FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION, MAY 2007 Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye (Vintage International) Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Biju, Vidhiya. “Social Barriers Revealed out in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” Shanlax International Journal of English, vol. 6, no. S1, 2018, pp. 46–50.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1421133

• This is journal article about discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, religion or social status are some of the social barriers. This journal article also exposes the social barriers which lead to the marginalization of the blacks in the white social order in The Bluest Eye. Through the article main focus on social barriers and its effects on the lives of the African Americans. Also, giving example of Pecola suffers and is doomed because she belongs to a black community, a marginalized group.

Zebialowicz, A., Palasinski, M. Probing Racial Dilemmas in the Bluest Eye with the Spyglass of Psychology. J Afr Am St 14, 220–233 (2010).

https://doi-org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/10.1007/s12111-009-9100-y

• The purpose of this article is to help rekindle interest in psychology as a tool to explain the racial dilemmas of Toni Morrison’s female characters in The Bluest Eye. Rather than questioning established analytical methods, it illustrates how modern human thinking science provides valuable insights, especially in verifying the behavior and thinking of these characters.

Hassan Khan, Rahman. “The Framework of Racism in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye: A Psychosocial Interpretation.” Advances in language and literary studies 5.2 (2014): 25–28. Web.

• This article includes victims of Toni Morrison’s racist ideology and racial abuse. The article also traces the abusive attitude of the characters in the inner racist framework in The Bluest Eye of African Americans.

Griffin, Farah. “On The Ethical Dimensions of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” College literature 47.4 (2020): 671–677. Web.

• This article includes not only about race and racism but also focus on that novel’s portrayal of the devastating consequences of internalized white supremacy on its protagonist, Pecola. It also discusses the behavior of hateful middle-class neighbors, poverty, and parental neglect that contribute to the destruction of children.

Krupa, N. Dyva. “RACISM AND RELIGION IN TONI MORRISON’S THE BLUEST EYE.” VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) An International Peer Reviewed Journal, 20 Jan. 2015, joell.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/racism-and-religion.pdf.

• This paper article explores the relationship among the chief components of race and religion within the fictional narratives of African American women writer, the novel of Toni Morrison in her first novel The Bluest Eye. This paper article also examines the nature of the blacks’ struggle for their intellectual (race) and spiritual (religion) endurance in a predominantly multicultural post-colonial white America.

Morrison, T. (2007). The bluest eye: A novel. New York: Vintage International.

-The main novel will be used as the primary point of reference in the essay. I will use the pop cultures references/symbols in the book to draw connections to my main question of how the message of white narratives in the media affects the black protagonists in the book.

Werrlein, Debra T. “Not so Fast, Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in the Bluest Eye.” MELUS, vol. 30, no. 4, 2005, pp. 53–72. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30029634. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

-This article talks about so many historical pop culture references and their implications in the book that will make it very helpful in my own essay. An important part of this article is how it connects Pecola’s view of her own ugliness to the character of Peola in Imitation of Life. It also goes into great detail about her affinity for Shirley Temple. 

Vasquez, Sam. “In Her Own Image: Literary and Visual Representations of Girlhood in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John.” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, vol. 12, no. 1, 2014, p. 58+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A365688777/AONE?u=cuny_hunter&sid=AONE&xid=d1f1dab9. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

-This article also talks in great detail about the representations of Shirley Temple and Imitation of Life in the article. It talks alot about Claudia as well as Peculia, as it explores Claudia’s outlook on the world around her and how Morrison uses her to convey a message regarding white imagery in media. It also mentions the clark doll study. 

Wall, Cheryl A. “On Dolls, Presidents, and Little Black Girls.” Signs, vol. 35, no. 4, 2010, pp. 796–801. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/651034. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

-This article brings the conversation about The Bluest Eye to a more present day lens. The writer reflects on the election of President Obama and the announcement that dolls will be made of his two daughters. The writer connects this to the significance of dolls and imagery in Bluest Eye and hypothesizes if this would make a true difference to Pecola or Claudia. 

Hyman, Ramona L. “PECOLA BREEDLOVE: THE SACRIFICIAL ICONOCLAST IN ‘THE BLUEST EYE.’” CLA Journal, vol. 52, no. 3, 2009, pp. 256–264. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44325476. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

-This article goes into great detail about Pecola’s character and how she turns to the white imagery around her as an escape from her own community betraying her by casting her as “ugly”. It states how Pecole turns to the white image of beauty as a pathway for her own beauty and compares her to modern black children that seek validation from a community. It makes a strong argument for why Pecola turns to these white images for beauty and also to effectively escape from her community. 

Bergner, Gwen. “Black Children, White Preference: Brown v. Board, the Doll Tests, and the Politics of Self-Esteem.” American Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 2, 2009, pp. 299–332. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27734991. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

-This is an in-depth look at the clark doll study and it’s possible implications on self image in black children. It talks about the original study, as well as other recreations in years after, to make conclusions on what these studies imply on the way black children have viewed themselves throughout history. 

Stewart, Jacqueline. “Negroes Laughing at Themselves? Black Spectatorship and the Performance of Urban Modernity.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 29, no. 4, 2003, pp. 650–677. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/377724. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.

-This article talks about the relationship between cinema and black viewers as its audience. It talks about the often harmful characterchures of black people portrayed in cinema and the reason why some black audiences may turn blind eyes to it. It also interestingly connects the character of Pauline, with her love of cinema, because of the way that she uses the white reality in cinema to escape her own reality. 

Claudia Rankine does this unique way of interacting with her readers. Claudia Rankine interacts with her readers by providing videos that go with these different situations. Claudia Rankine combine still and moving images from documented, and televised surveillance. This is a way in which Claudia Rankine interacted with her readers because it demonstrated clear acts of racism that are constructed into our everyday life. It shows the acts of what people went through and are based on individual experience. This not only shows how these situations reflects on how people are but also as citizens. Rankine talks about the ongoing situations of modern racism that is face daily. 

Reading the text and viewing it as a film is very different. For example while reading about the situation of February 26, 2012 / In Memory of Trayvon Martin, you rapidly read through it. You feel the pain on how frustrating this was. However seeing it in a film is very much different. Hearing Rankine read the text while the video is playing feels different. The reader gets into it and it really makes the reader feel every pain of it. Adding the still pictures such as black face is very underwhelming as one can’t believe how much damage people do to one another.

This particular film does this thing in which it showcases the first scenes to be filtered with very warm colors, like colors that represent calmness. It then slowly transitions itself to a more blue filter and it makes you feel sad. Rankine choose this type of interaction with the readers because it makes the reader feel the emotions that is coming with this text. For example in this situation the beginning of the text opens up by saying “My brothers are notorious. They have not been to prison. They have been imprisoned. The prison is not a place you enter. It is no place. My brothers are notorious”(Rankine, Claudia. Citizen. Graywolf Press. Kindle Edition). Rankie starts off by talking about her brothers, she mentions how they are like everyone else they are regular people too. Her brothers don’t belong in prison, her brothers are fighting through life. In this scene in the film the lights are in the warmer yellows/oranges. When it starts to get more in the bluer side Rankine mentions words like raining, break, and good bye. “…Down. It was raining. It stopped raining. It is raining down. He won’t hang up. He’s there, he’s there but he’s hung up though he is there. Good-bye, I say. I break the good-bye”(Rankine, Claudia. Citizen . Graywolf Press. Kindle Edition.). All these words symbolizes sadness. The rain is always so gloomy, and goodbyes are always sad. Both rain and goodbyes go with the color blue, since sadness always is describe to be so blue. This made the text be read with more emotions and it made the text be more visual as you can see the feelings in which the text is going through.

Research question: how does Toni Morrison represents tensions within the black community in TBE?

• Mahaffey, Paul Douglas. “The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and Class in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 11, no. 4, 2004, pp. 155–165. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/43496824. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

In this article ,the author argues that adolescents are encountering many difficulties on their path to adulthood. He examines how race, gender, and class status affect the young black female. This is relevant to my argument because it discusses how the issues of race that Pecola experiences takes place within the black community starting with her family. It is important because it shows that black communities play a vital role on destroying adolescents’ lives.

• Roye, Susmita. “TONI MORRISON’S DISRUPTED GIRLS AND THEIR DISTURBED GIRLHOODS: ‘The Bluest Eye’ and ‘A Mercy.’” Callaloo, vol. 35, no. 1, 2012, pp. 212–227., www.jstor.org/stable/41412505. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

Susmita argues that TBE concerns itself with the world of black girls like Pecola, Claudia and Freida. This relates to my argument because it discusses how violence and hatred of Breedlove family destroyed Pecola. Also, the article describes that Pecola is disowned by other members of her black community. This is important because it shows that racism exists within the black community and that it affects young girls which leads to self-hatred and deepens the feeling of ugliness.

• Hyman, Ramona L. “PECOLA BREEDLOVE: THE SACRIFICIAL ICONOCLAST IN ‘THE BLUEST EYE.’” CLA Journal, vol. 52, no. 3, 2009, pp. 256–264. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44325476. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

Romana argues how African American children are taught the social and the cultural advantage of whiteness .This is relevant to my argument because it discusses the community that births, nurtures, educates, physically dismantles, rebirths Pecola. This is important because it supports my argument of how tensions represented in Morrison’s novel. And this article is an evidence that black community affects the way Pecola think of whiteness.

• Wallowitz, Laraine. “Chapter 9: Resisting the White Gaze: Critical Literacy and Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Counterpoints, vol. 326, 2008, pp. 151–164. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42980110. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

Wllowitz argues that it was Morrison’s intent to involve the community in and outside the text in their own interrogation for the “smashing” of Pecola and for contributing “to her collapse”.  It is important for my research because it examines the roots and effects of self-loathing. The author is wondering how the white- controlled media affects the identity formation of adolescent black youth. This is exactly what I am looking for.

• iwari, Neelu. “Decoding the Metaphor of Doll within the Larger Metaphor of White Beauty And Black Ugliness in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH: LITERATURE, LANGUAGE & SKILLS

The author argues that a class-conflict exists within the African-American community and that its people are doubly marginalized. This is very important because it discussed discrimination within black community, this discrimination was the cause of destroying Pecola’s life. Also, the author discusses how the community rejects the beauty of its own children and encourages them to adopt the idea that beauty means whiteness.

• Mohaisen, Ahmed Ghazi. “Pecola as devastated and secluded character in Toni Morrison’s novel” The Bluest Eye”.” Journal of The Iraqi University 44.1 (2019): 522-529.

Ghazi argues that white beauty standards affect the black community especially black women who seek for beauty to be accepted by their community. This article is important for me because it discusses the absence of solidarity within the black community and how the internalized racial prejudice affects black people all over the world.

My Question: How do the beauty standards of the 1930s and 40s affect the young female characters in the bluest eye?

Bibliography: 

Roye, Susmita. “TONI MORRISON’S DISRUPTED GIRLS AND THEIR DISTURBED GIRLHOODS: ‘The Bluest Eye’ and ‘A Mercy.’” Callaloo, vol. 35, no. 1, 2012, pp. 212–227., www.jstor.org/stable/41412505. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.

Werrlein, Debra T. “Not so Fast, Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in the Bluest Eye.” MELUS, vol. 30, no. 4, 2005, pp. 53–72. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30029634. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.

“‘Everyone Admires the Woman Who Has Beautiful Hair’: Mediating African American Beauty Standards in the 1920s and 1930s.” Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975, by Susannah Walker, University Press of Kentucky, 2007, pp. 47–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jcm09.7. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.

Sugiharti, E. (n.d.). Racialised beauty: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.https://www.erhsnyc.org/ourpages/auto/2012/5/10/49279726/Radicalised%20Beauty.pdf

Klotman, Phyllis R. “Dick-and-Jane and the Shirley Temple Sensibility in the Bluest Eye.” Black American Literature Forum, vol. 13, no. 4, 1979, pp. 123–125. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3041475. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.