Rushjeet Singh
Prof Curseen
Eng 3450
04/03/2015
The Bluest Eye
Throughout the world, there have been many books that have been written that deal with the issue of racism, but a few have discussed the subject of self-hatred that frequently came along with it. Self-hatred manifested itself into human society as a consequence and left a negative impact on many African Americans. Almost all of the black characters in the novel The Bluest Eye by the author Toni Morrison have been consumed with the notion that lighter skin is true beauty. Anything that contradicts or questions this self-imposed standard is clearly wrong and the true definition of ugly. This self-imposed standard has gotten so out of hand within the novel that the African American residents of Lorain start to ridicule each other by calling the other members of their own race ugly because of their dark skin complexion. This fact in the book portrays how discrimination had successfully produced such a negative impact on a race who have been mistreated for hundreds of years. Perhaps the unjust system of racism instilled this self-hatred within numerous African Americans, but whatever the case may be, one thing remains relatively valid which is this animosity is verbally violent to the individual being targeted. This novel depicts violence as not just a physical thing, but rather a negative verbal mechanism that separates people of the same racial background while simultaneously murdering their self-identity.
The most interesting aspect of the novel is that the author does not utilize or focus on any historical events that deals with the system of racism. Neither does the novel emphasize the way blacks were discriminated against by whites in the early 20th century. The novel concentrates on another crucial element that rarely gets discussed in the world of literature which is self-loathing. In the novel, the Breedlove family are considered ugly by societal norms. In describing the Breedloves, the young narrator, Claudia remarks that, “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; … was as though some mysterious and all-knowing master had given each one of them a cloak of ugliness to wear and they had each accepted it without question” (Morrison 39). According to Claudia, the Breedlove family had already conformed to the narrow minded thinking of the society around them. From this quote, a reader can acknowledge where their ugliness comes from and how being mistreated for years perpetuated this internal feeling and inevitably led to the acceptance of their self-hatred. This quote highlights the theme of verbal and emotional violence in a discrete manner. The cloak of ugliness pertains to their dark skin. The Breedlove’s wear their dark skin on a daily basis and to them it represented inferiority. That is why it’s not surprising to discover why the protagonist Pecola possesses the overwhelming desire to obtain blue eyes. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago 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” (Morrison 18). By having blue eyes, Pecola believes she can be different from all the other black folks of her town because that would make her appear White and less ugly. This quote is significant because she thinks that by possessing blue eyes all of her problems would disappear instantaneously, but that is not the case in reality. Desiring blue eyes indicates her perspective of beauty and what it means to her, but sadly it is something she could never acquire in her lifetime. It also demonstrates the notion that she is not content with her self-image and frankly would rather be white entirely because it is considered beautiful. This is internalized violence at its best and this is much worse than physical violence itself. The reason why this is the case it is because with internalized violence the enemy is yourself and not another person so it’s not easily avoidable. This fact makes internalized violence much more difficult to deal with and solve as an issue. Pecola knows she can never have those blue eyes, but she still insists of getting them even though it’s genetically impossible. Pecola never truly learned to love herself because she is not content with her self-image and sadly this is a common occurrence with internalized violence.
Another incident where self-hate among African Americans appears in the novel is when Pauline is seen idolizing the White actors on television. She attempts to change her physical appearance similar to the actress Jean Harlow. Pauline states, “I fixed my hair up like I’d seen hers on a magazine. A part on the side, with one little curl on my forehead. It looked just like her” (Morrison 123). However, her attempts to significantly change her appearance does not last for an extensive amount of time and it stops when one of her teeth breaks when consuming candy. This tooth is symbolic in nature and the meaning of it can only be fully comprehended when a reader perceives it from an analytical perspective. The breaking of her tooth represents the eradication of her dreams of becoming beautiful under her society standards which may explain why she stops trying to become beautiful after this incident. Pauline starts to accept her ugliness because just like Pecola she does not think anything can be done to fix this inner struggle. When she loses this white tooth, it shows that she has lost all of her chances to appear more beautiful because her teeth and her eyes are the only light things about her. When the tooth leaves her body, a dark space replaces her tooth, thus signifying the emptiness she feels as a black woman. This ugliness soon causes frustration for Pauline and soon takes it out on her daughter Pecola who is darker than ash itself. Pecola is treated like filth by her mother Pauline. Her daughter represents everything she does not want to be which may explain why Pauline treats the white daughter of her client better than her own flesh and blood. The novel states, “Over her shoulder she spit out words to us like rotten pieces of apple…but the honey in her words complemented the sundown spilling on the lake” (Morrison 109). What is even worse than this is that when Pauline is asked by the White girl who the black girl is she refused to answer. This scene is very significant because this indicated that Pauline disregarded her daughters’ existence and portrays the idea that she hates being associated with blacks and her own kind, thus showing violence to oneself and proves violence is not just a physical mechanism. For a parent to disregard their own child in that manner, says a lot about a person and it probably dehumanized Pecola. Incidents such as this one often lowers the self-esteem of a person and make them feel less loved which in turn can make matters worse if that person is already experiencing self-loathing.
The third time self-hate among African Americans appears in the novel is when Pecola enters Junior’s house. When they are both finally inside, an altercation erupts, and the fight tragically ends the cat’s life. This cat was very significant to Junior’s mother, Geraldine and she adored it more than her own son which alone speaks great volumes. The cat is described in the novel as, “black all over, deep silky black, and his eyes, pointing down toward his nose, were bluish” (Morrison 90). The cat and Pecola immediately establish a close connection and Junior dislikes this connection so much because he was anticipating a different outcome. The cat is thrown and it dies suddenly on impact which was the worst thing that could have happened because Geraldine enters the scene after this altercation. Geraldine is shocked to see her cat dead and out of frustration, she tells Pecola, “You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (Morrison 92). This statement by Geraldine is very significant because she is African American herself and it reveals her hate towards a specific group of people she is a part of. This incident may explain the reason why she kept telling her son there is a difference between colored people and niggers. Geraldine states, “They were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud” (Morrison 87). Geraldine does not think of Pecola as a classy colored person, but rather a nigger (“a nasty little black bitch”) who does not belong in her house. This is verbal violence at its finest and it really makes Pecola think less of herself and it shows that she has become a victim of society over matters she has no control over. Self-hate is prevalent in this scene because even though Geraldine is black, she treats Pecola like she is something totally different which proves the idea that the separation between light and dark skin African Americans exists.
Self-hate is a theme that keeps on reoccurring to indicate its overall importance in the novel. This self-hate perpetuated from the many years blacks were treated in an inferior manner and started to believe whites are superior. This belief may explain why many black characters in the novel were trying to become white like and instead of appreciating who they are, they tried to disregard their ethnic background by replacing it with something they thought was better. The black characters in the book all wished they could alter their appearance in order to change their circumstances. These three incidents were chosen for specifically one reason which was to show that physical violence was not the biggest factor affecting all these characters. It was an internal conflict that made these characters acted the way they did. Even though other types of violence were present in the novel, that does not mean each form of violence impacted the characters in a significant way. It is evident that self-hate is a common element that repeats to show a topic in literature that rarely gets discussed and its significance as a whole.
Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage International, 2007. Print.