Research Question: What role does beauty play in the oppression of black women in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye?

Burcar, Lilijana. “Imploding the Racialized and Patriarchal Beauty Myth through the Critical Lens of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” Vestnik za tuje jezike 9.1 (2017): 139–158. Web.

• In this article, the author brings up the racialized norms of gender and race during the time revolving around The Bluest Eye. This article also gives us a glimpse into how these societal norms affect the people around them.

Khan, Md Reza Hassan, and Md Shafiqur Rahman. “The Framework of Racism in Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”: A Psychosocial Interpretation.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies 5.2 (2014): 25-8. ProQuest. Web. 19. Nov. 2020.

• In this article i will focus on the discussion portion on the Beauty Industry and Ideology in the text. Here the article discusses how popular media can be used to bring about racist self-hatred in the black community, making them (characters such as Pecola in The Bluest Eye) feel insecure about the color of their skin or their figure compared to the likes of the white actors and actresses on mass media at the time.

Koch, E. C. “Hollywood’s Terror Industry: Idealized Beauty and the Bluest Eye.” Sanglap, vol. 1, no. 1, 2014, pp. 147-157. ProQuest, http://proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/docview/1910805134?accountid=27495

• E. C. Koch goes into depth on the idealized way of looking at beauty and how it affected young black children during the time. The article covers the 1940s perception of the white standard of beauty with references to the characters, Claudia, Pauline, and Pecola from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

Bump, Jerome. “Racism and Appearance in The Bluest Eye: A Template for an Ethical Emotive Criticism.” College Literature, vol. 37, no. 2, 2010, pp. 147–170. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/20749587. Accessed 11 Nov. 2020.

• Jerome Bump explores the emotive qualities of racism and how it affects the black community. By exploring these qualities this makes it easier to explain the how the mass media places these standards of beauty on black girls in The Bluest Eye. 

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.

Research Question: 

“How colored girls are affected short-term and long-term by generational racism and systematic stigmas.” 

Kuenz, Jane. “The Bluest Eye: Notes on History, Community, and Black Female Subjectivity.” 

African American review 27.3 (1993): 421–431. Web.

Kuenz’s emphasis on the cultural setback in, “The Bluest Eye,” of young black girls through seclusion is her main objective in her article. She further discusses the result of these setbacks, and how it affects the girls as women. Lack of identity is what the author strongly rests on as a major affect to their personal lives, due to the segregation of cultures.

 Rosenberg, Ruth. “Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in The Bluest Eye.” Black American 

literature forum 21.4 (1987): 435–445. Web.

Rosenberg writes about the self-image of black girls, especially in childhood, using Mahalia Jackson, Maya Angelou, and Bessie Smith as starting points for her examples. She writes of the experiences of black girls and women clinging to each other because they alone have only experienced the same. Rosenberg also mentions how Morrison’s black girlhood enlightened others to let them know they are not alone. She ends in a scary truth of, “The Bluest Eye,” and how dangerous a designated culture and way of life can be. 

Roye, Susmita. “TONI MORRISON’S DISRUPTED GIRLS AND THEIR DISTURBED 

GIRLHOODS: ‘The Bluest Eye’ and ‘A Mercy.’” Callaloo 35.1 (2012): 212–227. Web.

Roye’s article discusses Morrison’s focus on troubled girls in her writing. She compares the troubles from both, “The Bluest Eye,” and, “A Mercy.” The different stages and types of pity and sadness she gives her female characters through their identity, sexual identity, economic stages, desires, and family play a major role in Morrison’s plot line. The author insists that this is Morrison’s way of attesting to a largely unequal socio-economic and cultural system. Roye’s main objective is to elaborate on Morrison’s vision to expose these inequalities and create assimilation through struggle. 

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 12.1 (2014): 58-87. Web.

This critical essay informs readers about the cultural and personal setbacks/experiences of young girls in, “The Bluest Eye”, and  “Annie John.” Within the essay, Vasquez discusses: the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the writers and their personal experiences, visual culture and diverse socio-historical context, impact of western patriarchy, mixed racism, and literary context. The author goes into a deep dive of a black girl’s struggles between both books, and their grapple with Western cultural stigmas.

 Zebialowicz, Palasinski. “Probing Racial Dilemmas in ‘the Bluest Eye’ with the Spyglass of 

Psychology.” Journal of African American studies (New Brunswick, N.J.) 14.2 (2010): 220–233. Web.

This article takes a psychological look on Toni Morrison’s, “The Bluest Eye.” Zebialowicz sets out specific passages to analyze the effects of racism, identity crisis, beauty, white ethnocentrism, and more. She takes a deeper look into not only the feelings narrated but the buried shame, lack of power, and animosity holds within the characters. She tries to unload most of Morrison’s female racial issues and give insight through psychology.

My research process consisted of OneSearch on the hunter database site, and the keywords of: “The Bluest Eye” and stigmas, “” and racism, “” girlhood, “”and psychology. Many searches came up, but from reading through the different options I found these passages relating to my topic the most. These articles and essays hammer in on the type of research I’m looking for, giving me a wide variety of information from different sources and experiences.