The Bluest Eye Novel Essay

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The Blue Eyes as a Symbol in Toni Marrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
Unlike other books on the subject of racism that were published at the time of Toni Marrison, Marrison’s “The Bluest Eye” is exceptional because of the manner in which it addresses the persistent effects of racism, mainly self-hatred, instead of the most apparent problems of isolation. In this book, the black people are infatuated with the idea of what the white represents. Being that this book highlights the problems of racism and segregation, the main theme is superiority of the white people and the author employs a number of symbols to illustrate his point. One of these symbols used by Toni Marrison is the blue eyes. In the book, the characters are obsessed with the blue eyes and what it represents. As such, this paper seeks to analyze the symbol of blue eyes as used by the author in the book. The analysis shall focus on how the symbol functions to illustrate the theme of superiority and what it reveals about the characters’ perceptions and beliefs.
To begin, the main concept demonstrated in this book is superiority. The symbols the author uses are intended to exemplify the dominance of the white population over the black. This dominance is brought out in terms of perfection and beauty. According to Marrison, “life has objects that are the standards of beauty or perfection” (Marrison 30). In this regard, he uses the blue eyes to represent perfection and beauty.

To Pacola, the blue eyes symbolize happiness and beauty that she only links to the white people. In fact, she is blinded by the beauty represented by the blue eyes and does not see herself as beautiful. The author illustrates this when he says “Thrown, in this way…she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people (Marrison 21). This way, the author demonstrates how Pecola lacks the confidence to ignore what other people think. As such, she sees herself as ugly and miserable since she lacks the blue eyes. Also, Pecola believes that those who have the blue eyes are the happiest people in the world and also the most beautiful in the world while on the other hand; those that do not have the blue eyes are miserable and sad. This is evident when the author says “It had occurred to Pecola that if her eyes were different, she would have been different” (Marrison 19). Here, the author tries to show us what Pecola thinks of the blue eyes. She deems herself as ugly since she does not have the blue eyes and because of this, she desires to have the blue eyes to be beautiful and perfect as the white people.
Furthermore, the blue eyes represent the conventional persona that the Black community believes symbolizes perfection and physical beauty. Marrison uses these stereotypes to demonstrate how self-esteem of the Blacks has been corrupted and the attitudes they have towards themselves. In fact, the characters such as Pecola believes the white are beautiful, secure, privileged and empowered as opposed to the Black people who are vulnerable, ugly and underprivileged. This is evident when Marrison says “…they lived there because they were poor and black and because they believed they were ugly” (Marrison 1). These perceptions are also seen in black children who believe that dolls with blue eyes are beautiful and perfect. In fact, they treasure the blue-eyed dolls as evident when the author says, “…all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed doll was what every girl child treasured” (Marrison 39). In essence, the author tries to bring up the idea that the American culture idolizes the white and that the Black should desire whiteness. However, not all the characters show the same attitude towards the dolls. Claudia creates a strong revulsion for the blue-eyed dolls and their hypothetical “perfection.” Morrison employs the illustration of Shirley temple to differentiate Claudia’s perceptions from those of Frieda and Pecola when he says “Frieda and she had a conversation about how cute Shirley temple was…she couldn’t join them in adoration because she hated Shirley” (Marrison 35). In fact, Claudia destroys the dolls to show us that she does not care about what other people believe about beauty and perfection; she destroys the bodily symbols of perfection when she says “I did not know why I destroyed those dolls. But I did know that nobody ever asked me what I wanted for Christmas” (Marrison 10). In essence, there are contrasting attitudes among the Blacks; there are those that idolize the white, such as Pecola, and those that believe that they are beautiful as they are and do not care what other people think about beauty and perfection, such as Claudia.
Lastly, we can also welcome the idea that blue eyes symbolize sadness. In the end, the blue eyes symbolize Pecola’s ignorance, sadness and the indulgence of her sanity because of her fascination with the need to obtain blue eyes. In essence, blue eyes could perhaps mean the saddest eyes considering how Pecola’s fascination with beauty and perfection has caused her depression as evidenced when Frieda says “During all of her four years of going to school, she was depressed by words and her obsession” (Marrison 41); the reason being that she did not have her desired blue eyes. Also, because of her belief of not being beautiful since she lacks the blue eyes, she is isolated and completely alone as evidenced when the author says “But singular as Pecola’s life was, I believed some aspects of her woundability were as a result of this” (Marrison 3) which means that Pecola’s ignorance and perceptions makes her vulnerable and is the cause of her isolation. The isolation ultimately leads to her depression and sadness which supports the idea that blue eyes is a symbol of sadness. The disappointment of not having the blue eyes is seen in the end when she asks “are my eyes blue enough?” (Marrison 65) suggesting that she does not still believe that she has no blue eyes. Thus, blue eyes do not only symbolize beauty and perfection but also a symbol of sadness seen in Pecola towards the end.
In conclusion, Marrison uses this symbol to illustrate the point that it is used efficiently to influence people. He wants the audience to know and understand that individuals may develop inappropriate and corrupt conception leading to the idea of perfection being completely erased. In fact, these conceptions make most people lose their sanity and want to be like the white people. Essentially, the timing of this book speaks a lot about the ideas manifested by the author. The book was written at the time when racism was at the peak in the society and this explains why most Black people viewed the white people as superior, beautiful and perfect beings. However, the character of Claudia demonstrates and symbolizes the few rebels during this time that did not embrace these ideas and saw themselves as equal human beings as the whites. As such, Marrion’s book mirrors the contrasting attitudes the Black people had towards themselves and the white people.
Work cited
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Random House, 1999. Print