The Civil Rights Movement In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

There has been a plethora of major events in history that has had an effect on America and its people, both good and bad. One major event that affected America was the civil rights movement. The movement changed the way American’s live and it changed for the better. It had an effect on everyone because people were treated poorly for being a certain race. The movement did not only have an effect on the people but, also on literature. There have been many authors whom had used the civil rights movement in their stories to show how blacks were treated and how black people felt. Authors have written stories during the movement; there are some stories that show what black people had to go through before the civil rights movement began and showed …show more content…
“The Bluest Eye” was the first novel she wrote while she was working in Howard University and caring for her two sons as a single mother. (“Toni Morrison Biography.”) The story was about two girls named Claudia and Frieda MacTeer residing in Lorain, Ohio with their parents. The family takes in a boarder, Henry Washington, and a young girl named Pecola. Her father tried to burn his family’s house down and the girls felt sorry for Pecola. She moves back in with her family and has a very difficult life. Her father, Cholly, drinks and her mother, Pauline, is distant from her and the family. Pecola has a brother named Sammy that frequently runs away. Pecola loves Shirley Temple and believes being white is beautiful and believes she is ugly because she is black. She began to believe if she had blue eyes that she would be loved, respected, and her life would be better than it is now. She was picked on by boys and a girl named Maureen who is light-skinned befriends her just to pick on her as well. One day, her father goes home and rapes Pecola. She tries to tell her mother that she was raped but her mother didn’t believe her and beats her instead. Pecola goes to Soaphead Church; and speaks to a mystic, and asks him for blue eyes but he just uses her to kill a dog he hated. Claudia and Frieda find out that Pecola was impregnated by her father, the baby dies from being premature and she gets raped again by her father. He runs away and dies in a workhouse, Pecola was filled with angry and believed that her wish was fulfilled. She had the bluest eyes. (Morrison, “The Bluest