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In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison depicts the life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who lives in a community crippled by racism created by its members. The internalization of the cultural ideals of physical features and skin color causes a damaging effect on the African-American characters. As a result, Pecola develops feelings of inferiority and self-loathing, causing her to believe that she is ugly and worthless because she does not embody the Western culture’s ideas of beauty. She desires nothing more than to obtain blue eyes in the hopes of fitting in. The presence of racism through white beauty and the aspirations of the black society to attain this defined beauty, lead to the destruction of Pecola and Pauline, and Geraldine’s self-identity and livelihood.
Struggling to accept her inability to achieve a connection with her community or resemble the ideal beauty, Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother, in turn, experiences a continuous reminder of the lack of beauty she possesses through multiple events during her life. From the beginning, Pauline believes her life is already ruined after she steps on a nail as a child, leaving her foot deformed. Meanwhile, her deteriorating and violent relationship with her husband Cholly further reaffirms her idea that she is ugly and alone. Desperate to alleviate her loneliness, Pauline turns to the movies, where she is introduced to ideas of physical beauty and romantic love which she learns are reserved for those valued in society, proving that the ideas were “probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion” (122). Pauline’s yearning to acquire the ideal beauty caused her to become insecure about her natural hair. As a result, she began to style her hair like the well-known white actress Jean Harlow. Shortly after, Pauline’s illusion of beauty is fragmented when she loses a tooth, provoking herself to experience an increase in self-hatred and become saddened by the thought of never being welcomed by those whom society claims as beautiful.
Eventually, Pauline finds a job working for a white family, the Fishers, where she can witness order, beauty, and cleanliness. These attributes, absent from her own family, signify the life that she longs for and envies. In her employers’ house, Pauline can observe the contrast of her physical features with the Fishers, “Mrs. Breedolove’s skin glowed like taffeta in the reflection of white porcelain, white woodwork, polished cabinets, and brilliant copperware” (107). Surrounded by wealth and beauty, Pauline, although an outsider, begins to feel as if she is a part of an unattainable world. Enamored with being in the company of what she has always strived to be, Pauline soon renounces her own family for the family of her white employer. A role model for her daughter’s acceptance of Western beauty ideals, Pauline encourages Pecola to strive to attain ideal beauty instead of rejecting the idea of standardizing beauty. As soon as Pecola is born, Pauline dismisses her after she sees her “ugliness”, displaying her insecurities about her looks. Consequently, Pauline’s obsession with resembling members of white society prevents her from having a close relationship with her daughter and forces her to adopt an appearance to attain the desired beauty.
In a similar way to her mother, the constant reminder of her unattractive looks begins to consume Pecola’s thoughts, eventually causing her to think of herself as worthless. Since childhood, she has defined herself and her beauty only by the degree of her blackness, “… somewhere in the bottom lid is the distaste. She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness” (49). Realizing her place as a secondary citizen, Pecola is faced with an ideal created by white society and acknowledges the unattainable goal of finding her place among them. Most members of the black community including Pecola and her family view their dark skin as being synonymous with being ugly and deny their identity, “A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment” (204). Therefore, her subjection to sexual abuse allows her to associate beauty with being loved. She looks to what white society has determined beautiful and believes that if she obtains blue eyes, the violence in her life will disappear, and be replaced with respect. Although willing to try almost anything to receive blue eyes, Pecola realizes that her satisfaction will never be met, causing self-destruction. A product of society’s unachievable standards, Pecola’s dream is destroyed by her inability to forget these impossible ideals. As a result of her preoccupation with possessing blue eyes clouds her sense of reality and thus contributes to her ultimate defeat. After the book, Pecola, unable to comprehend her failure to receive blue eyes, isolates herself from society. Insanity takes over and leaves Pecola in an imaginary world with what she believes are her blue eyes. Sadly, the first time she truly acknowledges her beauty is in the illusion her own corrupted mind constructed, proving that there are consequences to constantly desiring beauty that is defined by white standards.
While impossible for Pecola to change her eye color, Geraldine attempts to abandon her true identity as a black woman. By suppressing what the narrator calls “funkiness”, she denies her race out of embarrassment. This funkiness is associated with the characteristics of African Americans in the novel which include the sway of hips, thick lips, loud laughter, and spontaneous gestures. Although a member of the middle class, Geraldine’s hatred for her race originates after internalizing white society’s racism towards the appearances and actions of African Americans. This self-loathing forces her into a state of denial, causing her to rebuke her own identity. In the effort to be considered equal to those who are white, many including Geraldine mirror the behavior seen in the movies. Geraldine goes as far as teaching her son, Junior, to act more like a white person. When she comes home to find that Junior, who is banned from playing with black children, has invited Pecola, she is disgusted by the mere fact that she is black and makes note of that when she says, “‘Get out… You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house’”( 92). However, her reaction is actually towards her self-hatred. Pecola’s presence reminds Geraldin of all the characteristics she associates with blackness and tries to escape. She despises that she is black in a society dominated by white standards and ideals. In the long run, her obsessive behavior and denial of any indication of blackness results in Geraldine’s isolation from her community. Thus highlighting the psychological effects of the racist climate on those who are afraid to admit they might not fit the standardized model of beauty. Ultimately, this consuming fear forces them to surrender their principles and strive to assume characteristics similar to white society.
Through illustrating a society that promotes its unattainable standards onto those who possess something uncontrollable, Morrison challenges white standards of beauty and provides insight into the lives of Pecola, Pauline, and Geraldine to stress the idea of beauty being socially constructed. Replacing normalcy with these ideals ultimately causes internalized racism, damaging the self-identity of these characters as well as their family. When trying to conform to the ideal of the Western culture, they begin to despise and reject their blackness which in turn leads to self-loathing. This yearning to achieve happiness by being viewed as beautiful possesses severe consequences such as abandoning their morals and even becoming insane.
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