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Dante Robinson
Lit 303
Essay 2
16 October 2012
Racial Identity in The Bluest Eye
The existence of multi-ethnic literature, in itself, says something about ethnicity.
It invites the reader to question the difference between multi-ethnic literature and other
literature, and whether the separation is voluntary, or a product of history. Perhaps, multiethnic literature is an attempt to regain a sense of culture, or at least educate the world on
that culture, whichever culture it may be. Assuming that this is correct, Toni Morrison’s
The Bluest Eye stands to educate on African American culture in 1941. According to
Morrison’s representation, African Americans, at this point in time, suffered from an
extreme sense of worthlessness. This sense of worthlessness is seen throughout the novel
particularly through the many times an African American is depicted idolizing or striving
for white culture, and black people wielding racism against other black people.
The social inferiority of African Americans depicted in the novel provides no
argument against many characters’ desire to be like those who were holding all of the
power. Many black characters in the story idolize white culture and strive to achieve it.
Geraldine, for example, is described in such opposition to any of the black characters,
though she is black (Morrison 82-85). The reader is forced to identify her with the
luxurious lifestyle of white culture depicted in the story. This is then embedded in her
son. “He…tried to get kids to stick around as long as possible. White kids; his mother did
not like him to play with niggers” (Morrison 86-87) Geraldine is trying to instill in her
son the same desire to be white from which she suffers. She cannot find worth in her own
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race, and strives to imitate the more powerful race. This idea is also captured when
Pecola bids Soaphead Church to give her blue eyes. “Here was an ugly little 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). This observation encapsulates the African
American lack of self-worth and its ensuing events earn the novel its title. The blue eyes
represent the white culture, and Pecola desperately desires it, as she is unsatisfied with
her own culture.
Blacks did not only suffer racism at the hands of white people. The novel depicts
a lot of intra-racial racism. This poses the very serious implication of racism towards
one’s own race as a reflection of self-loathing. This is depicted, again, through Geraldine
and her hatred for Pecola. Under the impression that Pecola has killed her cat, she says,
“Get out…You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (Morrison 92). Geraldine
could have used any number of insults, but it is very important that the core of the
comment is towards Pecola’s ‘blackness.’ Not only does Geraldine idolize whit culture,
but she has also grown to hate black culture and what it represents -- worthlessness. This
intra-racial racism is further displayed when a group of boys harasses Pecola in the
schoolyard. They, like Geraldine, make Pecola’s race the focal point of their hatred.
Claudia narrates, “It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult
its teeth” (Morrison 65). The boys find no goodness in their own culture, and so their
hatred towards it becomes a weapon that they use against others.
Throughout the novel, most interactions between whites and blacks are governed
by racism. At the time, white people had social superiority over black people. The
dominating difference in class would serve to legitimize the idea that the African
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Americans had no positive sense of self. The reader may be able to relate to a time they
felt oppressed, and began to allow such oppression to consume them. This is exactly the
case that Morrison is portraying in The Bluest Eye. The African American culture
becomes used to being treated as inferior, and so they begin to believe it. They begin to
lose self-worth, hating others who are like themselves, and striving to become the
oppressor.