How do societal beauty standards in relation to race and socioeconomic class in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye affect the outlook of the main characters?
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The overall topic is certainly central to the novel, but I think the question as framed might not give you very much room to run. I think we need something a bit “weirder” in the sense that most readers will already have a ready answer to this question. One avenue might be to look at the alienated relationsship to beauty on the part of the more securely middle-class and/or light-skinned characters in the novel (e.g., Geraldine or Soaphead Church). What is TM getting at by emphasizing these fissures within the Black community?
Would a good question be how do societal beauty standards combined with class affect the sections of the black community in different ways in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye?
Would a good question be how do societal beauty standards combined with class affect the sections of the black community in different ways in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye?
I like it. I do think the combination of race/class/color in this way gives you more room to run.