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Whiteness as a standard of beauty in the Bluest Eye

            Whiteness as pure and ethereal symbol plays a very large role in The Bluest Eye. Whiteness as a standard of beauty creates devastating internal racism. People who cannot feel beautiful as they are usually tend to be depressed and have no sense of their worth as a human being. Morrison clearly portrays whiteness as a standard of beauty for the characters in her novel, while the outlier is Claudia MacTeer who constantly subverts this idea.
             Toni Morrison's portrayal of whiteness as the standard of beauty is readily apparent throughout The Bluest Eye. Many of the characters in the novel are described in a physical manner that emphasizes their "unattractive" African American features. Hair that is "un-straightened" is looked at negatively. A broad and flat nose, as opposed to long and thin, reflects ugliness. Morrison constantly shows that all characters but Claudia are prone to this destructive way of thinking. While describing Claudia and Frieda, Mr. Henry compares them to beautiful white celebrities of the time. While there were black movie stars at the time, he chose to use white women to depict beauty. Maureen Peal, the arch-enemy of Claudia, is regarded as an angelic little white girl. She is described with great detail by Morrison.
             The disrupter of seasons was a new girl in school named Maureen Peal. A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back .She enchanted the entire school. When teachers called on her, they smiled encouragingly. Black boys didn't trip her in the halls; white boys didn't stone her, white girls didn't suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their work partners; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls' toilet, and their eyes genuflected under sliding lids. She never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria--they flocked to the table of her choice- (62-3).
            
            
            
            
            


Essays Related to Whiteness as a standard of beauty in the Bluest Eye

1. The Bluest Eye

The ideas and views present in The Bluest Eye are related to beauty and what makes one beautiful. ... In the opening of The Bluest Eye, the passage from the Dick and Jane story, becomes a representation of an ideal white person's life. ... The cup that bears Shirley Temple's image is blue and white, symbolizing the eye and skin color of the idealized white society. By drawing this connection, Morrison fixes the American standard of beauty with connotations of violence and genocide, because these skin and eye colors, on dolls and little girls, were also symbols of the Aryan ideal of ...

  • Word Count: 1152
  • Approx Pages: 5

2. Beauty and Ugly..The Major Patterns in the Bluest Eye

Beauty and Ugly: The Major Patterns in The Bluest Eye " Smiling white face. ... In The Bluest Eye beauty/ugly constantly shows up through both internal thoughts and narration or spoken through conversations. ... By society's standards, Pecola is ugly. ... However, Pecola didn't meet the standard, she was ugly. ... (Morrison 11) The Bluest Eye is the story of a young girl so consumed with wanting to be noticed, wanting to be loved in a time and place that didn't want to do either, that she prays for the impossible..blue eyes. ...

  • Word Count: 1215
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Whitewashing is Beautiful - The Bluest Eye

Beauty plays a highly influential role through Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. ... Each character craves the desire for a trait that is withheld only within the conventional white- American standards of beauty; whether it is blue eyes, lighter skin, or straighter hair. ... Prioritizing white features as the standard for beauty proves itself as being a socially constructed ideal - something many people strive for, but cannot properly attain. ... In The Bluest Eye, Morrison refers to these traits of nature as "funk". ... The Bluest Eye examines the home life of these children in ...

  • Word Count: 940
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Bluest Eye

In the novel, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the evils inflicted upon blacks by a white society indoctrinated by the inherent beauty of whiteness and ugliness of blackness are thoroughly depicted. ... In an effort to be accepted by whites, and furthermore by her family, Pecola longs to conform to Western ideals of beauty presented by whites, especially white, blue-eyed movie stars like Shirley Temple. ... After this incident Pecola believes that if she is granted blue eyes she will be able to live up to white standards of beauty, and furthermore, be accepted in society by white people lik...

  • Word Count: 1667
  • Approx Pages: 7

5. The Bluest Eye Summary

In the Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses abuse and hardship to show the tragic consequences that come from racism. ... The Bluest Eye shows ways in which white beauty standards hurt the lives of black girls and women. ... The characters in the Bluest Eye are faced both directly and indirectly by racism. ... Claudia doesn't see beauty in the white doll or in white people but she does in her culture. ... Toni Morrison shows us what racism produces in the Bluest Eye. ...

  • Word Count: 971
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Analysis of the The Bluest Eyes

The Bluest eye is the sadden tale of a young black girl in a black community. ... 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. ... Moreover, the theme of rejection is as important and represented in the novel as of the theme of the white standard of beauty. ... She was confronted by prejudice on a daily basis, both classism and racism, and for the first time, the white standard of beau...

  • Word Count: 2499
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography

7. Bluest Eye

The Eyes of Society In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the central theme is society's negative influence on the individual. ... She is no longer satisfied with herself and becomes consumed with the idea of beauty. ... In The Bluest Eye, Claudia MacTeer provides a child's point of view-sometimes from an adult perspective while an omniscient voice relates information unknown by Claudia, like Pecola's thoughts. ... For example, the name of the novel, The Bluest Eye, is meant to get the reader thinking about how the desire for blue eyes dominated society and rui...

  • Word Count: 1724
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The Bluest eye

The Bluest Eye 1. The Bluest Eye is the title of the book. ... She was still thinking about this conversation in the 1960s, when the Black is Beautiful movement worked to reclaim African-American beauty. 2. ... This quote explains how Claudia received a doll and everyone thought it was beautiful because it was white, blue-eyed, and blonde, "Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window sign - all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. 5. ... I do agree with Toni Morrison because the theme "Whiteness as t...

  • Word Count: 879
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Black is Beautiful - The Works of Toni Morrison

In the novel "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, Morrison provides an interpretation of how whiteness is the standard of beauty, which warps the lives of black women and children, through messages everywhere that whiteness is superior and beautiful. ... "The Bluest Eye" has many elements that relate to Toni Morrison's own personal life. ... Through "The Bluest Eye", Morrison makes a statement about how vulnerable a young black girl, such as herself, is as she is exposed to this implied white beauty and superiority and racism. ... Like she was buying shoes" (Mo...

  • Word Count: 1083
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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