Toni Morrison's African Struggle Through Marxism

Toni Morrison’s African Struggle through Marxism In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison portrays the struggle of the African American community during the early 1950’s. Every character has their own struggles but the overlying theme for all of these struggles is the need to be and feel like a white person. Pecola Breedlove and Frieda MacTeer idolize a young Shirley Temple because she gives them an image to strive to look like even though it is impossible for them to achieve this dream. Miss Geraldine longing for her and Junior to be seen as “white” by disassociating themselves with the black community. Lastly, the hatred of Maureen Peele, whom is considered superior because of how “white” she looks and acts. Although many of the struggles …show more content…
Philosopher Karl Marx believed that the strong and the powerful would force their image onto the working class as something to strive for. In the United States during the novel’s era, all of the very successful people were white. Thus making minority groups such as the black community feel like they needed to be white in order to be successful. This would create a division between the black communities that would keep them from gaining equality because they will be too busy fighting amongst themselves. This infighting between blacks is what Marx was warning about. If the majority group possessed too much power and influence it would cause internal disputes between the minority groups. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses the extreme societal views of Marxism to portray the ever growing problems that the African …show more content…
Claudia then tells the readers about the time she received a white doll for Christmas and instead of taking care of it she tears it apart. She also discusses her deep rooted hatred for Shirley Temple, “I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels”. Claudia was able to see the societal problems that the African American community faced and it wasn’t the Shirley Temples of the world, it was that society forced black people to hate themselves for not being white. She comes to the conclusion that all black people are born with natural hate of white people and that it turns into false love and worship to compensate for their own self-hatred. Morrison uses Pecola and Claudia to prove the point that the American elites are using the image of “white beauty” to make the African American community feel like they are ugly and less important than the white