Shirley Temple in the Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison represents the American ideal girl and a representation of the stigma related to not being white in a society. In one way or another all of the characters in the Bluest Eyes are obsessed with beauty and defining what beauty is to them. The blue eyes closely tie to Shirley temple and baby dolls and their representation of a hierarchy of race. “Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another—physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought.
The Struggle for Society’s Acceptance Be careful what you wish for. In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, a young colored girl named Pecola and her race are rejected by their community based on their physical appearance. The belief of Pecola’s time label black people ugly and different. To be beautiful, it is mandatory that one posses pale skin, yellow hair, and blue eyes. Brainwashed by society’s standards and demeaned by the white race, the black population struggles to fit the stereotypical image of perfection.
We also like the idea that "blue" can refer to sadness. When Pecola believes she has acquired blue eyes at the end of the novel, we might understand her as actually having the saddest eyes of anyone in the novel. The title has at least two meanings, referring both to Pecola's desire to change the way she is seen and the way sees Let's deal with the easy one first. As a black child growing up in1940s America, Pecola associates beauty with being white and having blue eyes, like child icon Shirley Temple. Pecola seems to be OK with her nose and mouth, even her hair – but her eyes, oh, her eyes!
When she moves to St. Louis and sees her mother for the first time, she is struck by her mother’s beauty. She thinks her mother is too beautiful to have children, and that is the reason why her mother sent her away. Marguerite thinks she is a “Black ugly girl”, at the same time, she is a girl full of imagination. She imagines once she puts her dream Easter dress on she will be a sweet little white girl with long and blond hair. She also imagines the conflict between her grandmother and the white dentist Dr. Lincoln after he said he would rather stick his hand in a dog’s mouth than treat Marguerite’s problem.
Aibileen works for Elizabeth, so Aibileen has to take care of her daughter, Mae Mobley. Aibileen and Mae Mobley have a different relationship than other babies she has taken care of. It is a different relationship because Aibileen has a seed of bitterness planted inside her after Treelore, her son, died. In an article by Jackie Crosby, it mentions the love Aibileen had for her babies, “There's Aibileen, the wise and gentle soul whose heart breaks every time one of the white babies she loves so much grows up to ‘become just like they mama’” (Crosby). So she teaches Mae Mobley something she has never taught any of her other children because she wants to avoid Mae Mobley turning out like her mother, Elizabeth.
Also, her mother does not like patty for who she is and just wants her to be exactly like her. Another example is, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. A girl like your age looking like you do”(75). As Patty hears this from her mother, Patty starts to have an internal conflict. She let’s her emotions get the best of her and feels anger and shame.
The author showed the extreme detachment Pecola has from society, caused by racial and life hardships. She associated having blue eyes like Shirley Temple, as beautiful. She felt that by being beautiful all of her problems would be solved. Pecola witnessed her drunken father and mother fight often, “She struggled between an overwhelming desire that one would kill the other, and a profound wish
In the novel, The Bluest Eyes, by Toni Morrison, there are a lot of different issues that arise. The one thing that stood out the most to me was the sort of racism that goes both ways, throughout the book. Toni Morrison brings out the racism from the 1950’s and shows that "It is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes" Pecola, driven to want blue eyes by her observations that is is those with blue who receive and thus "deserve" love, eventually loses her mind after she experiences repeated violence at home, at school, and on the street. These violences are all rooted in racism. Pecola begins to believe the lie of racism: that to be black is to be "ugly," undeserving, and unloved.
She writes about the five categories of “difficult mothers” listed below: I. The Angry Mother II. The controlling Mother III. The Narcissistic Mother IV. The Envious Mother V. The Emotionally Unavailable Mother Many people complain about there so called “impossible mother” thinking that because their mother is not perfect the automatic alternative is that she’s difficult, but there is no such thing as a perfect mother.
Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.” (122) “The big, the special, the loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll…. [A]ll the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured.” (19-20) “We stare at her, … wanting to poke the arrogance out of her eyes and smash the pride of ownership that curls her chewing mouth. When she comes