Self-Hate in Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye Essay -- Essays on The Blu

At a time when blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple is idolized by white and black alike, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove desperately seeks out beauty for herself. In order to attain beauty in her culture, Pecola must do the impossible: find white beauty. Toni Morrison shows the disastrous effects that colorism and racism can have on a whole culture and how African- Americans will tear each other apart in order to fit into the graces of white society. The desire to be considered beautiful in the white world is so compelling, that the characters in The Bluest Eye loathe their own skin color and feel shame for their culture. These feelings of self-loathing and contempt pass on from the adults to their children, creating a continuous cycle of negativity and self-hate. â€Å"Here was an ugly little black girl asking for beauty†¦A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes† (Morrison, 174). By petitioning for white beauty, Pecola Breedlove is desperately attempting to pull herself out of the pit of blackness. Because Pecola has dark-skin and authentic African-American features, black and white society has conditioned her to believe that she is ugly. Pecola.s physical features ensure her to be a victim of classical racism; classical racism being the notion that the â€Å"physical ugliness of blackness is a sign of a deeper ugliness and depravity† (Taylor, 16). This notion allows the mistreatment of dark-skinned people because their blackness is a link to a â€Å"dark past† and to uncivilized ways. Pecola does not epitomize white society.s standards of beauty because she does not have light skin and trademark blue eyes; therefore, she must be ugly and ba... ...Melus: 19.4 (1994): 109-127. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 March 2014. Lobodziec, Agnieszka. â€Å"Theological Models of Black Middle-Class Performance in Toni Morrison.s Novels.† Black Theology: An International Journal 8.1 (2010): 32-52. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 March 2014. McKittrick, Katherine. â€Å"Black and „Cause I.m Black I.m Blue.: transverse racial geographies in Toni Morrison.s The Bluest Eye.† Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 7.2 (2000): 125. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 March 2014. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Penguin, 1970. Print. Taylor, Paul C. â€Å"Malcom.s Conk and Danto.s Colors; or Four Logical Petitions Concerning Race, Beauty, and Aesthetics.† Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 57.1 (2000): 16-20. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 March 2014.