The Bluest Eye Theme Essay

446 Words2 Pages
These sections in the book “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison have one common theme: internalized racism. Internalized racism is racism that you feel towards your race or yourself. In one chapter, a new young light-skinned black girl, Maureen, is introduced to the story. Frieda and Claudia do not like her because she is everything they want to be, which is to be light. Frieda and Claudia walk home with plans to meet Maureen after school so that they can become friends. Maureen’s mother does not like Maureen hanging out with lower-class, dark black people, even though she is black as well. Maureen goes to meet with them anyways, and when she arrives Frieda and Claudia are fighting with some boys that were making fun of Pecola and calling her…show more content…
Later on, Maureen calls Frieda and Claudia (in front of Pecola) an array of racial slurs, and the girls no longer want to be friends with Maureen. Frieda, Pecola, and Claudia are confused because she is in the same boat with them, yet she is being racist towards them. The second section includes yet another internally racist light-skinned black woman names Geraldine. Pecola becomes acquainted with her son, Junior, and goes over to his house. Geraldine has a black cat with blue eyes (symbolic for what Pecola wants to become) and she loves it more than she loves her family. Because of this, Junior takes his anger out on the cat by throwing it around, eventually throwing it against the heater and killing it. At this moment, Geraldine walks in and Junior (despite his violent reputation with the cat) blames Pecola and gets away with it because Pecola is dark and Geraldine does not like dark black people. Geraldine proceeds to call Pecola racial slurs, damaging an already extremely damaged little girl. I can connect the internalized racism in this book to many countries in Asia such as India, Japan, or South
Show More
Related

  • Rolling The R's Analysis

    1150 Words  | 5 Pages

    the setting. There are many narrators and genres. It’s a series of vignettes. Children are the symbol of naiveté, they represent the in-between of subjugation and complete freedom. A recurrent theme is the love for mainstream American pop culture, like Happy Days, disco music and Charlie’s Angels. Some themes are sexuality, childhood, relationship with America and pop culture, and friendship. HI is usually shown as a tropical paradise, but in the

    Read More

More about The Bluest Eye Theme Essay

Open Document