Existentialism, the Beloved and the Bluest Eye Toni Morrison has written several novels, many of which show the influence of existentialist thought ; however, Beloved and The Bluest Eye strongly illustrate all the major existential themes. Beloved is a novel about a woman, Sethe, who escapes slavery with her children. She is haunted both physically and psychologically by her experience, as evidenced by the scars on her back from a severe beating, and the scars on her mind from the horrific treatment she suffered. A few weeks after her escape, Sethe's owner hunted her down to claim her as his property. Out of fear of capture, Sethe decided that death would be better for her children than slavery. She killed her second to last child before she was stopped. Beloved is the story of Sethe and how she must live with the consequences of her terrible and necessary decision to kill her little girl. The Bluest Eye is an equally disturbing novel. It's the story of Pecola, an ugly little black girl trying to grow up in rural Ohio in the 1940s. She is despised by white society because she is ugly, black, and feminine, and because she is the antithesis of everything that white Western culture idolizes: white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. In a disastrous parallel, Pecola is also despised by black society: the society whose support she desperately needs to counteract white negativity towards her. Instead of receiving that life-giving support, Pecola is considered an ugly, passive and pitiful girl. Her mother, herself twisted by the ideals of white society, loves a white, blonde little girl who she cares for more than her own daughter. His father loved him so much that he was... middle of paper... son." Michigan: GaleResearch Inc., 1994. 215-273. Eiermann, Katharena. "Themes of Existentialism." [ http://members .aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/Existentialism/extheme.html]. 1996. March 16, 1997."Existentialism" [http://www.sound.net/~melingl/existme.html] (March 16, 1997) Morrison, Toni. New York, New York: Plume, 1988.--- York, New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1994. Steiner, Wendy. “The Clearest Eye.” Stone, Joanna and eloquent." America OnLine [http://the-tech.mit.edu/V112/N22/morrison.22a.html]. Online March 6, 1997. Trosky, Susan, M., ed.., 1994. 319-328