Cholly decided that as an inner mission he needs to find his father to find himself. This long search ends in an extremely disappointing - crushing- experience. As Cholly tries to explain his identity to his father, his (fathers) face changes as he begins to understand, avoiding the fact that he is Cholly’s biological father. This extremely embarrassing encounter with his father scars him for life. His only image of a father figure is one who brings pain. Another cause of his eventual downfall was the way the community perceived him. They treated him disrespectfully, talked about him behind his back, and made a mockery of his name. After Choll y attempts to burnShow MoreRelatedEssay on Bluest eye1102 Words   |  5 Pages Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, presents the lives of several impoverished black families in the 1940’s in a rather unconventional and painful manner. Ms. Morrison leads the reader through the lives of select children and adults, describing a few powerful incidents, thoughts and experiences that lend insight into the motivation and. behavior of these characters. In a somewhat unconventional manner, the young lives of Pauline Williams Breedlove and Charles (Cholly) Breedlove are presentedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Bluest Eye 818 Words   |  4 PagesIn The Bluest Eye, Pecola the protagonist is taken under the Macteer family’s wing much like â€Å"The African family is community-based and the nurturing quality is not contained within the nuclear family, but is rather the responsibility of the entire community† (Ranstrà ¶m). In traditional Africa each child has a place and is welcome in the community. The act of parenting another child was not odd because every adult that lived in each community believed that any child is welcome in anyone’s home. ThisRead MoreEssay On The Bluest Eye1562 Words   |  7 PagesHowever, in the book, â€Å"The Bluest Eye† by Toni Morrison, they live up to their reputations for how they view themselves. Specifically, being focused on women like Pecola, and Claudia. They are often questioning their worth from society’s judgement of beauty. Though one character, Frieda embraces it despite being black. With having everything temporary, the desire of grasping and having something permanent increases. The women desires to be of a lighter skin tone with blue eyes, but will being privilegedRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1587 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"We were born to die and we die to live.† Toni Morrison correlates to Nelson’s quote in her Nobel Lecture of 1993, â€Å"We die. Th at may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.† In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she uses language to examine the concepts of racism, lack of self-identity, gender roles, and socioeconomic hardships as they factor into a misinterpretation of the American Dream. Morrison illustrates problems that these issues provoke throughRead MoreThe Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye1317 Words   |  6 Pages The Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye nbsp; Morrison has divided her portrayal of a fictional town of blacks, which suffers from alienation and subjugation, into four seasons.nbsp; I believe that her underlying message is to illustrate the reality of lifes travails: the certain rhythms of blessings and tragedies.nbsp; Some blacks understand and acccept this philosophy and Morrisons use of the seasons portrays and echoes the bible verse, To every thing there is a season, andRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1598 Words   |  7 Pages in The Bluest Eye, racism has been approached in a very exceptional way. The characters in Morrison’s novel are subjected to adopt a set of values that are separated by the complexion of their skin. The black community in the novel has accepted white standards of beauty, judging Maureen’s light frail skin to be beautiful and that of Pecola’s dark skin to be ugly. These standards arise to Pecola’s desire to have â€Å"the bluest eyes.†. During the 1940’s, Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye examinesRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison992 Words   |  4 PagesSet in the 1940s, during the Great Depression, the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, illustrates in the inner struggles of African-American criticism. The Breedloves, the family the story revolves around a poor, black and ugly family. They live in a two-room store front, which is open, showing that they have nothing. In the family there is a girl named Pecola Breedlove, she is a black and thinks that she is ugly because she is not white. Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove, goes through humiliatedRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1198 Words   |  5 PagesThe Bluest Eye In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison brings to light the often unrecognized struggle that many people in the black community face. She exposes the â€Å"whitewashing† that has been prevalent in society for decades and the societal imposition of impossible beauty standards. Morrison uses the book to show us the psychological tolls on children and adults that stem from these unattainable goals. Children, like Pecola Breedlove, are so indoctrinated by society and the quest for superficial â€Å"perfection†Read MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesblack/whiteness. Specifically, white people were positioned at the upper part of the hierarchy, whereas, African Americans were inferior. Consequently, white people were able to control and dictate to the standards of beauty. In her novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and ideals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the differen t characters. With the juxtaposition of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove, who naively conforms toRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye 1115 Words   |  5 Pagesbeliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, their economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all. In The Bluest Eye, characters experience a