The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a jaw dropping perspective of the lives of young black girls that are forced into believing that they are ugly and therefore suffer from self-loathing. The role models in their lives are not exactly the most stable to provide them with the answers of live; therefore, they leave the girls to look into society to fill that ever expanding void of their purpose in life. In this shockingly realistic story, the young black girls such as Pecola take on the burden from other whites who deride and grind down on her soul until she resigns to their inequitable idea of beauty. Soaking up this complete defeat, these young black girls grow up without ever wanting to expand out of the pot they were planted in and reach for
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She is not actually ugly at all and would most likely have gotten a good husband that was truly inlove with her, but the problem was that she did not know “‘how [to] get somebody to love [her]?’” (Morrison 32). Pecola does not know how love works because she is too young, but she is not too young to realize that only the “pretty” girls fall in love. This means that Pecola had already thought about if she would be considered beautiful or not. She probably has compared herself to hundreds of others in hopes of finding someone that she would be the prettier one between the two. Unfortunately, she has been on the other side of the scale so far. She also found herself “gaz[ing] fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face” (Morrison19), hoping that that would be the reflection she would receive back when she looked in the mirror. Shirley Temple was a real little girl, but the artist painting her picture on that cup would not have drawn any of her flaws. Pecola has often found herself comparing herself with those unrealistic “beauty” standards even set for juveniles. She is even supported by grownups around her who truly believe that her wanting to chance herself completely to be “beautiful” was “the most fantastic and the most logical petition [they] had ever received” (Morrison 174). No wonder Pecola has never thought of any other way to succeed in life. She has no way of knowing that these seemingly innocuous thoughts of self-loathing “[b]oth originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and [will end] in disillusion” (Morrison 122). The idea of beauty being a physical attribute eventually leads to a person’s physical destruction. It may not seem too bad to want to be beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside, but when those goals of beauty are unattainable, a
She is not actually ugly at all and would most likely have gotten a good husband that was truly inlove with her, but the problem was that she did not know “‘how [to] get somebody to love [her]?’” (Morrison 32). Pecola does not know how love works because she is too young, but she is not too young to realize that only the “pretty” girls fall in love. This means that Pecola had already thought about if she would be considered beautiful or not. She probably has compared herself to hundreds of others in hopes of finding someone that she would be the prettier one between the two. Unfortunately, she has been on the other side of the scale so far. She also found herself “gaz[ing] fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face” (Morrison19), hoping that that would be the reflection she would receive back when she looked in the mirror. Shirley Temple was a real little girl, but the artist painting her picture on that cup would not have drawn any of her flaws. Pecola has often found herself comparing herself with those unrealistic “beauty” standards even set for juveniles. She is even supported by grownups around her who truly believe that her wanting to chance herself completely to be “beautiful” was “the most fantastic and the most logical petition [they] had ever received” (Morrison 174). No wonder Pecola has never thought of any other way to succeed in life. She has no way of knowing that these seemingly innocuous thoughts of self-loathing “[b]oth originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and [will end] in disillusion” (Morrison 122). The idea of beauty being a physical attribute eventually leads to a person’s physical destruction. It may not seem too bad to want to be beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside, but when those goals of beauty are unattainable, a