The Bluest Eye: Migration Morrison depicts much of African American culture when he places characters in an urban area. The change of environment from north to south plays a key role in the loss of community ties. African Americans are extremely affected by the fact that they are displaced and are attempting to conform to Northern cultural standards. The emphasis in the north is on material wealth and beauty, while the south is more family oriented. Migration may have displaced many people, but it offers job opportunities and economic gains. Pauline and Cholly were migrants from small rural towns. After he married, Cholly suggested moving "'up north... where the steel mills were crying out for workers" (92). The wave of industrial workers created a strong working class, allowing African Americans to purchase homes. The open labor market made property ownership possible for many African Americans. New wages and job opportunities have improved the quality of life for new residents. Purchasing power has taken on significance in the African American home and love is replaced by material objects. Love is replaced by giving, and gifts must conform to white ideals. Claudia experiences this phenomenon at Christmas when she receives a "big blue-eyed doll" (19). Claudia reflects on how she felt about the doll when she states, "I had only one desire: to dismember her. To see what she was made of, to discover the sweetness, to find the beauty" (20). In Susan Willis's critical essay "I Buy Therefore I Am" she discusses the reasoning behind Claudia's anger towards the doll. After receiving the doll, Claudia's main goal is to discover the roots of white domination. The only…paper…middle-level citizens in white America, as they were brought as slaves. The enslavement of African Americans by whites severed all cultural ties and dehumanized the slaves. The teachers convinced African Americans that they were incapable of cultivating the culture to create a paternal relationship. The loss of identity forced slaves to act as their masters saw fit. The migration of African Americans to the North corresponded to this concept: they must conform to the standards of the white culture that they are trained to obey. Identifying with your culture in a new environment is difficult, because conformity is essential to adapting to white society. Migration from the South to the North changed African American values ​​from community to commodity, destroying cultural ties. Works Cited: Morrison, Toni. The bluest eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.