Toni Morrison's Life and "The Bluest Eye"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in the novel "The Bluest Eye", Toni Morrison expresses the helplessness of the girls, who face racial discrimination and hate white culture but imitate it anyway because the white culture is considered good and beautiful and the black culture is considered bad and ugly. The author points out that Morrison in her own life was not from the poor class but rather from the African-American middle class, like the McTeers. The paper relates that the rape of Pecola by her father is not autobiographical but may have been based on things Morrison could have seen or believed possible, within the poorer parts of the African-American community in her own childhood in the 1940s.

From the Paper:

"The main characters in the story are three girls, Claudia and Frieda McTeer (sisters in a black family), and Pecola Breedlove, a poor girl who is staying with the McTeers because of abuse at her house. One of the first traumatic things happens in this book is when Pecola gets her first period. This is a normal thing, but it is traumatic for Pecola because she never heard about it at home. So Pecola thinks she is bleeding to death. Mainly as far as the future parts of the book, this means if she is raped again she could have a baby (forshadowing). Later in the book, after Pecola goes back home, she is raped again by her father, gets pregnant, and later goes mad. This shows how black girls in this environment never have a chance, even in their own houses. "

More papers on Toni Morrison's Life and "The Bluest Eye":

• Book Review # 67487 : "The Bluest Eye" and Racism in America"
• Analytical Essay # 114740 : "Cholly in "The Bluest Eye"
• Analytical Essay # 90709 : "Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye"

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