Analysis of Toni Morrison's

A detailed Summary of Analysis of Toni Morrison's

Toni Morrison's premier novel, The Bluest Eye, is a tale of one girl's battle against herself and the society surrounding her. The author tells the story of young Pecola Breedlove growing up with a vast amount of hatred around her in order to display the impact society has on people. Society pressures the ugly to be beautiful, and a little black girl to pray nightly for two bright, blue eyes to replace the dullness of her own brown ones.

The blue eyes Pecola dream for obviously represents her wish to be white. Blue eyes are associated with beauty and only the fair-skinned can obtain this eye color. Being a black girl in the 1940's is an automatic shun in society when this books takes place. Not to mention the Breedlove family consists of Pecola's father Cholly Breedlove (whom eventually rapes and impregnates her), an unloving mother named Pauline, and a juvenile delinquent brother named Sammy. Pecola's family is part of the reason she becomes a social outcast, even though the poor girl has actually never done one thing against her little town. Morrison shows the way the general public can be bias towards an individual they may have never even talked to just because of family issues, their race

Pecola feels as though if she possessed blue eyes she would have some form of beauty and people would treat her with more respect and she could gain self-dignity. She even toys with the idea that if she had blue eyes perhaps her parents wouldn't fight and beat each other anymore. "It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes of hers were different...beautiful, she herself would be different. Maybe they'd say (her parents), "Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes" (Morrison 46). The little girl feels that her life would be much better if only she had these blue eyes. Later in the novel, Pecola goes to the character of Soaphead Church to "give" her blue eyes. After killing a dog by feeding it rancid meat as she was instructed to do so by Church, Pecola thinks she does possess blue eyes. In reality however, her eyes are still as brown as the soil she walks on. Society has finally drove Pecola to a point of insanity, where she actually, truly, believes she has two dazzling blue eyes.

On the other hand, one would assume Pecola would now be totally content with herself given that she has finally established the one thing she wants in life. She is still far from being pleased though. Pecola now desires to obtain even "bluer" eyes, and to actually have the "bluest." Morrison shows Pecola's fascination through a conversation sh

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mary Jane's, Sammy Pecola's, Pecola Breedlove, Church Pecola, Morrison Pecola's, Bluest Eye, Shirley Temple, Nevertheless Morrison's, Eye Morrison, Cholly Breedlove, blue eyes, bluest eye, black girl, pecola breedlove, people happy, morrison toni, mary jane's,

Approximate Word count = 938
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels