Essay Example on Toni Morrison's Novels: Examining Race & Gender Issues in America

Over the years, the concepts of race and gender have shaped the lives of people globally. In America, the topic of race and gender is controversial. Specifically, Native Africans and African Americans have gone through victimization because of their race. Besides that, gender debates, particularly regarding women, have been at the forefront. Literature, for example, has been a significant tool and change agent, which addresses the extent of the topics of race and gender. In Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, she explores the issue of female identity race and gender. The female Bildungsroman looks into the dynamics of growing up black and a female in a society that associates beauty with being blue-eyed. The protagonist Pecola Breedlove internalized white beauty standards because of society's trivializing approaches. Using the story of Pecola, Morrisson explained the way this internalization results in self-destruction and racial self-loathing. In the afterword, she writes that demonization of an entire race revolves around a child and the female gender. She explores her narrative by examining the social and domestic aggression that causes self-destruction and self-loathing. Despite that, Morrison felt that her strategies failed to work because readers were not moved. After exploring Pecola's narrative of fragmentation, it is agreeable that Morrison's assessments are viable. The reason is that this fragmentation and the concept of white beauty results in the emergence of intra-racial discrimination, self-loathing, and degradation of self-identity. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the dynamics of Morrison's evaluations on Pecola's narrative of fragmentation. Morrison's assessments are affable since the demonization of race scars children and females severely.

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Pecola's narrative of fragmentation results in intra-racial discrimination. In the Afterword of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison explained her aim for writing the novel. She makes the reader know the damage internalized racism can do to the most vulnerable member of the community, a young girl. She decides to tell her story from multiple perspectives to protect Pecola from the weight of the novel's inquest. Based on the novel, Pecola is a young female African-American girl that failed to have the chance to grow normally like her peers because of the extreme poverty as well as domestic and sexual abuse she endured at home (5). She seeks a fostering and loving relationship in an adult world of white and assimilationist outlooks but all she finds is rejection and desolation because of her racial, gender, and social status. Pecola's feelings reflect on what Morrison describes as the demonization of race, which affects the most vulnerable, a young female. Pecola's rejection silences and destroys her childhood innocence by forcing her into the harsh realities of the adult world. Pecola's father sexually abused and impregnated her. In the novel, Morrison indicated, but so deeply concerned were we with the health and safe delivery of Pecola's baby we could think of nothing but our magic: if we planted the seeds, and said the right words over them, they would blossom, and everything would be all right (5). This shows that Morrison's assessment of race from various adults demonstrates that for a young black female, the path towards adulthood might be great or treacherous depending on the way she was yielded from childhood is the way they will grow. In American society, it is notable that white beauty and standard hegemony has resulted in intra-racial discrimination. Morrison shows how white beauty has triggered a backlash and racial problems in American society. Also, in his text, Morrison represents African-Americans as people who suffer from the vacuum that white people are superior to them. Pecola wanted to have blue eyes because, in her mind, people would view her differently. Undoubtedly, African-Americans have internalized the white beauty ideal and distanced themselves from their fellow African-Americans.

Pecola's narrative of fragmentation results in self-loathing. Morrison stated that the Breedloves lived in a storefront because they believed they were ugly (34). This shows that the Breedloves internalized self-hatred. Morrison's assessment that the entire race can be demonized and the most affected are the young female children is factual. Morrison provides various examples of the way a young female can begin to hate herself because of her blackness. For example, in the text, Claudia revolted against white beauty. She stated, I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead, he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels (19). More to the point, Morrison talked about the unyielding earth in her novel (5). She mentioned that since Pecola's father dropped the seed of blackness on earth, nothing remains but Pecola and the unyielding earth. From Morrison's perspective, once a young African-American girl is born, hope disappears and as she grows up, she is filled with fear and grief due to race and gender issues that society has socially constructed. Furthermore, in the text, Morrison indicated, Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs - all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. 'Here,' they said, 'this is beautiful, and if you are on this day "worthy" you may have it (20). This quote reflects upon the idea that when a young female child without blue eyes sees the dolls in the shops and magazines they become envious of white beauty. Eventually, self-hatred begins to build up in a young African-American girl. The issue of gender also arises in that quote since women's culture does promote identification of whiteness.

Pecola's narrative of fragmentation leads to the emergence of degradation of self-identity. In the novel, Morrison talked about social and domestic aggregation that causes a child to fall apart. Growing up, Pecola lived in an abusive household (5). His father was an alcoholic and a violent man. Besides that, he sexually abused Pecola and even impregnated her (5). These events support Morrison's assessment that social aggregations can make a child's heart to fall apart. Pecola felt unwanted because of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse she received from her home. The people who surrounded her were not welcoming either and this made Pecola have self-esteem issues. Morrison described a situation where Geraldine went to Pecola's house to pick her cat and saw her situation. Morrison indicated, hair uncombed, dresses falling apart, shoes untied, and caked with dirt. They had stared at her with great uncomprehending eyes. Eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything. Unblinking and unabashed, they stared up at her. The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in between (94). This scenario is an evident case of the degradation of self-identity. In a poverty identity context, children often have a limited self-view. Furthermore, according to Morrison, young girls grew up unfamiliar with griddles while boys knew how to flip the bills of their caps (92). This shows society views males and females. In Pecola's house, the living conditions were substandard and offered little opportunity for her to venture on her journey towards self-identity. Particularly, her mother was emotionally abusive. In the novel, Morrison stated that Pecola's mother was harsh and referred to her as a Black bitch (94). Undoubtedly, such words would derail a young child's self-esteem. In the novel, Morrison affirmed that Pecola is a representation of the black community's self-hatred since she believes that she is ugly. The people who surround her including the community, her mother, father, and Geraldine, act out their self-hatred by hating her. At the end of the novel, Morrison asserted that Pecola has been victimized by the entire community. Seemingly, Pecola's ugliness made people around her to feel beautiful, her misery made them feel fortunate, and her silence allowed them to pick on her. Pecola lives in a fantasy world and all she wishes for is the blue eyes. According to her, if she gets the blue eyes, her wishes would come true and people would begin to look at her differently. Towards the end of the novel, she believes that her wish has been granted, which makes her lose her mind (206). Based on the novel, Pecola is the classic definition of a damaged girl. Her wish to have blue eyes was at the expense of her sanity.

Conclusion

Overall, The Bluest Eye, which sheds light on the devastation caused by white-cultural domination in the lives of African-Americans is remarkable. This paper scrutinizes Morrison's narrative of the demonization of race and gender by looking into Pecola's and her feelings of intra-racial discrimination, self-loathing, and degradation of self-identity. The novel provides the insight that a young person, especially a female's physical and social environments can affect their nature and potential for being successful in the world. Based on the text, it is fathomable that the falsehood of body beauty together with gender and race discourse destroyed Pecola's journey to self-identity. The issues of race and gender are still rampant in American society today. Many African-American families live in poverty and due to that, they grow up feeling the need to have blue eyes and in the process, fail to have self-identity. Morrison's novel gives readers, especially African-Americans, to critique their lives. Readers should be touched and also moved by Morrison's texts and descriptions about Pecola to eliminate gender stratification and racism in the contemporary world.

Work Cited

Morrison, Toni. "The Bluest Eye." 1970. Accessible at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=bGl2ZXJwb29sLmsxMi5ueS51c3xyZWFkbGluZ2VuZ2xpc2h8Z3g6YmE4MDgwMThkM2QzNDc5