The Bluest Eye
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Toni Morrisons novel “The Bluest Eye”, is a very important novel in literature, because of the many boundaries that were crosses and the painful, serious topics that were brought into light, including racism, gender issues, Black female Subjectivity, and child abuse of many forms. This set of annotated bibliographies are scholarly works of literature that centre around the hot topic of racism in the novel, “The Bluest Eye”, and the low self-esteem faced by young African American women, due to white culture. My research was guided by these ideas of racism and loss of self, suffered in the novel, by the main character Pecola Breedlove. This text generates many racial and social-cultural problems, dealing with the lost identity of a young African American women, due to her obsession with the white way of life, and her wish to have blue eyes, leading to her complete transgression into insanity.
For my research, there was no specific parameter set on the range of dates in my research. The researched sources used in this set of bibliographies date between 1987 to 2003. These annotations will be found most useful by high school and post-secondary undergraduate students who are researching similar topics to the ones outlined in my study. The resources used are very intellectual, but not overly complicated or hard to understand. There were few limitations set towards the type of resources used, although Internet sources were avoided for the most part. Most of the resources used in this set of annotated bibliographies are articles, essays, and chapters from book-length studies, found mostly at the Queen Elizabeth II library. Trends that can be noticed in these entries are the main focal point, which the authors all seemed to cover, that is racism and the social-cultural problems created for young African American women. Many of the authors seemed to blame white culture, or the colourist culture for the problem of lost identity in black girls. They seemed to take the same direction in their articles, but many taking different routes in explaining and proving their point. These ideas seemed to be arranged by the stating that Pecola Breedlove is a lost little black girl, who because of her idea that being white would solve all her family and life problems, looses her true self. The authors would then blame the white culture for this deficiency in the young mind of an African American girl. The points of language and gender discrimination, aesthetics, and black female subjectivity were also mentioned quite often in these entries. Author Biographies were not included in this research, because the focus would have switched from Pecola Breedlove in the Bluest Eye to Toni Morrison. Although the book is a chilling representation of Toni Morriosons life, it felt necessary to focus on the topics inside the book, and not on the authors life. These entries contain valuable information on the topics researches in the novel “the Bluest Eye”, and should be found very useful for researching topics that are similar.
Baillie, Justine. “Constructing Ideologies: Deconstructing Racism in African-American Fiction.” Woman (Oxford, England) v. 14 no.1 (spring 2003) 20-37
Baillies article is concerned with how African American fiction tries to define an artistic opposition to racism in scientific, educational and cultural ways. It examines Toni Morrisons novel as fiction representing the racial theories and ideas of beauty and popular American culture in the 1930s. Using figures like Shirley Temple, The author claims Morrison shows how African American people internalized cinematic icons and images of beauty, that lead to a psychosis that leaves identity fractured and the racial self all but erased. The author discusses the significance of the novel as a text of dialogue, which depicts the social and political time in which the fiction was written. She argues that Morrisons own expression of a black identity contains the nationalism of Black Power, and instead finds its focus in the political and cultural ideas through the expression of African-American aesthetics.
Bishop, John. “Morrisons The Bluest Eye.” Explicator V.51. (Summer 2003) 252-258
An article that places most of its attention towards the comparison of Pecola to the white girl in the movie, by the character Maureen Peal. He argues that the novel was released seven years after the movie, so the 11-12 year old girl Pecola couldnt have been named after the character in the film. He talks about how Maureen mistaking Pecolas name to be Pecola, the girl in the movie, just reinforces that Pecola is nothing like the beautiful white girl in the movie. The author feels that this is important because the misnaming by Morrison signifies that Pecola will be the scapegoat for the entire community and all its problems. The author concludes his essay by mentioning the possible duel meanings in the title of the novel.
Cheng, Anne Anlin. “Wounded Beauty: An Explanatory Essay on Race, Feminism, and the Aesthetics Question.” Tulsa Studies in Womans Literature. V.19 no 2. (Fall 2000.) 191-217
A look at the problems of racism and beauty in feminist studies. The writer discusses the intersection between race and gender, and observes that beauty presents a problem for the woman of colour. She finds herself contending between feminist views of beauty and a racial denial of black beauty. She uses She uses Pecola, From Toni Morrisons “The Bluest Eye” To fund the argument of what it means for an African American woman to be beautiful
Gillian, Jennifer. “Focusing on the Wrong Front: Historical Displacement, The Maginot Line, and The Bluest Eye.” African American Review. 36, (2002)
The author uses the issues of race, gender and history in this article. Part of the article is focused on the Maginot Line, and the historical undertones that surround these characters. She mentions how the women in The Bluest Eye, blur the line between reputable and disreputable. This article is very informative towards readers who are interested in the racial and historical aspects of “The Bluest Eye”, by Toni Morrison.
Khayati, Abdellatif. “Representation, race and the language of the ineffable in Toni Morrisons Narrative.” African American Review, V.33 no.2 (summer 19999) 313-324
The author of this essay examines Toni Morrisons novel and argues that she focuses more on the diversity among black