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Dante Robinson
Lit 303
Essay 2
16 October 2012
Damaged Racial Identity in The Bluest Eye
The existence of multi-ethnic literature invites the reader to question whether its
separation from other literature is voluntary, or a product of history. Perhaps, multi-ethnic
literature is an attempt to regain a sense of a particular culture, or at least educate the
world on that culture. Assuming that this notion is correct, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest
Eye stands to educate about African American culture in 1941. According to Morrison’s
representation, African Americans suffered from an extreme sense of worthlessness. This
sense of worthlessness plagues the African American race; it causes many blacks to
idolize or strive for white culture, thereby promoting a self-hatred that leads to black
people wielding racism against other black people.
The social inferiority inflicted upon African Americans in the novel provides no
argument against many characters’ desire to be like those who held 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,
even though she is black. The reader is forced to identify her with the luxurious lifestyle
of white culture depicted in the story. This lifestyle is then embedded in her son, as the
novel states, “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
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worth in her own 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… This [wish] seemed to him the
most poignant and the one most deserving of fulfillment. 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, but they also
suffered from a significant amount 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 white 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.
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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 serves to legitimize the idea that the African Americans
had no positive sense of self. Readers may be able to relate to a time they felt oppressed,
and began to allow such oppression to consume them. This is the exact 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 they are inferior. They begin to lose
self-worth, hating others who are like themselves, and consequently strive to become the
oppressor.
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Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage Books, 2007. Print