Social Issues in Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye :: Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye  Social Issues   With The Bluest Eye, Morrison has not only created a story, but also a series of painfully accurate impressions. As Dee puts it to read the book...is to ache for remedy (20). But Morrison raises painful issues while at the same time managing to reveal the hope and encouragement infra the surface. A reader might easily conclude that the most prominent social issue presented in The Bluest Eye is that of racism, but more important issues lie beneath the surface. Pecola experiences damage from her abusive and negligent parents. The reader is told that even Pecolas mother thought she was ugly from the time of birth. Pecolas negativity may have initially been caused by her familys visitation to provide her with identity, love, security, and socialization, ail which are essential for any childs development (Samuels 13). Pecolas parents are able only to give her a childhood of limited possibilities. She struggles to find herself in infertile soil, leading to the analysis of a life of sterility (13). Like the marigolds planted that year, Pecola never grew. The concept of physical appearance as a uprightness is the center of the social problems portrayed in the novel. Thus the novel unfolds with the most logical responses to this overpowering impression of watcher acceptance, adjustment, and rejection (Samuels 10). Through Pecola Breedlove, Morrison presents reactions to the worth of physical criteria. The beauty standard that Pecola feels she must live up to causes her to have an identity crisis. Societys standard has no place for Pecola, unlike her high yellow dream child classmate, Maureen Peals, who fits the work out (Morrison 62). Maureens influence in the novel is important. She enchanted the entire school... black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls toilet... She never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria--they flocked to the table of her choice (62-63). In contrast, Peco las classmates insult her black skin by chanting Black e mo Black e mo Ya protoactinium sleeps nekked/ stch ta ta stch ta ta (65). The most damaging interracial confrontation related to color involves Pecola and an adult, Geraldine (Samuels 12). When Pecola enters Geraldines home at the invitation of her son, Geraldine forces her to leave with words that excruciation deeply, saying Get out... You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house (92).