Topic > The Problem of Accepting Your Inner Beauty in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

Pecola was an eleven-year-old black girl who felt that being white was the true meaning of beauty for society and for herself. The title of this novel is "The Bluest Eye" written by Toni Morrison in African American literature. The focus of the novel, however, was on a young girl named Pecola Breedlove. And Pecola, as we are told in chapter 11, will be raped by her father towards the end of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe Beginning tells the story so the reader can learn about the tragic end of Pecola's story. The Loves of the Lineage were unhappy and poor. Their story seemed resolved in many ways, as they are often victims of events over which they have no control. Their situation was in huge contrast to that of the MacTeers, who were of little means but had a very strong family force. The MacTeers have never been truly passive victims in the way the Breedloves are in this novel. The use of descriptive imagery in this story is used in a similar way to that of Pecola which describes how both the media and the public admired women with "blue eyes, yellow hair and white skin" because they were the most beautiful and that it was the only way beauty was supposed to be seen as. Besides the fact that black women were used to promote beauty in the media as a white woman/girl might have been at the time, Shirley Temple was an example of the way beauty was portrayed in her time and made Pecola feel like if she wasn't considered beautiful. Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye was no different from other little girls at all. She wanted to be beautiful, and although America had already set the standards for being beautiful, a woman who had to have "blue eyes, blonde hair, and white skin" drove Pecola to nothing but madness because just when society couldn't accept a little bad figure. not even the black girl could do it, neither she nor those around her. Pecola wasn't like other children, she didn't get involved in any teasing, she was used to all the criticism she received because not only is she black but also "ugly". And come to think of it, Maureen Peal was there too. Who by the way is not white but has light skin which leads her to be accepted by everyone as if black boys don't trip her, white girls don't suck her teeth like they did with Pecola, white boys they would stone him, and the black girls would step aside every time he wanted to use the sink. None of the treatments Maureen had received from people had ever been given to Pecola and this is part of what Pecola was explaining because Maureen has lighter skin, she was seen as beautiful, she was given what Pecola wished she could have and happiness... Happiness, that's what she wanted, so that's why she believed that being white could give her, the privilege of having the slightest chance of not having to deal with what she has. She saw them smile and wanted it, Pecola wanted beauty and happiness. The physical appearance of one leads to a change in the psychological condition of another. “Some time ago it occurred to Pecola that if her eyes... had been different, that is, beautiful, she herself would have been different.” Voiced by Claudia MacTeer and was showing how Pecola felt strongly about being seen physically as "ugly" and didn't accept any of that, whether she or others criticized her for the way she was and this ties in very strongly towards my thesis about how Pecola felt she was only seen as an “ugly” little black girl,.