Pauline Breedlove’s character is someone whom we all can relate to someway or another. She is a woman in society that wants to be like the white women on the magazines and live the lives of those in movies, but like all of us she can’t, because of societal norms of what is considered beautiful. The Bluest Eye explores this “need” to be accepted in society by deep diving into the life and creation of Pauline, the mother of Pecola Breedlove. Images displayed by society through movies and magazines and now social media have extremely harmed our self-esteem and self respect for ourselves and others. By showing unrealistic and photo-shopped images of the ideal of beauty, women and men are prone to see themselves as less and become obsessed with self-image and eventually lose themselves.
Physical beauty as stated in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, is “probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought” (122). Physical beauty is “originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in delusion” (122). As soon as Pauline discovered beauty she forgot all about self love and all respect but instead adopted ideas that were portrayed in movies. She discovered that with her physical beauty she could dominate her lover and be in control and that love was just a possessive action. Pauline was introduced to this idea of physical beauty by going to the movies frequently. The movies to her was a way to get out of the house where she felt uneasy and alone and a way to feel free in the dark room. The darkness of the room allowed her to feel like no one was watching her, that no one was judging, she was just watching and not being watched. The movies that played in the theater always had a beautiful white woman as the love interest and a strong male protagonist that loved and chased after the woman and that whole narrative taught Pauline the power she holds as woman but not in an empowering way. Her education in the movies also left Pauline to always scale someone’s beauty and to compare herself to them which in my experience and opinion is the most detrimental aspect that Pauline “picked up” at the movies. Comparing oneself with another person only leads to dark thoughts and leads to a very unhappy state of mind. As a 21 year old woman in today’s society, I have dealt with this my entire life, the feeling of not being good enough or pretty enough or feeling like an outcast. Comparing ourselves is how we are all wired and how we all deal with our own insecurities by scrutinizing others and their appearances. It’s sad to think that women and men all experience this and this will never really change because of how much power our ideals in physical beauty are and how much power images have in our lives.
