scholarly journals A Du Boisian Reading of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 121-127
Author(s):  
Sediqeh Hosseiny ◽  
Ensieh Shabanirad
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black People ◽  
The Other ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
White People ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Black Characters ◽  
Different Types

Due to the color of their skins, Blacks were always subject to different types of disrespect and insecurity in their society. Among different groups of people, writers and critics knew it as their responsibility to act as Black people’s voice and talk on behalf of them, as these people were labeled as ‘The Other’ by the Whites. Du Bios created a kind of new trend of dealing with African-American culture by innovating the concept known as “double consciousness”, and arguing that these black people were trapped between dual personalities. As an American writer, Toni Morrison carried this specific burden upon her shoulders to reveal all those oppressions Blacks had to bear in their life, like what she depicted in the novel The Bluest Eyewith portrayal of the main black character Pecolla who is being blamed for the color of her skin. This article intends to elaborate some inherent postcolonial traces in Toni Morrison’s outstanding novel The Bluest Eye and examine how European power and white people were dominating the whole system of the society and what kind of regretful complications Blacks had to endure, and at the same time working on how Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness can be analyzed in black characters.

scholarly journals Hegemonic Domination of White over Black in “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Irfan Mehmood ◽  
Dr. Komal Ansari ◽  
Dr. M. K. Sangi
Keyword(s):  
Black Community ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
White Men ◽  
The Other ◽  
White People ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Safe Delivery ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Self Reliance

Every human being is beautiful with his own colour and appearance. No colour makes one beautiful but the white people of America have propagated the idea of white beauty as a tool of their politics to show themselves superior to the blacks. They focused on the colour because to be white for a black is unattainable as it is biological. They also tried to create self-hatred among the blacks by spreading the white ideology. They hegemonized the blacks to accept the concept of white beauty by using advertisements, media, actors and education. They also forced the blacks to be considered as ugly creating the least opportunities in the work places for the black community of America; alienating them from the society and torturing them both mentally and physically. As in The Bluest Eye, Pecola and her family are the worst victims of white men’s politics. Pecola together with her family members is both mentally and physically tortured and tormented to accept the white ideology. However, Pecola and her mother have accepted the white ideology and Pecola has mostly desired to get the bluest eye. On the other hand, Claudia resisted against the white men and their ideology. At the end, Pecola has accepted the baby of Cholly Breedlove as a token of love and self-reliance and both Claudia and Frieda wish to have the safe delivery of it. Therefore, in this article I would like to show that how the white men employed their evil intention of using the colour for dominating the blacks in America as a part of power politics, and also show black people’s reaction toward the white ideology with reference to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

scholarly journals The Influence of Social Contexts towards the Identity Development of the Main Character in The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Sofiani ◽  
Sabarti Akhadiah ◽  
Emzir Emzir
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black People ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
Data Validity ◽  
Blue Eyes

This research aimed to show how the social contexts influencing the main character of The Bluest Eye, Pecols’s identity development, and the stage of her identity development with the help of Erikson and Marcia’s theories. The research used qualitative research through the literary psychology approach. The data collection had been taken from the novel entitled The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, selected and sorted to find out how many among them were supporting the research. The steps were data analysis and data validity. The results show that social contexts greatly affected Pecola’s life, and therefore her identity cannot be developed.; racism, thus, has an influence on all aspects of the black people. Pecola undergoes multiple oppression and abuse as a result of racism, which leads to her self-loathe. She, thus, believes that having blue eyes is the only hope to escape from the suffering she undergoes. It is a warning of identity confusion since she wants to change her identity and becomes white. It pushes her to insanity. Racism and abuse ruin a person’s life by creating hatred and damaged to a person’s soul, and segregate society into groups. It results in the division of groups through the use of terms such as ‘them’ and ‘us’, implying that they are not equal.

scholarly journals Differend in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Mehdi Amiri
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
The Novel ◽  
White People ◽  
Bluest Eye

Through the process of passage of man's life, there are some conditions and situations wherein he remains silent and he cannot do anything in the response of others. A postmodern French thinker, Jean-François Lyotard articulates that man is forced to be silent in confronting to some situations and conditions. Lyotard states that man is incapable of representing and expressing his own inner emotions and thoughts in some conditions. This situation of unrepresentability and unanswerability is named differend by Lyotard. Due to Lyotard's differend, through reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the reader can notice that there are some conditions in which some characters are unable to represent and state their own feelings and ideas. In this sense, some black people or characters of the novel are surrounded by the conditions that they cannot utter themselves when they face others, especially white people. 

scholarly journals Quest for Identity in the novels of Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1183-1188
Author(s):  
Nehdeep Lakra, Et. al.
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Family Culture ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Search For Self

Identity is often described as finite and consists of separate and distinct parts such as; family, culture, personal relations and profession, to name a few. The formation of identity is an ever – evolving one wherein our genealogy, culture, loved ones, those we cared for, people who have harmed us and people we have harmed, our memories of the various phases of life, or the deeds done to oneself and to others, experiences lived and choices made, all come together to form who one is, at a given moment. The black Americans in the select novels are neglected even not to be considered as human beings, deprived of their rights. This article deals with the search for self as to who they truly are in the novel of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Identity is the uniqueness of a person and when it is lost, the person loses everything in his life.

COMMODITIES, OWNERSHIP, AND THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS: THE VALUE OF FEMININITY

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen Sattaur
Keyword(s):  
Moral Worth ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Commodity Culture ◽  
Recent Commentary ◽  
Female Condition ◽  
Different Types

In an 1867 treatise on diamonds and precious stones, Harry Emanuel writes the following: [I]n the process of cutting, flaws and imperfections are often laid bare, which go much deeper than the appearance of the rough diamond would predict; and, on the other hand, the colour, apparent in the rough stone, is sometimes found to arise from the presence of flaws or specks, which are removed in cutting, thus leaving the stone white. (70) From such a description, it is easy to see the parallel to the female condition, and particularly the female condition, as it is popularly portrayed in the mid-nineteenth century. With the emphasis on purity and hidden flaws, it is not difficult to understand why the diamond could hold such symbolic significance for the female wearer, by functioning as an indicator not only of personal wealth, but of moral worth. Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds (1871), a novel which can be said to revolve around this metaphor, is essentially a novel about worth: absolute vs. transitory worth, actual vs. symbolic worth, and especially monetary vs. moral worth. Lizzie's character, the legal issues surrounding the diamonds, and the convoluted marriage arrangements which are perpetuated by or affected by the presence of the diamonds are all, in one way or another, concerned with the different types of value – moral, symbolic, monetary, etc. – placed upon commodity objects: objects which, by their very nature, can never be permanently owned, as their value lies in their exchangeability. I will return later to a discussion of the diamonds themselves. There has been considerable recent commentary on the role of commodities – whatever their worth – and of commodity culture within Trollope's novel; such readings, however, concentrate on the purely symbolic role played by commodity objects – and primarily the diamonds – in the novel; it is worth, by contrast, examining how Trollope utilizes the discourses and associations of actual commodity objects as he deploys them within his fictional world. This paper will examine the ways in which Trollope uses four commodity objects in particular – books of poetry, hunting horses, the safe box, and finally, the Eustace diamonds themselves – and the contemporary discourses surrounding them to defend the essentially mercenary character of Lizzie as a woman shaped by the demands that a commodity-driven society places upon her.

scholarly journals SOCIETAL INCARCERATION OF THE MARGINALISED : AN ANALYSIS OF TONI MORRISONSA MERCY

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (07) ◽  
pp. 171-175
Author(s):  
Syed Kouser Jabeen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Extended Form ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social

Incarcerationpertains to the limitations imposed upon a particular person. Social imprisonment on the other hand does not require a particular place in order to confine an individual or a group of people. Their conformity then turns out to become an injected-hobby. This study intends to explore the paths which Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison highlighted in her era, because they contain an impressive contemporariness. The social incarceration of the marginalised lot, particularly the subaltern among them has been her major arcana. Through a keen examination of the novel A Mercy, the paper attempts to put forward the contemporary relevance of the issues addressed. The practice of slave-trade was a visible imprisonment of the marginalised, while the current society dealing with the aphasia of neo-colonialism is in itself an extended form of indirect detention. Slave trade acted as a synonym for flesh trade in relation to the marginalised women who have thus been troubled by double-incarceration. Psychoanalysis has been used as a scale of measurement in order to trace the inner captivities of the victims. It is apprehensible that Toni Morrison as a writer justified her position of being an ambassador of the marginalised women while possessing important concurrent connotations. The study provides an insightful glimpse into the hidden beastliness of the contemporary incarceration. Be it direct or indirect suppression, visible or invisible restraints, the current is the ugliest growth of a tumour. Thus, the deadly foreordination of the conceptualisations present in her texts have turned out to become a realistic modern day practice.

scholarly journals Construction of American Hunger in Richard Wright's Novel "Black Boy"

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Febrian Ramadhani Setiaji ◽  
Mohamad Ikhwan Rosyidi
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Binary Operation ◽  
Black People ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
White People ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Black Boy

This study aims at explaining the construction of American hunger in Richard Wright’s novel Black Boy. This study is a qualitative analysis that relies on the power of word or explanatory reasoning. The data were collected by reading, identifying, classifying and analyzed using the structualism theories which used in this study by relating to binary operation to see the gap between black and white society. The results of this study were the segregation between black and white people in terms of the treatment, power, and superiority that in the end, it  resulted that the black people are being treated different and has no right for freedom. The American Hunger is described in the novel through some events that go in the opposite between black and white people. The tention between them revealed from the different treatment, oppression, discrimination, superiority, and hunger that the black and white people or society experienced. The dominance and the power of the white people had harm the black people in some aspects in their life. Second, American Hunger that was described in the novel was regarded as the desire of the black people when they were living side by side with the white people in America. When the discrimination, segregation, and oppression occurs toward the black people, they satisfied their American hunger by standing agaisnt racial oppression, strengthen the superiority, and against the hunger.   Keywords: American hunger; construction; discrimination; structuralism

scholarly journals Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Bluest Eye: A Cultural Materialistic Approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
Mina Aghakhani Shahrezaee ◽  
Zahra Jannessari Ladani
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Black People ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Great Writer

This article aims to investigate two novels of Toni Morrison, Beloved and The Bluest Eye, by a cultural materialistic approach. Cultural materialists emphasize on the cultural aspects and elements of literary texts. They study issues such as race, gender, sexuality, social class, and slavery. In other words, they put under investigation the marginalized people of society, like black people, females, and slaves. In this regard, Toni Morrison is a great writer whose writings are replete with cultural issues. As most of the main characters of Toni Morrison's novels are black people, so it can be concluded that for her, marginalized people of society and minorities especially females, are at center. Therefore, in this paper, it is aimed to emphasize on cultural elements of Morrison's novels, Beloved and The Bluest Eye, and determine what stance she takes toward such minorities.

scholarly journals Ethnic Discrimination in The Bluest Eye

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Anisha Dahiya
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
The Novel ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Ethnic Stereotypes ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
Human Difference ◽  
Blue Eyes

Ethnicity is one of the most debatable topics in contemporary times. Human culture is divided along ethnic and national lines. Ethnicity and Race function as most powerful language of human difference and human community. An ethnic group that is dominant often tends to make its own culture specific traits normative in that society. The Bluest Eye is one of the landmark novels of Toni Morrison in which the markings of ethnicity play a great role. The aim of this paper is to explore the traces of ethnic discrimination of the African Americans at the hands of dominant White Americans in the novel The Bluest Eye.  It illustrates how ethnic stereotypes propagated by White Americans for their selfish purposes victimised the black people at that time. Particular emphasis is given on the psychological effects of the oppressive environment on the protagonist Pecola. Morrison portrays Pecola as a marginalized and oppressed character who yearns to have blue eyes to have a respectable position in the community.

scholarly journals White Oppression and Black Resistance in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
MHD Noor Al-Abbood
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American Music ◽  
The Novel ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Bluest Eye ◽  
African American Music ◽  
Dick And Jane ◽  
Black Resistance ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Beauty Myth

Many critical interpretations of Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are driven by the belief that the novel pessimistically depicts an African American community so helplessly captivated by an insidious white aesthetic ideology that it is incapable of resistance, self-regeneration, or change. Pointing out the flawed premises of these readings, this article argues that the novel presents rather an effective example of resistance to the dominant white ideology thematically and formally. Morrison’s deconstructive rewriting of the “Dick and Jane” primer effectively subverts the terms of the white oppressive discourse and demolishes its ideological foundations, thus paving the way for African American self-affirmation. This is reflected in Claudia’s increasing awareness of, and mounting rebellion against, the destructive white aesthetic. Her rejection of the white beauty myth, demonstrated by her confused early childhood’s destruction of white baby dolls, culminates in a more sophisticated perception of the operation of this myth and in a radical retrieval and re-affirmation of the black beauty and worth which the white beauty myth denies in order to legitimate itself and establish its hegemony. The article argues that the radical resistance to the dehumanizing white ideology Claudia develops is, like Morrison’s formal deconstructive project, quite indebted to African American music and, more crucially, to the rich heritage behind it. The article concludes by emphasizing that in the world depicted in The Bluest Eye possibilities of resistance and chances of survival are vitally dependent on the strength of one’s connection to African American culture and heritage, as the story of Claudia’s survival proves.

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