Racism has been around for hundreds of years. One example of how racism against blacks was rempant during the 1940's is seen in Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye.

Throughout the story the characters are victims of racism. Not only do these characters suffer from racism from mainstream White society, but also from their superior light-skinned African American people. Examples of the effects of racism on the examining the lives of Pecola, Louis J.r. , and Soaphead Church.

The first example of racism, and the most affected character of this horrendous deed known as racism is Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is born to two parents who never felt like they fit in or were loved when they were growing up and still don;t.Pecola's mother, Pauline, only cares about fitting in. When she was young she had dreams and hopes about one day being acceptedbut these dreams die when she injures her foot. Soon after her marriage with Cholly, Pauline looses her front tooth and along with it she looses her sel-respect. After Sammy and Pecola are born, Pauline returns to work and begins working for a white family,The Fishers. Here she finds her self-respect again, because according to them she is the ideal se

Soaphead Church has an ackward mentality. When Pecola goes to him to ask him for blue eyes, he promises her she will have them. He later writes a letter to God in which he tells him "she must have asked you for them for a very long time, but you hadn't replied "(Morrison 180). TAhen he tells him of how he was able to achieve it but God had failed and how God was jealous of him.He states tha the Lord is jealous of him because he was able to do something, which in reality couldn't and hadn't been done. Soaphead is already lost in a small extent of insanity himself.

Pecola paid for the outer racism she was a victim of, with insanity. While Louis J.r. is made into a hostile and repressed African American by the intra-racial racism. This same racism transforms Soaphead Church into a misanthrope. Soaphead Church was born Elihue Micah Whitcomb. He comes from s mixed west-indian family.His family emphasized th importance of introducing white(english) blood into the line. Although the family is proud of the mixed blood they still showed favoratism towards the white side of the family ,which was brought in the 1800s by Sir Whicomb, a British nobleman. He did not take responsibility for his actions. Sir Whitcomb's beliefs were like that of any other white man:it was that a female from another race needs no more than a couple of hundred pounds of sterling. He believed that was a sufficient amount for an apology for confusing his future prodigies and exposing them to any racism they would surely encounter.

In The Bluest Eye the reader can see how Toni Morrison shows the effects of racism on the black community. She also gives the reader lessons of how a small form of racism can become a person's destruction. These types of racism, outer-racial and intra-racial, are either forced upon the characters, instilled in them, or they are victims of them. Pecola Breedlove is destroyed by the racism(outer-racial) around her. Her only escape is her insanity, that had been building in her since her birth. Louis J.r. 's racism was ingrained in him by his mother;while Soaphead Church was born into it. Geraldine, Louis J.r. 's mother, and "Soaphead Church are outsiders in a community of outsiders"(Gates 77). They suffer from and are intra-racial rcaists.

Pecola believes that " only those with blue eyes receive love, like Shirley Temple, Geraldine's cat, and the Fisher girl" (Bloom 95). This belief makes her wish she had blue eyes, maybe with them she would be accepted. She wishes and thinks "that if her eyes, those eyes that held pictures, and knew the sights-if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different"(Morrison 40). She becomes obsessed with blue eyes to such a point that she will not eat any other candy except for Mary Janes, which have a blue-eyed girl on the wrapper. This obsession becomes gr

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1923
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)