Bluest Eye Essay
Alienation in The Bluest Eye
Alienation. A withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment (Merriam Webster). Society has ways of alienating people for multiple reasons such as their race, gender, class, or beliefs. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the character Pecola was alienated not only by society, but by her family as well. Pecola’s alienation was due to the fact that she was raped by her father and carried his baby. This reveals that society has very little to no values, and that they always assume the worse about people.
To have value is to be important, useful, and worth something. The way society and alienates Pecola reveals that they hold no value for her. She has been told her whole life that she is ugly, her own mother even said, “But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (126). Pecola is alienated from everyone because she is “ugly”. She has been called ugly so much that she now believes she is. If society held any value for Pecola they would not call her ugly; they would boost her up, not bring her down. The black community has been alienated from the whites and has come to believe that whites are superior to them. The Black community idolizes the white community and they believe that the wealthier someone is, the closer to white they are. The black community, trying to be more “white”, then turns around and alienates Pecola because she is the lowest black there is. The Black community views her as less because she is what they call “ugly”. She is “ugly” because of everything that has gone on in her life, and as the novel progresses so does her “ugliness”, along with her alienation from society. When Cholly, Pecola’s father, raped her, she became impregnated with his baby. Instead of going after Cholly for raping his daughter, his own blood, the community alienated her even more and claimed that her baby should die because "Certain seeds it
Alienation. A withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment (Merriam Webster). Society has ways of alienating people for multiple reasons such as their race, gender, class, or beliefs. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the character Pecola was alienated not only by society, but by her family as well. Pecola’s alienation was due to the fact that she was raped by her father and carried his baby. This reveals that society has very little to no values, and that they always assume the worse about people.
To have value is to be important, useful, and worth something. The way society and alienates Pecola reveals that they hold no value for her. She has been told her whole life that she is ugly, her own mother even said, “But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (126). Pecola is alienated from everyone because she is “ugly”. She has been called ugly so much that she now believes she is. If society held any value for Pecola they would not call her ugly; they would boost her up, not bring her down. The black community has been alienated from the whites and has come to believe that whites are superior to them. The Black community idolizes the white community and they believe that the wealthier someone is, the closer to white they are. The black community, trying to be more “white”, then turns around and alienates Pecola because she is the lowest black there is. The Black community views her as less because she is what they call “ugly”. She is “ugly” because of everything that has gone on in her life, and as the novel progresses so does her “ugliness”, along with her alienation from society. When Cholly, Pecola’s father, raped her, she became impregnated with his baby. Instead of going after Cholly for raping his daughter, his own blood, the community alienated her even more and claimed that her baby should die because "Certain seeds it