“The Bluest Eyes”, written by Toni Morrison, is a novel about young African American girls as they struggle with self identification and self love. This story talks about their constant battles with society's standards, and how they must overcome different forms of adversity. Throughout the novel there is the constant theme of beauty, and how beauty plays a major role on the lives of those young girls. Beauty, and its many different effects on people's’ lives can be seen through literary devices such as metaphors, imagery, and symbolism.
Toni Morrison’s use of metaphors is a recruiting literary device that helps represent beauty and its impact on the novels characters. Beauty, usually seen as a positive concept, is seen as destructive and …show more content…
Blue eyes symbolize the beauty seen in whiteness in America. Different characters have different opinions on blue eyes in many ways. Claudia, for example hates her christmas gift, a white baby doll. She is bothered by its blue eyes and white appearance, so she takes it apart. She does not dismember the doll in retaliation, but more so in curiosity. She’s fascinated by what makes it so beautiful, so with a childlike mindset, she takes it apart. Throughout the novel Claudia expresses her confusions and distaste for white females as they are always seen as beautiful and she could never understand why. Shirley Temple seemed to anger her the most. It filled Claudia with rage to listen to her sister and Pecola chat away about how perfect and pretty Shirley Temple was. Claudia said “Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley. (1.1.35)” Blue eyes for Claudia were not anything she desired, but a form a beauty she did not quite understand or want. Pecola, on the other hand, saw blue eyes as something to strive for. She believed that having blue eyes would change the way other people saw her and treated her. Through blue eyes she believed that people would see her as beautiful, and the world she lived in would look that way as well. Morrison used symbolism to capture how beauty, and
Toni Morrison’s use of metaphors is a recruiting literary device that helps represent beauty and its impact on the novels characters. Beauty, usually seen as a positive concept, is seen as destructive and …show more content…
Blue eyes symbolize the beauty seen in whiteness in America. Different characters have different opinions on blue eyes in many ways. Claudia, for example hates her christmas gift, a white baby doll. She is bothered by its blue eyes and white appearance, so she takes it apart. She does not dismember the doll in retaliation, but more so in curiosity. She’s fascinated by what makes it so beautiful, so with a childlike mindset, she takes it apart. Throughout the novel Claudia expresses her confusions and distaste for white females as they are always seen as beautiful and she could never understand why. Shirley Temple seemed to anger her the most. It filled Claudia with rage to listen to her sister and Pecola chat away about how perfect and pretty Shirley Temple was. Claudia said “Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley. (1.1.35)” Blue eyes for Claudia were not anything she desired, but a form a beauty she did not quite understand or want. Pecola, on the other hand, saw blue eyes as something to strive for. She believed that having blue eyes would change the way other people saw her and treated her. Through blue eyes she believed that people would see her as beautiful, and the world she lived in would look that way as well. Morrison used symbolism to capture how beauty, and