Beauty In The Bluest Eye

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"The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman, the most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman." Said by Malcom X. Pecola Breedlove a young African American girl living in the 1940s longs to feel beautiful. Especially in a time where because of her skin color she’s defined as “ugly”. Pecola lives in a world that inflicts black on black racism like a second language. Pecola lives a life filled with disappointment, abuse, poverty, and self-hatred. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison demonstrates the devastating effects that the media has on African American dark skinned females. The media gratifies being light skinned over dark skin through Mrs. Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove The power of the media has a great influence on how people think, what they do, and say. The media supports the popular opinion that light …show more content…
Breedlove is the epitome of self-hatred. She thinks that she herself is ugly, which makes her cold and heartless. She idolized Jean Harlow because of her “white beauty”. “I fixed my hair up like I’d seen hers on a magazine. A part on the side, with one little curl on my forehead. It looked just like her. Well, almost just like. Anyway, I sat in that show with my hair done up that way and had a good time,” Pauline Says. Instead of dwelling on her own beauty she dwells on someone else’s, someone who she feels is better than her. Pauline’s obsession with white beauty ultimately leads her to imagine the ideal child as she is pregnant with her second child Pecola. Pauline recalls saying “I’d love it no matter what it looked like”, “But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly.” When Pecola was in the womb her mother pictured her beautiful which she defines as “white”, but her ideal child is unattainable and eventually altered her view of her own child. Pauline’s sense of ugliness is now passed down to
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