The Bluest Eye
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Toni Morrison is the author I chose because she is very popular and is recommended by Oprah WinfreyÆs book club which has provided me with suggestions for other authors I ended up admiring and learning from. I chose her work, The Bluest Eye, because it deals with the efforts of individuals to grow and be strong and happy, even though they endure abuse and violence. I have always admired individuals who can remain strong, health, and happy despite having to endure great struggles in their lives. The Pecola family is hard pressed by poverty and live together ôFestering in the debris of a realtorÆs whim,ö (Morrison, p. 34). What I found most distinctive about this book is the authorÆs use of the conventional American primer Dick and Jane. MorrisonÆs use of this device immediately hits home about the distinctions between whites and minorities in American society with respect to their chances for upward mobility embodied by the ôAmerican Dream.ö Pecola lives in a ôbox of peeling grayö with her dysfunctional family, (Morrison, p. 34). As the narrator, Claudia MacTeer, informs us, ôBeing a minority in both caste and class, we moved about anyway on the hem of life, struggling to consolidate our weaknesses and hang on, or to creep singly up into the major folds of the garment,ö (Morrison, p. 17). The questions I hoped to answer through this research are as follows: Why does Pecola not survive the same struggles and challenges that Claudia does survi
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ily inflicts upon each other.ö In this manner, we see that Pecola low self-worth is the reason why Pecola will not survive to be healthy and strong like Claudia.
In contrast, Claudia understands that she must find beauty inside and within herself to grow strong and healthy. Whereas Pecola seems unable to value herself in any manner, Claudia seems incapable of having feelings of low self-worth even in the same environment as Pecola. As Claudia tells us, ôWe felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our sense released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthinessàThe Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful, not us,ö (Morrison, p. 74). Therefore, we see that Claudia refuses to give in to the desires and self-denigration that Pecola and the members of her family do.
As opposed to ClaudiaÆs perspective, Pecola and her family members are filled with self-loathing. We see that her mother has adopted the fairy tale world norms of Hollywood cinema. This makes her hate her husband and her daughter because it makes her hate herself. Pauline BreedloveÆs toxic ideas are passed on to Pecola who does not feel pretty or worthy in contrast to the ideals held out as idyll
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1538
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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