Racism Essay Research Paper The Effects of

Racism Essay, Research Paper

The Effects of Racism During the 1940’s

Racism has been around for hundreds of years. One example of how racism against blacks was rempant during the 1940’s is seen in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye.

Throughout the story the characters are victims of racism. Not only do these characters suffer from racism from mainstream White society, but also from their superior light-skinned African American people. Examples of the effects of racism on the examining the lives of Pecola, Louis J.r. , and Soaphead Church.

The first example of racism, and the most affected character of this horrendous deed known as racism is Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is born to two parents who never felt like they fit in or were loved when they were growing up and still don;t.Pecola’s mother, Pauline, only cares about fitting in. When she was young she had dreams and hopes about one day being acceptedbut these dreams die when she injures her foot. Soon after her marriage with Cholly, Pauline looses her front tooth and along with it she looses her sel-respect. After Sammy and Pecola are born, Pauline returns to work and begins working for a white family,The Fishers. Here she finds her self-respect again, because according to them she is the ideal servant.

Pecola’s father, Charles (Cholly) Breedlove, was abandoned by his mother on a “junk heap by the railroad”( Morrison 132 ) at day four, and was never recognized as a son by his father. Cholly’s great Aunt Jimmy takes him in but their age difference and habits keep them from a close relationship, which he desperately needs. At his Great Aunt Jimmy’s funeral, Cholly is surprised by two white men when he is having his first sexual intercourse and is demanded to continue. This shame is reflected in him for years to come. The result of this is a violent drunk, an unfaithful husband, and an abusive father.

Pecola never felt love or affection at her house, but rather was a witness of her parents continous fights. Her own mother considered her ugly when she first saw her as a newborn. It is believed that “the mother’s gaze is of primary importance generating a child’s sense of self” (Bloom 95 ), and with Polly’s view of Pecola, Pecola grows on to have a very sordid self esteem. As Pecola grows older her mother’s rejection is more visible. When Pecola goes with her mother to the Fishers home and accidentally drops the deep-dish berry cobbler. When Polly walks in she “yanked her up by the arm , slapped her again, and in a voice thin with anger, accused Pecola directly…The little girl in pink started to cry. Mrs. Breedlove turned to her ‘hush, baby, hush. Come here. Don’t cry no more.’”( Morrison 109). The tender care of the little White Fisher girl makes the rejection of Pecola more evident. While Polly showed no love towards Pecola, Cholly wanted to. Cholly knew no other way to show his love for Pecola. He demonstrates this love by raping her.

At school Pecola is bombarded with white beauty, like Maureen Peal. Since her self-esteem is so low “the school children who shout names at Pecola shame her and use her features as away of denying her admission into their society ” (Harris 74 ).She is used as a scapegoat by her own due to her feeble self-esteem. “Pecola becomes the vicim who invites further abuse because she suffers visibly” (Harris 72). This makes it easier for the school children as well as the community to pick on her and look down on her. In the streets Pecola is bombarded with hatred. Just because she is the unpleasant sight of African Americans. Geraldine recognizes in Pecola everything she tries to deny, which is the blackness, the poverty, the African. Here, during the 1940’s the community is trying to find an individual who threatens them by either being different physically, or by projecting all of their fears. The community is in need of a scapegoat and Pecola fits the “requirements” for it. The community helps Pecola build her own downfall.

Pecola believes that ” only those with blue eyes receive love, like Shirley Temple, Geraldine’s cat, and the Fisher girl” (Bloom 95). This belief makes her wish she had blue eyes, maybe with them she would be accepted. She wishes and thinks “that if her eyes, those eyes that held pictures, and knew the sights-if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different”(Morrison 40). She becomes obsessed with blue eyes to such a point that she will not eat any other candy except for Mary Janes, which have a blue-eyed girl on the wrapper. This obsession becomes greater as the seasons change.

At the end, this obsession becomes the last straw that led to Pecola’s destruction. It began with her parents lack of love and attentiveness, and blossomed with the negative remarks of the community and ended with an unhealthy obsession. She goes to an interracial man, Soaphead Church, who pledged that he could turn her eyes blue. She becomes so wrapped in her dream world that she becomes insane.

Pecoka, who is the most affected by racism, is the epitomy of outer-racial racism. On the other hand Louis J.r. is an example of intra-racial racism.Geraldine, Louis J.r.’s mother considers herself different. Her and “her kind” are singled out. First of all, “these girls soak up the juice of their hometown, and it never leaves them” (Morrison 81). She is already different because many bla