ism, poverty, anger, etc described in the spring section (James 10). Morrison tells this novel in circular narration. Circular narration is telling a story again and again, each time adding new information; circling the subject and revealing more detail with each telling. In the story there are three levels of narrative consciousness. The 1st is personal idealized consciousness of childhood as demonstrated by Pecola yearning for the blue eyes. The 2nd is the novels central narrator Claudia McTeer. The 3rd is the social/ historical consciousness of an objective narrator who shows the reader the anger of Black lives (Bjork 39). There are many different themes that Morrison examines and explores in this novel. Taken place in 1941, she scrutinizes the society and model of life in that area. She reconnects with that time period so that the reader can perceive the themes and messages she wants to send. These themes cross social, economical, and political boundaries in the black community. There are many themes arranging from, black family life, black community, religion, and physical abuse. The research will focus on, in the The Bluest Eye, the themes of the white standard of beauty, rejection, and the skin tone hierarchy.

One of the major themes represented in The Bluest Eyes is White America being the standard of what human beauty is. This theme is represented all throughout the novel being the main rationale for Pecola Breedlove desire to have the bluest eyes. Toni Morrison wrote this novel in 1970, when racial tensions were high and the model of white beauty was accepted as the norm, but even now in today society we can see that it still applies to our culture. Young Pecola has the knowledge that she isn’t were attractive and often wishes, dreams, yearns in desperation to fit in the model of white beauty. The thing she desires most to have is the Bluest eyes of all, which she believes will make her beautiful. Pocola’s initial appearance signals a shift to a more coherent narration, although still told by Claudia with the subjective naiveté of a child. We come to know Pocola’s idealized consciousness, and significantly we learn of her object of desire and the symbolic perpetrator for the central conflict and incongruity in the novel (Peterson 100) “Frieda brought her four graham crackers on a saucer and some milk in a blue-and-white Shirley Temple cup. She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face. Frieda and Pecola had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was.” (Morrison 19) That was an excerpt from the book The Bluest Eye and in that scene we see how Pecola adores the cup with the pretty little while girl on it. Frieda and especially Pecola are attracted to the order and perfection of this manufactured image that connotes myriad, contrived values including how a girl and/or woman should look, act, and even feel. (Harris 25) Considering Pecola’s pathetic circumstances, it is understandable perhaps that she be drawn to an idealized fabrication, and as readers, we fully sympathize with Pecola when she’s scolded by Mrs. McTeer for drinking three quarts of mild in one day. (Harris 25) Claudia says that Pecola “…took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face”. (Morrison 22) But her extreme fondness for the cup also represents an indictment against the whole of a value system that has afflicted not only Pecola and her family, but also an entire community. Both Frieda and Claudia, whose parent, unlike Pecola’s have provided a relatively loving and stable family environment, are themselves drawn to what Shirley Temple represents. At first Clau

Some topics in this essay:
Christmas David, Pauline Breedlove’s, Bluest Eye, Pecola Pecola, Pecola Cholly’s, Toni Morrison, Junior Geraldine, Claudia McTeer, Breedlove Family, Reverend Soaphead, black community, bluest eye, blue eyes, shirley temple, white standard beauty, standard beauty, throughout novel, skin tone, colored people, bluest eyes, white standard, skin tone hierarchy, morrison throughout novel, lighter skin toned, model white beauty,