Research question: How does the “white gaze” affect Black families within The Bluest Eye?

Works Cited:

Roye, Susmita. “Toni Morrison’s Disrupted Girls and Their Disturbed Girlhoods: The Bluest Eye and A Mercy.” Callaloo, vol. 35 no. 1, 2012, p. 212-227. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cal.2012.0013

• This essay has large parts in which it focuses directly on the relationships between the Black families and the white characters throughout the book. It shows the white families’ influence on the thoughts of the “opposing” Black families.

Wallowitz, Laraine. “Resisting the White Gaze: Critical Literacy and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” Counterpoints (New York, N.Y.), 2008-01-01, Vol.326, p.151-164

• Although based around real world application, this article dives into the strength of the “white gaze” within Toni’s Morrison The Bluest Eye, showing off some student-led responses to the question at hand, giving different perspectives beyond that of my own or even the writer themselves. This allows for deeper thoughts to arise to the surface and allows for the access to previously untapped knowledge.

Peimanfard, Shima. “Othering Each Other: Mimicry, Ambivalence and Abjection in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” International journal of applied linguistics & English literature, 2018-06-01, Vol.7 (4), p.115-120

• This article focuses on a psychoanalysis of The Bluest Eye, primarily on the internally colonized mind of main character Pecola Lovebreed and the effects that this colonization has not only on her, but other Black characters around her as well. It challenges another essay, “Of Mimicry and Man” by Homi Bhabha, which speaks on the usefulness of mimicry to counter white supremacy as Pecola’s mimicry is what ruins her.

Bhabha, Homi. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” Vol. 28, Discipleship: A Special Issue on Psychoanalysis (Spring, 1984), pp. 152-159

• A chapter of a larger text that is useful as a counter argument, giving life to the larger argument at hand by presenting counterable points of reference.

Debra T. Werrlein. “Not So Fast, Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in The Bluest Eye” Melus, 2005-12-01, Vol.30 (4), p.53-72

• A section of a larger body of text that focuses on how the “white gaze” and views of white people skew those of Black people, particularly children who are the most impressionable at a young age as their minds are still developing.

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