The Appalling Tragedy: Sexuality, Beauty Standard, and Racism in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Abstract

Being about the tragic lives of African American black families who encounter traumatic circumstances, the novel The Bluest Eye especially focuses on the unbearable life of a little black girl, Pecola. The horrible atmosphere of the novel can be seen from the beginning pages. It is heart-wrenching to see from the beginning pages of the novel that a young girl is raped by her father; consequently, she is pregnant. Pecola is so severely affected by the traumatic events such as the racial discrimination, internalized ugliness as being black, whiteness as the accepted beauty standard, and sexual abuse by her father that in the end, she goes mad and hallucinates a dream friend seeing her blue eyes. As a child, she associates blackness with the burden of her life and she considers that having blue eyes would be the solution to all her sufferings. Moreover, other black male and female characters such as Frieda, Claudia, Cholly, Darleine, Paulina are affected by the racism, sexual abuse, beauty standard, discrimination, and humiliation in the society. They have an internalized belief of blackness and ugliness; for this reason, they believe they experience poverty and discrimination. The aim of this paper is to discuss the traumatic tragedy caused by beauty standards, sexual abuse, and racism.