Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" Analytical Essay by Calwriter

This paper examines how Toni Morrison, in "The Bluest Eye", makes reference to the need to be accepted into the white social structure by a young black girl. It looks at how she presents a paradox in the fact that it is not possible and that, by wishing for something that she is not, she ignores the things of value that are part of her identity. It shows how Morrison, in her use of paradox, makes the point that blacks have had to re-define their own social community or go mad in the process; she does this through the adolescent protagonist, Pecola, and the symbolism of blue eyes as representing a more acceptable "other", both social and as an individual identity.