The novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl in Ohio who faces great adversity as a result of her race, gender, and age. She wants nothing more than to have blue eyes, believing that they would make her beautiful and improve her quality of life. She lives in a small house with her mother, Pauline, her father, Cholly, and her brother, Sammy. In an excerpt titled “Battle Royal” from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator faces similar adversity as a result of his race. He is forced to fight in a Battle Royal against other African American men for the entertainment of a large group of white men after being invited to the event to give his graduation speech. Analysis through
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Pecola is inundated by the glorification of white beauty standards everywhere she looks: the world’s love of Shirley Temple, the way that Maureen Peal, a mixed race girl at her school, is treated, and the positive way that white people in general are portrayed in the media that she sees. All of these influences lead Pecola, who has brown eyes, to believe that, “if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights -- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (46). Pecola believes that she is treated so poorly by the world around her is because she is ugly; she believes that her race, gender, and age make her undesirable, and she wants nothing more than to change that. The narrator says that Pecola’s eyes “held the pictures and knew the sights”, which implies that Pecola’s eyes symbolize how she views the world. Her eyes hold the pictures and memories of having been bullied for her ugliness and experiencing her parents’ constant fighting and abuse. Pecola believes that if she were to receive beautiful eyes, suddenly everything that she would experience from that point on would be more beautiful and that she would be treated better by everyone around her, …show more content…
Their desire to fit into the master narrative that white people have created ultimately cause them both to fall below the expectations of mediocrity that society, and white people in particular, have set for them. If either of these characters had chosen to embrace their race and individuality, perhaps they would have been able to rise above the negative expectations that society had set for them. The institutionalization of racism throughout American history makes it difficult for African American people to rise above the negative stereotypes that are set for them, but ultimately, by embracing one’s self, an individual can rise above cultural norms and societal
Pecola is inundated by the glorification of white beauty standards everywhere she looks: the world’s love of Shirley Temple, the way that Maureen Peal, a mixed race girl at her school, is treated, and the positive way that white people in general are portrayed in the media that she sees. All of these influences lead Pecola, who has brown eyes, to believe that, “if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights -- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (46). Pecola believes that she is treated so poorly by the world around her is because she is ugly; she believes that her race, gender, and age make her undesirable, and she wants nothing more than to change that. The narrator says that Pecola’s eyes “held the pictures and knew the sights”, which implies that Pecola’s eyes symbolize how she views the world. Her eyes hold the pictures and memories of having been bullied for her ugliness and experiencing her parents’ constant fighting and abuse. Pecola believes that if she were to receive beautiful eyes, suddenly everything that she would experience from that point on would be more beautiful and that she would be treated better by everyone around her, …show more content…
Their desire to fit into the master narrative that white people have created ultimately cause them both to fall below the expectations of mediocrity that society, and white people in particular, have set for them. If either of these characters had chosen to embrace their race and individuality, perhaps they would have been able to rise above the negative expectations that society had set for them. The institutionalization of racism throughout American history makes it difficult for African American people to rise above the negative stereotypes that are set for them, but ultimately, by embracing one’s self, an individual can rise above cultural norms and societal