The Impact Of Childhood In Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the impact of home on childhood, the formative years of any human. Throughout the book, she describes the childhoods of both adults, namely Polly Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove, and children, specifically Pecola, Claudia, and â€Å"Junior,† and leaves the reader to figure out how their childhoods shaped who they are. In the novel. Morrison argues that the totality of one’s childhood, including one’s home and experiences, is key in forming one’s disposition and character later in life. In doing so, Morrison wants the reader to see that the best defense against a predatory, racist society is the home. By comparing the childhoods to the adulthoods of certain characters in the story, Morrison argues that†¦show more content†¦To begin the novel, Morrison quotes a â€Å"Dick and Jane† book, a children’s book describing an ideal, happy family. Immediately, Morrison provides an example of how Am erican children are bombarded, as soon as they learn how to read, with ideas about what it means to be beautiful. As well, in the first chapter, she exemplifies how American children, both black and white, view beauty, from Claudia and Freida giggling when they are called the names of beautiful white actresses to Freida and Pecola’s admiration of Shirley Temple. In contrast to the broad examples of Polly’s and Cholly’s childhoods, the examples of these 1940s children are discrete and relevant to the period which Morrison wrote the novel. Evidently, Morrison criticizes the effect of the whiteness of American ideals on children, in particular American movies which define societal standards; however, Morrison also makes an important point: these effects are not the same for every individual. By contrasting the homes of Claudia and Pecola throughout the entire novel, Morrison stresses the importance of home in defending against a predatory, racist society. In Claudi a’s home, her parents truly care for her and her sister. In one instance, her father took out a gun to fend off a tenant that touched Freida’s breast. This completely contrasts with Pecola’s home, where her parents are both hateful and self-hating, and her father actually raped her. Even though both households areShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2069 Words   |  9 Pagesnovel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Toni Morrison draws upon symbolism, narrative voice, setting and ideals of the time to expose the effects these standards had on the different characters. 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