An Analysis of Racial Discrimination in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

1、透過托尼莫里森的最藍(lán)的眼睛看種族歧視an analysis of racial discrimination in toni morrisons the bluest eyeabstract: toni morrison is a uniquely distinguished contemporary novelist in the history of american literature of the 20th century. all her novels deal with african american characters and communities. exploring

2、the entire cycle of human life in a spiritual context, her novels have obtained universal significance. the brilliance of the bluest eye largely attributes to the embodiment of racial discrimination. by exploring and analyzing some episodes displaying racial discrimination in the novel, the writer i

3、ntents to reveal the internalized racism which leads to a psychological ill effect on the black and appeal for the equality of human identity and dignity.key words: racial discrimination; the bluest eye; the black; pecola 摘要：托尼莫里森是二十世紀(jì)美國文學(xué)史上倍受世人尊敬的當(dāng)代小說家。她的作品始終以探索和反映黑人的歷史，命運(yùn)和精神世界為主題。而其中的種族歧視現(xiàn)象在其作品最藍(lán)眼

4、睛中體現(xiàn)的尤為絕妙。作者通過探索和分析一些小說中展現(xiàn)種族歧視現(xiàn)象的片段，來揭示種族歧視的內(nèi)化問題在黑人心里上產(chǎn)生的不良影響并呼吁人類地位和尊嚴(yán)的平等。關(guān)鍵詞：種族歧視；最藍(lán)眼睛；黑人；皮克拉contentsi. introduction.1ii. a general review on racial discrimination against black americans.2iii. the bluest eyes synopsis and theme.3iv. racial discrimination in the bluest eye.4a. double consciousness

5、.4b. unfair treatment at school.5c. love lacking because of discrimination.6d. whiteness is beauty.6v. the internalization of racism.8vi. conclusion.9works cited.11i. introductiontoni morrison, whose novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, give life to an essential aspect of ameri

6、can reality, is the first black woman to be awarded the nobel prize for literature. born into a workers family in lorain, ohio, morrison was brought up in a black community where she imbibed much of the black cultural heritage. morrison grew up with a love of literature and received her undergraduat

7、e degree from howard university. she received a masters degree from cornell university, completing a thesis on william faulkner and virginia woolf. her fictions the bluest eye (1970), sula (1974), song of solomon(1977), tar baby (1981), beloved (1987), jazz (1992) and most recently, paradise (1998)

8、make her literary career marked with many honors, including the american academy and institute of arts and letters award, the pulitzer prize, and the robert f. kennedy award. nevertheless, the most important contribution morrison makes for american and world literature, is that she has fictionalized

9、 - thus culturally carved out - a territory in which black people are not marginal anomalies but a genuine human society. and this is clearly evidenced in her first novel, the bluest eye which presents a complicated portrayal of racism. the characters do experience direct oppression, but more routin

10、ely they are subject to an internalized set of values that creates its own cycle of victimization within families and the neighborhood includes cleanliness and denial of the bodys desires as a complicated kind of self-hatred. it won a pioneer position in the history of black american literature.toni

11、 morrison doesnt only apply herself to getting back their culture identity afro-american, but also tries to rebuild black culture which is built on history adaptation to modern american society in the novel. with unremitting endeavor, the bluest eye was chosen as a selection for oprahs book club in

12、2000. this dissertation aims to let the reader know more about the racial discrimination in the bluest eye, how it is generated, its effects on social life and shows how much the black have suffered psychologically in the white-dominated society and reflects the importance of the reconstruction of t

13、he culture and spirit of the black communityii. a general review on racial discrimination against black americans the term “racial discrimination” is discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race. (dictionary of contemporary 533) the policies of human rights of america have been

14、 depriving the black americans and other races human rights for such a long time in history. systematic disenfranchisement of african-americans took place in southern states from 1890 to 1908 and lasted until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s. for more than 60 years, for

15、example, the black were not able to elect a single person in the south to represent their interests in congress. from 1910 to 1970, african americans sought better lives by migrating north and west. invigorated by the victory of brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private

16、 citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation. they were faced with “massive resistance” in the south by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression. in defiance, african americans adopted a combined strategy of direct a

17、ction with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise to the african-american civil rights movement of 1955-1968. after the civil rights movement, black americans got some basic human rights such as the political rights. their economic situation got better. their struggle for hum

18、an rights has got some wonderful achievements. however, if measured by the persisting disparities in politics, economy and society between black and white americans since the early 1970s, the black americans do not enjoy the full equality of opportunity. on the contrary, the black americans are stil

19、l suffering deeply till now. the road of their struggle for “freedom, equality and happiness” is deemed to be long and tortuous. america boasts freedom and democracy. however, freedom and democracy are paradoxical. there has been full of racial discrimination in america. three factors, such as conce

20、ptions of american white, slavery and black consciousness, are mutual-influence so that racial conflicts are complex in america.as a matter of fact, after afro-american has been forced into america, their culture identity has been the focus of negroes. afro-american was marginalized in modern americ

21、an society. first of all, they have to take on bitter racial memory and suffer from negative effect of history-racism, segregation, social unjustness and so forth, and they are intimidated by being assimilated by mainstream culture; secondly, afro-american realized that they had lost their culture i

22、dentity and were confused before awakening of self-awareness for historical or cultural problems. iii. the bluest eyes synopsis and themethe bluest eye is a tragic story. in the story claudia and frieda macteer live in ohio with their parents. the macteer family takes two other people into their hom

23、e, mr. henry and pecola. pecola is an eleven-year-old black young girl with a hard life. her parents are constantly fighting, both physically and verbally. pecola is continually being told and reminded of what an “ugly” girl she is, thus fueling her desire to be a caucasian girl with blue eyes. each

24、 night she yearns for the blue eyes, white skin and blonde hair for no one has ever noticed her. with these not only everything will be different for her but also her parents will stop fighting, her father will stop drinking and she will be as beautiful and popular as the barbie doll. pecolas mother

25、, pauline only feels alive and happy when she is working for a rich white family. pecolas father, cholly, is a drunk who was left with his aunt when he was young and ran away to find his father, a black man wanted nothing to do with him. both pauline and cholly eventually lost the love they once had

26、 for one another. while pecola is doing dishes, her father rapes her. his motives are unclear and confusing, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. cholly flees after the second time he rapes pecola, leaving her pregnant. pecola descends into insanity and believes that she have a pair of blu

27、est eyes. the entire town of lorain turns against her, except claudia and frieda. in the end, pecolas child is born prematurely and dies. claudia and frieda give up the money they had been saving and plant flower seeds in hopes that if the flowers bloom, pecolas baby will live; the marigolds never b

28、loom.throughout the novel it is revealed that not only has pecola had a life full of hatred and hardships, but her parents have as well. by depicting the appalling story toni morrison intends to display the cause of pecolas tragedy that not only results from racism, but, more importantly, from the i

29、mpact of the prevailing cultural value of the white on the black. in the story toni morrison imprints the reader with pecolas sad fantasy for the white beauty, which expresses morrisons most intense criticism of a white standard of beauty that persecutes and destroys the black as a whole. it is evid

30、ent that morrisons objective is to make a profound study of the powerfully devastating effects of the white standard of beauty of the dominant culture on the black. morrison in the novel studies the psychological damage caused by institutional racism. this psychological damage is far more pernicious

31、 and destructive to the blacks mental health than the physical one. institutional racism, setting a norm of beauty for the society, humiliates the self-respect of all the characters by internalizing the mainstreams picture of them as insignificant, subordinate and ugly. the fact that images of white

32、 are beautiful and superior to the black is malicious. the white images signifying beauty are present everywhere while the black images embodying ugliness are absent. so the black girls can only be exposed to the white images and see few humble images of them. a good case in point is the white dolls

33、 that are only available to them, it is interesting to note that there are no black barbie dolls, for the dolls are not only toys for childs play, but are “the monster”, and worst of all, their “ideal” to pursue. the theme differentiates the bluest eye greatly from the black novels before 1960s in t

34、hat they focus upon either the economic poverty or political oppression that the black suffered, or the black peoples rebellion in the racial society.iv. racial discrimination in the bluest eye a. double consciousnessthe term “double consciousness” was coined by w. e. b. bois in 1903 to depict the b

35、lack peoples situation of inhabits society that degrades them and their culture. it is a situation that “ever feels an american, a negro; two souls, thoughts, two unrecognized strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body”. if the black have the interest of survival, they have to learn to think wit

36、h “two minds”: their own mind and the white mens. they have to be aware that how their actions and value of existence would be determined by the white culture. meanwhile, they generally have to retain a consciousness of the afro-american “communitys more positive definition of black identity”. the b

37、luest eye displays the damage done to the black child (pecola) when the dominant white culture erases all positive definitions of her value: her blackness, and her americanness. pecola is unaware of her value of existence as a black, a woman and an american; hence she is frequently torn by the choic

38、e of the blackness/ugliness and whiteness/beauty. deserted by her parents, pecola has no place to go but take shelter in the macteers home. however, being black, she is regarded by everyone as ugly, and only to be drawn towards the blue eyes of shirley temple. as a matter of fact, people of color ma

39、y be considered having permeated every fiber of the white society. this gruesome truth should be kept in mind forever and much concern should be shown for it. pecola can be thought of as the representative of any black child who has lost his or her blackness/identity and suffered from the damaging e

40、ffect of white standard of beauty in the dominant culture.b. unfair treatment at schoolthere is a notable scene in the bluest eye that pecola, acting as a victim, stands in a circle surrounded by school boys who humiliate her by making fun of her father and want her to absorb their own self-hatred.

41、a group of boys circle around her and scream, “black e mo. black a mo, yadaddy sleeps nekked” (the bluest eye 55), defensively ignoring the color of their own skins. it is out of their own hatred for themselves that they harass poor pecola. that they themselves are blacks and their own fathers have

42、similarly relaxed habits is irrelevant. they have issues with their own ugliness and blackness that force them to take it out on her. through the narrator claudia, morrison demonstrates that “it was their contempt for their won blackness that gave the first insult its teeth. they seemed to have take

43、n all of their exquisitely learned self-hatred, their elaborately designed hopelessness and sucked it all up into a fiery cone of scorn that had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds-cooled-and spilled over lips of outrage, consuming whatever was in its path” (the bluest eye 55). they might

44、feel that they arent so ugly or black if they torment pecola, for they think here is a girl that is uglier and blacker than they are. they are putting themselves in a position of superiority over her if they make fun of her. however, it is only an admittance of the insecurity that they have about th

45、eir own identities.pecola is the only member of her class at school who sits alone at a double desk. the teachers also ignore poor pecola in the classroom, giving their attention instead to maureen-a little high yellow dream child with long brown hair and sloe green eyes, because her features are li

46、ghter than the average black peoples prejudice when maureen bestows her favor on pecola, she inadvertently uncovers racial and insensitivity, as if her descending could set off her position. maureens kindness is transformed when she asks pecola if her father does sleep naked, a remark that emphasize

47、s the conditions of poverty that separate her from the blacks who do not live in spacious enough homes to ensure privacy. however, pecolas response is inertly passive towards the charge. she “tucks her head ina funny, sad, helpless movement” (peach 60) and seems to “fold into herself, like a pleated

48、 wing” (peach 61).c. love lacking because of discriminationpecolas painful alienation from her family begins with her mothers rejection of her at birth. she makes her daughter know how ugly she is and that she doesnt deserve love. if the mother thinks her own child is ugly, how can the daughter have

49、 a positive attitude to herself? the relationship between mother and daughter is so distant that pecola invariably thinks of her mother as “mrs.breedlove”, while the little white girl affectionately refers to pauline breedlove as “polly”. so pecola hopes for blue eyes because then her mother will lo

50、ve her. what she finds in the mirror means the white culture negates her: people around, including her own mother, like the light-skin girl rather than the dark-skin girl. just as this novel shows, pauline and pecola are the victims of both the sexist and racist oppression of white female beauty. th

51、e self-esteem of both them is totally destroyed by their and the black communitys acceptance of the standards of feminine beauty glamorized by the dominant white culture. they believe that the closer a woman is to anglo-saxon standards of beauty the more desirable she becomes. as the victims of the

52、sexist and racial oppression of anglo-saxon standard of female beauty, neither pauline and pecola voices a self-conscious protest against this condition because the focus of the morrisons criticism in her first novel is not the way in which black women should rebel against the prevailing social stan

53、dards of beauty, but is on the environment which makes them such women victims. the beauty standards these representations set up seep into the lives, communities and homes of black children through paraphernalia, consumer goods, the media and adult approval. the group press caused by these standard

54、s of feminine beauty influences both pauline and pecola deeply. 1t can be inferred that the black women are living at the bottom of the white dominant society.d. whiteness is beautyin this book whiteness stands for beauty. this is a standard that the black girls can not meet, especially pecola, who

55、has darker skin than the rest. pecola connects beauty with being loved and believes that if she would just have blue eyes all the bad things in her life would be replaced with love and affection. this desire that is obviously hopeless leads her to madness by the end of the novel.pecolas story is ess

56、entially her quest to find beauty. while she believes that the blue eyes of a white girl will make her beautiful, this view of beauty is not pecolas. her society has revered whiteness, so she begins to see that as the essence of beauty. finally, poor and helpless pecola turns for soaphead church, an

57、 old spiritualist for salvation and rebirth. soaphead church is a misanthrope, who comes from a mulatto west indian family dedicated to preserving and heightening its british blood, not only in terms of color but also in the culture it represents. the folk of ohio find his english awe-inspiring, his lack of funkiness amazing, and declare him super natural, a perception that causes his decision to become a “reader, adv