Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), Critical Recognition and praise for Toni Morrison grew with each novel. The Bluest Eye published in 1970, tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl growing up in Morrison’s Hometown of Lorain, Ohio, after the Great Depression. Due To its unflinching portrayal of Incest, prostitution, domestic violence, child molestation, and Racism, there have been Numerous attempts to ban the book from libraries and schools across The United States, some of them successful. tatement of the problem: In the The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison writes that the novel came out of a childhood conversation she could never forget.
There's a specialist from your university waiting to help you with that essay.
Tell us what you need to have done now!
order now
She remembers a young black girl she knew who wanted blue eyes, and how, like Claudia MacTeer in the novel, this confession made her really angry. Surrounded by the Black Is Beautiful movement of late 1960s African-American culture, Morrison decided to write a novel about how internalized racism affects young black girls in a range of ways – some petty and minute, some tragic and overwhelming. she focuses on the damage that the black omen characters suffer through the construction of femininity in a racialised society.
Significance of the Study: Women do not have the same position as men, though much progress has been made in the society to bring women to a stage where they have equal rights, equal pay, equal independence but still it is not achieved. Though it may seem that women have a great deal of freedom and independence, the overall condition of women in the world of today is not as it should be. Still the bird flies with only one wing as the other is hampered and not fully functional. Aims and Objectives:
In The bluest eye, black women are portrayed in relation to the influence they Suffer from the white ones and from society in their search for their own selves. These Black women are excluded from a universe of love and tenderness where the figure of Man is a key element for their imprisonment in madness, silence, sexual oppression And lack of hope. Silent, desperate, and isolated, these women cannot escape a life of Unfulfilled desires. The racism inherent in both ideals destroys those who struggle to reach Them, causing the inner destruction; sometimes this suffering leads to madness. Scope of the Study:
Like many Afro-American feminists, Toni Morrison explores in her work motifs Of interlocking racism, sexism and class oppression. She portrays black women as Victims who – like in this novel – do not reach personal autonomy, especially due to The fact that in their own homes the personal relationships are far from being Supportive. After reading The Bluest Eye, you can see how Toni Morrison helped create a space where black women writers could talk about the horrible effects that racism, poverty, and substance abuse can have not only on the adults who experience them but on their children as well.
The Bluest Eye forces us as readers to confront our own ideas of what counts as beautiful. When we read the novel, do we identify with Pecola’s desire to conform to the standards that Contemporary celebrity culture tells us are beautiful? Do we secretly or not-so-secretly want to change our bodies and our facial features to look More attractive? Or do we, like Claudia, recoil from this idea and identify with the underdogs, Oddballs, and people who look unique? Do we try to change ourselves in order to fit what other people find beautiful, like Pauline? Or, Do we scoff at beauty rules and laugh it up, like Miss Marie?
The novel offers several different Ways of interacting with beauty norms and it’s endlessly interesting to see where we find ourselves within these schemes. Review of past literature: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula( 1973), Research Methodology: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first novel, and it is a masterpiece. It is a poem, it is a cry of outrage, it is a lament. It is an authentic telling of growing up black in postwar America.
The Bluest Eye focuses on a year in the lives of a group of children in the American Midwest (the uthor’s origin), and uses their young eyes to penetrate the veil of hatred/self-hatred that has afflicted and been inflicted upon black people in this country, starting in their childhood and perpetuating itself from generation to generation. http://www. pajiba. com/book_reviews/the-bluest-eye-by-toni-morrison. php http://www. shmoop. com/bluest-eye/ Tentative Chapter Scheme CHAPTER 1- Introduction: Morrison’s first novel was not an immediate success, but she continued to write. Sula, which Appeared in 1973, In 1993, Morrison became the first African-American woman to receive the
Nobel Prize in literature. The Bluest Eye contains a number of autobiographical elements. It is Set in the town where Morrison grew up, and it is told from the point of view of a nine-year- old, the age Morrison would have been the year the novel takes place (1941). Like the Mac Teer Family, Morrison’s family struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression. Morrison Grew up listening to her mother singing and her grandfather playing the violin, just as Claudia Does. In the novel’s afterword, Morrison explains that the story developed out of a
Conversation she had had in elementary school with a little girl, who longed for blue eyes. http://www. sparknotes. com/lit/bluesteye/context. html CHAPTER-2 The Bluest Eye Theme of Women and Femininity The Bluest Eye is mostly concerned with the experience of African-American women in the 1940s. It presents a realistic view of the options for these women: they could get married and have children, work for white families, or become prostitutes.
The novel also thematizes the culture of women and young girls, emphasizing beauty magazines, playing with dolls, and identifying with celebrities. ttp://www. shmoop. com/bluest-eye/women-femininity-theme. html CHAPTER- 3 Racism Internalized racism, the kind of thinking produced when African Americans–or any group targeted by racism–begin to believe the stereotypes about themselves and imagine that European Americans are superior. In the novel, this phenomenon is embodied in the worship Of blonde, blue-eyed baby dolls for little girls and in the color hierarchy of lighter-to darker- Skinned African Americans. http://thebestnotes. com/booknotes/Bluest_Eye_Morrison/The_Bluest_Eye_Study_Gu ide05. html Chapter-4 Conclusion:
The afterword to The Bluest Eye, Morrison explains her goal in writing the novel. She wants to Make a statement about the damage that internalized racism can do to the most vulnerable Member of a community—a young girl. At the same time, she does not want to dehumanize the people who wound this girl, because that would simply repeat their mistake. Also, she wants to protect this girl from “the weight of the novel’s inquiry,” and thus decides to tell the story from multiple perspectives. In this way, as she puts it, she “shape[s] a silence while Breaking it,” keeping the girl’s dignity intact.
