Toni Morrison in her novel The Bluest Eye addresses an issue that was raised by Malcolm X in his autobiography and by other black writers examining their place in American society, and that issue is the degree to which blacks have been subjugated by whites not only in economic and social terms but in terms of ideas about beauty. Malcolm X noted the relationship between black acceptance of the prevailing white idea of beauty and blacks' low self-esteem, and he himself was subject to this when he was a young man as he admired "high-yellow" women rather than dark black women and used extraordinary means to straighten his hair. Pecola Breedlove, Morrison's main character, has a similar reaction to her physical characteristics--she would change them if she could and does change those she can in order to reflect the idea of beauty held by white society. In so doing, she denies her blackness, her heritage, her reality and descends into madness. Her story is presented in terms of family breakdown, self-destruction, and the fusion of sex and racism which Morrison sees as characteristic of American society.
The opening of the novel is especially interesting and especially telling as it depicts the themes of the book by means of a direct linguistic representation of family disintegration. The first paragraph is repeated three times, but each time it has a different characteristic and a different symbolic meaning. The first paragraph is written as if by a child with simple descriptions of a house and its inhabitants. the tone is that of a first grade reader, with the reference to Dick and Jane and their parents and with Jane playing with her cat and dog: "Play, Jane, play" (Morrison 7). The meaning is simple and direct, evocative of a happy American family.
The second paragraph repeats the first without punctuation and runs the words together as if in a frenzy. The meaning is distorted, seen through the eyes of a person on the ed...