Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

The strongest theme in The Bluest Eye is the effect of racism on African American's self-image and sense of self-worth (Mbalia 28). Doreathea Mbalia contends that Morrison specifically explores the effect of the dominant culture's (whites') standards of beauty on the African American female adolescents' self-image (28). Thus, she contrasts the self-images held by Claudia (the narrator) and Frieda McTeer with that of Pecola Breedlove, whom Mbalia argues is most affected by the dominant culture's beauty standards because she is the poorest and, therefore, the most vulnerable (28). But Morrison also demonstrates the family history that bred no

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ectly imposed by the actions of others. Byerman points out that there are very few white characters in the book to impose the view. Rather, it is what he calls the "ideological hegemony of whiteness" that forms the blacks' view of themselves (Byerman 447). Mbalia argues that, through the Breedloves, Morrison sought to demonstrate that the dominant culture destroyed African Americans' self -image at an early age. For example, she traces Cholly and Polly's early years, particularly the event where Cholly is humiliated by the white men during his first sexual encounter. But Mbalia also notes that African Americans' self-image is also destroyed by the dominant culture's "promotion of its own standard of beauty: long, stringy hair, preferably blond; keen nose, thin lips; and light eyes, preferably blue" (28). As she notes, if European physical features are the standard of beauty, then Africans' features must be ugly (28). In the novel, Pecola serves as the personification of this ugliness. Thus, Morrison describes how Pecola rpent hours in front of the mirror trying to discover the secret of her ugliness (45). Pecola is aware that people do not like to look at her, and that they use her as an insult to others (Morrison 46). She is ev
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Approximate Word count = 1674
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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