The Bluest Eye Research Paper

2198 Words9 Pages
In The Bluest Eye, racism played a big role. In the book, white people were seen as the superior race. There were many examples, and one example was Claudia’s doll. She had a white girl doll that had yellow hair, blue eyes, pearly teeth and red bowline lips. “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs-all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (Morrison 20). Claudia continues to caress the doll, wondering why everyone worshipped whiteness. She ended up destroying the doll, simply because she did not want to conform to or accept society’s expectations and norms of beauty. However, she only found “mere metal roundness,” so to her, there was nothing special about the doll. Another example of racism was Maureen. Although she was black, she was light-skinned and was viewed as the prettiest out of all the black girls. “She enchanted the entire school. When teachers called on her, they smiled encouragingly. Black boys didn’t trip her in the halls. White girls didn’t suck their teeth when was was assigned to be their work partners” (Morrison 62). Also, adults like Mrs. Breedlove based their standard of beauty on whiteness. She started hating herself for not being white. On page 122, it stated, “[s]he was never able, after her education in the movies, to look at a…show more content…
For example, some parts are from Pecola’s perspective while some are from Soaphead Church or Claudia. There was also foreshadowing in the novel when Pecola stated, “[n]obody’s father would be naked in front of his own daughter. Not unless he was dirty too” (Morrison 71). After saying this, Pecola was quite agitated by talking about seeing her father naked. This hinted that the father of Pecola’s baby was
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