Toni Morrison’s debut novel The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, tells the story of a young African American girl by the name of Pecola Breedlove, who wishes for blue eyes. Set in Lorain, Ohio, during the Great Depression, the book relies on flashbacks of a number of different characters to skilfully narrate the story of Pecola’s search for the bluest eyes, and in doing so explores many a theme related to the African American experience.
The story begins with temporary foster child Pecola arriving at the MacTeer residence, to live with Claudia and Frieda when her father burns their house down. Pecola is a poor, quiet girl who is constantly reminded of her lack of beauty – which makes her wish for blue eyes.
The flashbacks in the story delve in to the early years of Pecola’s parents, Cholly and Pauline, and their experiences in being Black in a predominantly White community. The narrators change from chapter to chapter, giving the story a mix of perspectives as it shines light on different facets of the African American experience.
Opening her foreword to the novel, Morrison writes that her interest was in exploring the voiceless and the invisible of those who are “hated for things… [for which they] have no control over and cannot change” – children. (ix-x)
The main text of the class readings that I will use to interpret the novel is Black Skin, White Masks, written by Frantz Fanon. Fanon’s anti colonialist writing perceptively reaches in to the heart of racism against blacks, to find rationality in the racism directed towards them. The descendent of slaves, born to a middle-class family in France, Fanon was educated and trained to be a psychiatrist. He was a student of Aimé Césaire and was inspired by his teacher, though he was critical of some of Césaire’s viewpoints.
Fanon opens with his aim to discuss the plight of Black men in society, but he is quite clear that his analysis is not one universally applicable. Instead his aim is to explore how both White and Black people are dehumanized in postcolonial societies. Applying his training as a psychiatrist, Fanon analyses this dehumanization through the psychology of all those affected in a postcolonial society.
“The white man is sealed in his whiteness. The black man in his blackness”, writes Fanon, referring to the unchangeable nature of one’s race. Fanon’s viewpoint is while the skin colour itself cannot be changed as race in itself is not a shortcoming, rather it is the racism associated with the colour of one’s skin that locks both Blacks and Whites in their respective categories. He sees the White attitude of superiority over the Blacks, and the constant need for Blacks to prove their worth in the face of this negative gaze, and prove the Whites wrong as part of the problem. Fanon believes that this dynamic racially marks both Whites and Blacks, with Blacks accepting their inferiority under White superiority.
Similar views are echoed in another reading connected with the material discussed in class, Kamala Visweswaran’s book Un/Common Cultures: Racism and Rearticulation of Cultural Difference explores in a number of interlinked essays what race should be defined as. While exploring ideas presented by both physical and cultural anthropologists through the ages as they grappled to formulate what race boils down to, Visweswaran writes, “culture became everything race was not and race was seen to be what culture was not: given unchangeable biology.”
Fanon elaborates on the dehumanization of the Black people, writing that their reduction to a “nonbeing” in the face of racism desire to be white. Therein lies the central tenet of Black Face, White Masks; Whites define themselves by dehumanizing Blacks and therefore fail to remain fully human themselves, while Blacks continually attempt to resist this hegemony by proving their worth. In showing the Marxist bent in his analysis, Fanon sees these beliefs of both Blacks and Whites are fed in through the economic circumstances. As Blacks aren’t as well off as Whites in racist societies, the message from these circumstances affect both Black and Whites at a psychological level, affecting how they see themselves.
Moving on to Chapter 5: The Fact of Blackness, Fanon himself stresses the importance of the chapter in his introduction. As he writes in the introduction, the chapter is reckoning of the Black man against those of his own race. Fanon introduces the reader to his idea of racialization of the Black man and his acquiescence to the idea that are imposed on him. As the encounter this idea of White superiority, Black men begin to believe this idea leading to feelings of inferiority as a race.
Following through his introduction, Fanon writes that Blacks are so pervaded with these feelings of inferiority in racist societies that they see themselves as representations of their race rather than of individuals in themselves. He writes of a triple existence, aided by “historicity”. He writes of his desire to be “nothing but a man” and seen as such, instead of being categorised in view of race.
“I was responsible at the same time for my body, for my race, for my ancestors. I subjected myself to an objective examination, I discovered my blackness, my ethnic characteristics…”
Fanon contends that the idea of Blackness is “immanent” and Blacks need to see themselves for who they are in themselves as opposed to what they are not, in comparison with Whites. Then and only then can they transcend beyond the duality of either being White or non-white, and thereby come to live and see themselves as individuals rather than an expression of race living a triple existence.
The author explores the psychological pressure of being perceived a certain way and having a different reality, and the dissonance caused by these contrasts. Albeit that Fanon’s central focus is the gulf between Black and White, he approaches this with the idea of individualism and collectivism. The greatest desire of the Black man is to be perceived as the person they are, rather than having to speak for the whole of his race.
In addition to Fanon’s work, I would also like to connect the work of Houria Bouteldja Whites, Jews and US to this essay. Reading her work this semester had a profound impact on me as her derisive anti colonialist critical analysis of the Left in her controversial book was an eye opener that challenged my beliefs and altered my perspective. I would like to focus on the Chapter of her book We, Indigenous Women.
Bouteldja introduces us to the idea of the White Prince Charming that is sold to women of colour by the media, reinforcing the idea that the culture of the coloniser is superior to the one of their own.
“It told us how detestable our families were and how desirable French society was” she writes, elaborating on how these depictions encourage women of colour to turn their backs on the very women of their kind in the name of feminism. She writes of the two patriarchies that affect women of colour, the self-assured “white patriarchy” and the “indigenous patriarchy” which itself is dominated by the Whites. Caught in the midst of the two, women of colour face extreme hardship as they try to navigate through the demands of both systems of oppression.
She refers to the “white mask” indigenous men slip on to fit in as they see themselves as inferior to White men, just as what Fanon wrote about. Referring to the indigenous patriarchy Bouteldja is convinced that she prefers the ugliness inherent in it, over indigenous men pretending to don a white mask as they believe themselves to be inferior to the White coloniser. Appealing to her sisters, Bouteldja states that it is the dehumanization of the indigenous people that is problematic over masculine domination. Therefore, White feminism in itself is not an answer to the problems of indigenous women – rather it enforced the hegemony of white superiority in place that also affects men of colour.
While being victims of racism does not in turn excuse committing crimes, or inflicting pain on another human being, Bouteldja’s perspective could add a layer of clarity as to why men of colour feel and act the way they do against women of their own communities. In calling for the dismantling of systemic racism, she writes that masculine violence directed towards indigenous women need to be tackled at the core – that is by attacking structures that perpetuate racism.
I believe Bouteldja’s perspective is significant to the understanding of The Bluest Eye as it links up the thoughts expressed by Fanon with the dominant feminist dialogue prevalent in the current climate. It is also vital to have these in mind when analysing the book as the characters who are mainly faced with hardship that Toni Morrison chooses to fix her gaze upon are the African American females rather than the males. Despite the horrific sexual assault Cholly inflicts on his daughter Pecola, he too is a victim of racism.
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The Black power movement developed in the United states in the 1960s, and it was the backdrop as Morrison worked on her novel The Bluest Eye. It was the time of change for the African Americans of the country, who demanded to be free of racial oppression. The well-known revolutionary Black Panther Party for Self-Defense came to being in 1966 in this climate, where armed African Americans attempted to monitor the police brutality affecting their community. In addition to this vigilante work of keeping police officers in check, the party also organized free breakfast programs and health clinics in aid of the Black populace that needed support in their communities. (Delli Carpini, 2000)
It was during this time of radical change in the US that the “Black is Beautiful” movement was born. Though the exact moment of origin of the movement in the 1960s remains uncertain, it sprang up due to the prevalent climate in the country at the time. The movement sought to change beauty standards that excluded the traditional Black features, and transform the self-image African Americans had of themselves. The Eurocentric beauty standards of light skin, straight light hair and light eyes aren’t typically present in a Black person – yet they too idealized these standards and in doing so came to view themselves as ugly for the lack of such features.
“The black pride cultural movement rejected straightened hair and suits and ties in favour of more “natural,” more authentic styles of self-presentation. This appeal to authenticity, to expressing the body’s “natural” state, affirmed black people’s racial beauty” (Camp, 2015)
Perhaps the most jarring demonstration of this internalized idea of inferiority with regard to racial beauty is in the results of famous social experiments conducted in the 1940s by Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie K. Phipps Clark. In its website, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) details the tests, that were constructed to study “the psychological effects of segregation on African American children” which came to be known as the “Doll Tests”.
The psychologists handed dolls that only differed to each other in colour to young children (ages 3-7) and asked them which ones they preferred. A large portion of the test subjects preferred the white dolls over the coloured doll, reasoning that a white doll had positive connotations to it. The black dolls meanwhile were associated with “ugliness, dirt and meanness” (Camp, 2015). Some of the Black respondents even distanced themselves from the skin colour of the black dolls, while others saw themselves reflected in the “ugly” dolls and thought themselves bad and ugly too. Observing the reaction of the Black children who saw themselves as inferior to white children, the psychologists concluded that segregation “damaged human personality”. (Camp, 2015)
The results of this research were instrumental in changing the course of American history. The findings of the “Doll Tests” were used in court by the NAACP to overturn legal segregation in 1954.
“The Court majority opinion cited social science research that drew a connection between segregation and the development of the human personality as measured by, among other things, individual feelings and thoughts about physical beauty.” (Camp, 2015)
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The Bluest Eye explores several themes in narrating the story of its passive and somewhat mysterious protagonist, Pecola Breedlove. As Morrison writes in her foreword, she had to invent other characters to tell Pecola’s story as she is a “narrative void”. The novel sprang out of inspiration the author had with a classmate in her childhood. She writes that her classmate told Morrison of her desire for blue eyes which caused immediate repulsion in the authors mind. However, Morrison recognized that her classmate’s desire was a call for sympathy which she fakes for the benefit of her friend, but makes her angry instead.
The encounter left such an impression on the author and ignited questions on what it means to be beautiful and the reasoning and biases that prompted her friend to utter such a statement. Morrison states that this desire for blue eyes was a result of “implicit racial self-loathing” and questions how a child would have learned to hate her race and her features to aspire to be a “freak” over herself. Inspired by the political climate of the 1960s when she was penning the novel, the author attempts to analyse the gaze that doomed her.
To explore this concept, she creates a character who she imagines to be the most vulnerable to these thoughts and ideas perpetuated by the wider society – a Black, passive, female child from a family that did nothing to protect her from the world. In making Pecola such an extreme representation, Morrison writes that she hoped to address aspects that affect the lives of all young girls. Nevertheless, when she set out in her journey in narrating Pecola’s story, she actively attempts to avoid dehumanizing the characters that put Pecola down throughout the entirety of the novel.
There are several themes that are explored in the book, but perhaps that stands out is the White standard of beauty that is front and centre of the story. From the title The Bluest Eye, the novel establishes the prevalent white ideal beauty standards.
As Claudia MacTeer narrates with the example of the dolls that are handed to Black girls as Christmas gifts – “always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll”- young African American girls are expected to love these dolls. The adults around the girl exclaim what a thing of beauty the doll is, while young Claudia does not see the same appeal in the cold doll. She tells of her desire to dismember the toy, as the beauty all other older women saw in the doll eludes the narrator.
Furthermore, the idealization of Shirley Temple’s beauty is repeated throughout the book. Pecola and Claudia’s older sister Frieda discuss Shirley Temple’s features and how “cu-ute” she was, and look at Claudia strangely when she doesn’t find the character as appealing as the two of them do.
Yet another symbol of white beauty that is present in the book is the new girl at school, Maureen Peal. The whole school finds the blue eyed, brown haired little white beauty enchanting – the teachers speak to her encouragingly and the boys are polite to her, white girls were delighted to be partnered up with her for school work and “black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls’ toilet”. The adoration and awe everyone in the school feels for the new girl is yet another representation of how white beauty is lauded. If you were white, you were beautiful, and if you were beautiful you were privileged.
In her description of Maureen, Claudia refers to the girl as “rich [at least by our standards]”. Her statement is precisely what Fanon describes in his book Black Face, White Masks, when he writes that the hegemonic structure in racist societies are fed in through economic circumstances. As I stated earlier in this essay, Fanon believed that these circumstances affected both in reinforcing the inferiority of Blacks and superiority of Whites at a psychological level.
I believe Claudia represents the Black psyche as yet untouched by the racial self-loathing Morrison refers to, and possibly could be the personification of the author herself at the age where she encountered the classmate who desired blue eyes. Her desire to dismember and mutilate the doll that is revisited throughout the novel is the symbol through which the author attacks the racist beauty standards set by society. In a moment of self-reflection Claudia says that she hadn’t reached the point in her development that would allow her to love Shirley Temple, but felt a great hatred towards her beauty instead. In allowing this poignant reflection, the author suggests that it is only a matter of time before Claudia too changes her preferences and begins to idealize white standards of beauty.
Perhaps the most distressing and extreme example of the idealization of white beauty is portrayed through the attitude Pauline Breedlove carries and displays towards her daughter Pecola. From birth, she thinks of Pecola as an ugly child.
“…I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly.” (126)
Nowhere is the disparity between Pauline’s attitude towards the beautiful white and the ugly black displayed as in the scene where Pecola visits her mother at her place of work – “the big white house by the lake” – and there accidentally drops a pan of freshly baked berry cobbler. The hot cobbler splashes on Pecola, hurting her and causing her pain and she is harshly rebuked and immediately punished by Pauline. In contrast, when the little white girl who lives in the house appears distressed at the sound and the mess in the kitchen, Mrs. Breedlove comforts her addressing her as “baby. Morrison skilfully articulates the importance of the image by referring to the crying child as “the little pink-and-yellow girl”.
In keeping with her original intention as to not dehumanize her characters, even as they dehumanize Pecola, we as readers are given a glimpse in to the attitudes of the Breedloves’ to understand why they act the way they do.
“You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.”
The implicit racial self-loathing Morrison refers to in her foreword of the book are rampant throughout the character narratives in the book.
Another recurrent theme in the novel is the idea of sight and perception. Pecola’s wish for blue eyes is borne out of a need to live in a kinder world, where she is seen by others for who she is as a person, rather than as an ugly black girl. She hopes if her wish is granted, by virtue of having blue eyes she would be beautiful enough that others would not commit ugly acts in front of her as they do. In making Pecola wish for blue eyes rather than white skin, Morrison also skilfully conveys the idea that her character Pecola wants to see the world in a different light as much as she wants it to perceive and treat her differently.
“Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. …she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people.” (46-47)
The only way Pecola is granted her implicit wish of being seen differently is ironically by blinding herself, as she does with her loss of mind by the end of the novel. She finally sees herself beautiful as she believes she has the bluest eyes signifying she can only find her own beauty at the cost of truly being able to view her own environment.
I believe this of perception vs being perceived by the world theme Morrison explores in her book relates back to Fanon’s idea of racialization of black bodies which in turn dehumanizes both Blacks and Whites. A clear instance of the young African American girl being overlooked is when she visits Mr. Yakobowski’s store to buy Mary Janes. As the storeowner encounters her counter, he looks towards her, however failing to see her. Morrison eloquently describes the interaction, with no dramatization of the incident which makes it all the more powerful in the simplicity of a day to day contact.
“At some fixed point in time and space he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see.” (48)
Through the symbolism of the desiring blue eyes, receiving them, and then perceiving herself and the world around her, the protagonist goes through the full cycle of initially being a self-doubting, inferior, racialized subject to a superior person, confident of their own beauty. The tragedy remains in the fact that the only way she can see herself as beautiful is at the cost of her sanity.
Originally published 15.10.2019