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Bluest eye by toni morrison essay author introduction
Themes on Toni Morrison's the bluest eye
Bluest eye by toni morrison essay author introduction
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At a time when blue-eyed, pale skin Shirley Temple is idolized by white and black alike,
eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove desperately seeks out beauty for herself. In order to attain
beauty in her culture, Pecola must do the impossible: find white beauty. Toni Morrison shows
the disastrous effects that colorism and racism can have on a whole culture and how African-
Americans will tear each other apart in order to fit into the graces of white society. The desire to
be considered beautiful in the white world is so compelling, that the characters in The Bluest Eye
loathe their own skin color and feel shame for their culture. These feelings of self-loathing and
contempt pass on from the adults to their children, creating a continuous cycle of negativity and
self-hate.
“Here was an ugly little black girl asking for beauty…A little black girl who wanted to
rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes” (Morrison, 174). By
petitioning for white beauty, Pecola Breedlove is desperately attempting to pull herself out of the
pit of blackness. Because Pecola has dark-skin and authentic African-American features, black
and white society has conditioned her to believe that she is ugly. Pecola.s physical features
ensure her to be a victim of classical racism; classical racism being the notion that the “physical
ugliness of blackness is a sign of a deeper ugliness and depravity” (Taylor, 16). This notion
allows the mistreatment of dark-skinned people because their blackness is a link to a “dark past”
and to uncivilized ways. Pecola does not epitomize white society.s standards of beauty because
she does not have light skin and trademark blue eyes; therefore, she must be ugly and ba...
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...Melus: 19.4 (1994): 109-127. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO.
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Lobodziec, Agnieszka. “Theological Models of Black Middle-Class Performance in Toni
Morrison.s Novels.” Black Theology: An International Journal 8.1 (2010): 32-52. Academic
Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 March 2014.
McKittrick, Katherine. “Black and „Cause I.m Black I.m Blue.: transverse racial geographies in
Toni Morrison.s The Bluest Eye.” Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist
Geography 7.2 (2000): 125. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 March 2014.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Penguin, 1970. Print.
Taylor, Paul C. “Malcom.s Conk and Danto.s Colors; or Four Logical Petitions Concerning
Race, Beauty, and Aesthetics.” Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 57.1 (2000): 16-20.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 March 2014.
The University of Georgia’s theatre adaptation of the penny dreadful story, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was very similar, design wise, to Tim Burton’s 2007 film of the same name. While the two were very comparable, they did differ in many design elements which include, lighting, costumes, color, and key structural set-ups.
Levertov took part a large movement to help the country’s state. “On a small scale, the decade of the
...e strikers. As opposed to picking a neighbor they had known all their lives, under vigilant parental eyes, ladies were a tease on the picket lines or the shop floor.
The second stage of Pecola coming to think of herself as ugly simply compounds on the fact that she has no backup when her friends tell her that she is ugly and isn't worth a damn.
Ponijao was from Namibia. His Namibian community was very close knit. They lived in the desert, and the women in the community sat around most of the day breastfeeding, doing each other’s hair, talking, and taking care of each other’s children. The babies in the tribe spent most of their time outside interacting with nature. They played with anything they could find, ranging from sticks to rocks
In the beginning of her speech, the actress explains that she was struck by a letter from a fan, who wrote about her contemplation on purchasing skin bleaching cream; until Nyongo “appeared on the world map” and saved her (Butler 3). In Maxine Leeds Craig’s book Aint I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race, she explains that depictions of strong willed women “usually presented in a sympathetic light” are limiting in the entertainment industr...
Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye provides social commentary on a lesser known portion of black society in America. The protagonist Pecola is a young black girl who desperately wants to feel beautiful and gain the “bluest eyes” as the title references.
The most damaging interracial confrontation related to color involves Pecola and an adult, Geraldine (Samuels 12). When Pecola enters Geraldine's home at the invitation of her son, Geraldine forces her to leave with words that hurt deeply, saying "Get out... You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house" (92).
Racism within the black community is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. In the black community, African-Americans are discriminating against each other, putting those with lighter skin complexions against those whose skin is darker. In the African American community, it’s like a battle of the skin tones. This type of racism is also known as colorism, the belief that those with lighter, fairer skin are treated with a higher respect than those with darker skin, this issue has been happening for a long time within the African American community. This form of racism is more offensive, severe, and different than the common traditional racism.
Over the past few years, a debate has emerged on whether or not the United States of America should provide free college education for its citizens. This topic is very controversial; however, the issues that some people see in free higher education actually have solutions, and the benefits of free college clearly outweigh its risks.
Smoking has become a big epidemic in the United States. As a tobacco free person, I want to be able to breathe clean air anywhere I go. As we know, smoking can harm every organ in the body (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). I believe that smoking should be banned in public places such as drinking establishments, hospitals, buses, train stations, and restaurants. Not only does smoking affect the individual smoker, it also causes a number of health problems, increases death rate, and it affects not only the lives, but the health of other people around them. On the contrary, smoking should be banned in public areas for these reasons.
... “Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It causes serious illness among an estimated 8.6 million persons, it costs $167 billion in annual health-related losses, and it kills approximately 438 000 people each year. (n1, n2) Worldwide, smoking kills nearly 5 million people annually. If current trends continue, this number will double by 2030, and smoking will kill more than 1 billion people during this century” (Frieden and DE). Therefore, banning smoking in public places can reduce at least some of these problems and would enable people to live in a healthier way.
“Americans spend $80 billion on cigarettes per year.”, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If we were to ban smoking in public, then people would not have as much time to smoke because most people’s daily live is too busy. This would reduce how many cigarettes they smoke each day, which will then lower the cost smokers spend each year on cigarettes. If people would stop spending money on cigarettes, then they could save that money and put it towards something positive, like a vacation, paying off a debt, or just treating yourself to a nice dinner once a week. Cigarettes do nothing but harm people and do not deserve Americans money that they worked hard
Some may argue that bans infringe on smoker 's right. There is no right to smoke. A person 's rights end when it infringes on another 's rights.
“…..Nearly half the adult population regularly performs a bizarre act which is necessary neither for the maintenance of life nor for the satisfaction of social, sexual, cultural, or spiritual needs; an act which is acknowledged, even by its adherents, to be harmful to health and even distasteful” (Aston and Stepney 1982: VII). Regarding the above statement a vast majority of anti-smoking campaigners believe that the restriction on smoking in public locations should be increased and effective actions should be taken by governments in order to reduce the consumption of tobacco. On the other hand, addicted smokers consider smoking prohibition as interference in their civil freedom. Though they argue that they have the right to smoke whenever and wherever they want; governments consider passive smoking’s threats as a major priority to deal with. This essay will discuss the policies taken by governments to decrease or even stop smoking among the public. Moreover, it will present smoker’s arguments regarding their right to smoke in public places.