The novel by Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye shows how racial oppression has a devastating effect on African Americans through the image of madness. The main character was a victim of racism, and in an effort to conform to the ideals of the beauty of white people, she began to lose her mind gradually.
When talking about the insanity of the characters, it is worth distinguishing it as a medical diagnosis and as a voluntarily serving the author as a special psychological device to reveal the problem (Waters 98). The girl blamed her eyes, which did not conform to white people’s standards of beauty, for her inability to find freedom (Li 686). The occasional invocation of invisible forces marks the beginning of insanity when the girl has a manic desire for the love, approval, and admiration of others (Eaton et al. 28).
The family’s disadvantages, along with racial discrimination, led the main character, Pecola, to ask God to make her invisible: “Please, God,” she whispered into the palm of her hand. Please make me disappear.” (Morrison 45). Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she imagined her body gradually turning into nothingness. However, everything remained in place, and Pecola would return to reality (Suvin 72). From the beginning of the narrative, readers see that Pecola is in an imaginary world where beauty reigns and that this state makes her mad.
Thus, the loss of the girl’s sanity results from a high level of pressure from an intolerant society. The author portrays the heroine as a hostage to her appearance, preventing her from having the same rights and freedoms that are reserved for those with white skin. The girl does not find the inner strength to accept or challenge this injustice, so she begins to exist in an imaginary world.
Works Cited
Eaton, Alice Knox, et al. New Critical Essays on Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child : Race, Culture, and History. Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2020.
Li, Stephanie. “Reflections on Fifty Years of the Bluest Eye.” College Literature, vol. 47, no. 4, 2020, pp. 682–686. Web.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. 1970. London Vintage.
Suvin, Sujana. “Racial Conflicts in Tony Morrison’s the Bluest Eye: A Literary Analysis.” Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 11. 2020, pp. 553–559. Web.
Waters, Lauren. “Black Girlhood in the Bluest Eye.” Inquiry Queen’s Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings, vol. 16, 2022. Web.