Envy In The Bluest Eye

Throughout “The Bluest Eye”, Toni Morrison critiques the evil that manifested in the white culture she found within society, and all the envy it produces. Beauty standards and economic goals were based off of white culture and many African Americans were forced to conform to it, which eventually left them with unobtainable goals and despair. Pecola Breedlove’s unhealthy desire for blue eyes stems from the envy she had for people with lighter skin. Through this desire it brought her to low self-esteem and eventually insanity. Throughout the novel Pecola is a timid and weak character because of her lack of self worth. This is shown when Morrison writes, “thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, …show more content…
While Claudia and Fedia were fine in their economic status, they still felt uneasy when introduced to Maureen. Morrison made sure to write in details such as, “she [Maureen] was rich, at least by our standards, as rich as the richest of the white girls, swaddled in comfort and care. The quality of her clothes threatened to derange Frieda and me”(62). Throughout Winter it is seen that Claudia and Frieda do not trust Moreen, due to her status as a rich african american. While race does play into the economic status she holds, considering Maureen was a light skinned person of color and could pass as a white person, her overall “superiority” to the community is what Claudia and Frieda find unsettling, which ultimately comes from her wealth. Similarly to this, Mrs. Breedlove was obsessed the power wealth brings, so much so that she settled for getting that superiority by serving another family, “the creditors and service people who humiliated her when she went to them on her own behalf respected her, were even intimidated by her, when she spoke for the Fishers. Power, praise, and luxury were hers in this household” (128). The fact that Mrs. Breedlove would settle to being a servant to a white family in order to feel what it might be like to life a luxurious life shows how uninterested in her own life she truly was. Being a part of the white family’s daily life created a bubble of wealth and security she began to resent her own family for not being like the Fishers. This hatred grew with her the longer she worked for them and was unable to achieve the greatness she felt at the Fishers. Economic power played a very significant role for the disconnect between characters in this novel and the envy it brought