The Bluest Eye Racial Discrimination Essay

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The novel The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, is well known in the literary community for its well-written, touching prose and the way Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, who is “relentlessly and aggressively ugly,” and is also poor, she and her family “festering together” in the storefront of an abandoned building (Morrison 38, 34). One of the most important parts of the novel, although it touches on many serious and pertinent topics such as molestation and sexuality, is racism. More specifically, one of the most noticeable aspects of the novel is the way almost every character racializes and oppresses a young girl named Pecola. Not just the white characters treat her this way, however, the African American characters, whom …show more content…

Further, the “preconceptions” that are discussed by Parker in his definition, are constructed by society and are in fact, based on ideologies which Stoddart says “reflect the interests” of the most powerful members of society (Stoddart 192). Understanding the fact that there are those who are most powerful in society and those who are least powerful, is understanding the hegemonic structure that exists. Hegemony practically mandates that each person has a specific spot in the hierarchical structure that is formed and therefore the popularized notion is that those who are higher in the hierarchy are also better than the others, thus bringing back the concept of oppression. Parker said “power relations produce racial difference” (Parker 318). While racial difference becomes prominent due to hegemonic hierarchy, the differences between those who are racially the same becomes prominent as well, causing intraracial

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