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VOL. 5, ISSUE 6 (2020)
The danger of beauty: Race and self-worth in The Bluest Eye
Authors
Dr. Seemant
Abstract
This paper examines
how Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye represents beauty as a racialised construct
that determines who is permitted to feel worthy of love, safety, and belonging.
Through close reading of Pecola Breedlove, Claudia MacTeer, Pauline Breedlove,
Cholly Breedlove, and Soaphead Church, the paper traces how whiteness-as-beauty
is manufactured through popular culture, transmitted across generations, and
internalised until it becomes indistinguishable from self-worth itself. Drawing
on Morrison’s dual narrative structure and seasonal framework, the analysis
argues that Pecola’s psychological destruction results not from an individual
flaw but from an accumulated social ideology enacted by nearly every character
she encounters. The paper concludes that Morrison’s refusal to grant Pecola
redemption constitutes the novel’s sharpest critique of a culture that assigns
humanity according to appearance.
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Pages:121-123
How to cite this article:
Dr. Seemant "The danger of beauty: Race and self-worth in The Bluest Eye". International Journal of Academic Research and Development, Vol 5, Issue 6, 2020, Pages 121-123
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