On Analysis The Bluest Eye in Feminism: females, property and self-cognition

By

Liu jiyu
Supervisor: Zhao peiling

Class 1605 Student ID No.:1801160123

1. Introduction
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is talking about the growth of a marginalized
little black girl through Claudia who also suffers from racism and other
discriminations. Pecola, the main character, who is made a victim and scapegoat by
both the whites who oppress and make norms for the blacks and the black community
where people blindly identify themselves in the white mainstream culture. All the
racism, sexism and the confliction between white civilization and traditional black
culture erosion Pecola and led her to disaster. As Morrison shaped the story, it
involves the issues of race, sexuality, ideologies, gender, social classes, slavery,
aesthetics and psychology.
This paper will analysis The Bluest Eye from the perspective of feminism. The two
primary theories from Virginia Woolf and Betty Friedan will help me to discuss the
relevance of females, property and self-cognition and give a befit analysis about the
characters.
2. Discussion
2.1 The “room” for female in The Bluest Eye
As Virginia Woolf claims: “Trapped in the comfort of the long-standing
patriarchal society, women are unable to gain economic independence and must be
dependent on their father, husband, son or elder brother, so they cannot freely choose
their own life. Therefore, forced by economic reasons, women are always trapped in
the male-centered social system”, “If you want to realize your self-worth, you must
have a ‘room of your own’”, “To write a novel, a woman must have money and her
own room” (Woolf,1989) . It shows the necessary relevance between women and
property, and we can find how it influences black women in the novel.
From the description of the Breedloves’ home:
The large "store" area was partitioned into two rooms by beaverboard planks that
did not reach to the ceiling. There was a living room, which the family called the
front room, and the bedroom, where all the living was done.
The kitchen was in the back of this apartment, a separate room. There were no
 bath facilities. Only a toilet bowl, inaccessible to the eye, if not the ear, of the
tenants. There isnothing more to say about the furnishings. (Morrison, 1970, p.33
)
The Breedloves’ storefront residence reflects their status as ‘renting blacks’; located
inside town. There is only one room for whole family, no separate bath facilities, and
the furniture is ‘anything but describable. First, there is no room for men let alone for
women in the family, in other word, there is nowhere to hide in the Breedlove
household; sex and violence are open while prostitutes conduct business from
upstairs. Second, no separate bath facilities, bathroom is a private place for both
female and male, a place can hide their physical characteristics.
If the home, where we usually count as protection and safety, cannot be a place of
refuge for women to get comfort or grow, certainly women cannot be independent and
fine their values even lost their identities. In addition, the open space makes female
become a vulnerable target for others.
The prostitutes live at upstairs Poland, China and Maginot Line, they are the only
adult whom do not despite Pcola. The three women have their own “room”, no men
allowed; they choose to live their own life without caring about the opinions of others,
at this point, they try to strive for independence.
Pecola looked and looked at the women. Were they real? Marie belched, softly,
purringly, lovingly. (Morrison, 1970, p.61)
Pecola admire them for the freedom and happiness that she can never have, and she
can find a sense of security and plenty of laughter rather her black community, clearly,
in such a black community where most of the blacks are self-denied and self-exiled,
the three prostitutes represent and confirm the value of the black heritage and culture.
However, this independent room on the surface is independent, but in the social
environment has not made fundamental changes, the so-called rooms belonging to
women will inevitably become the property of male.
Therefore, the “room” which feminist consist advocate must be built in a free and
comfortable society, otherwise, this “room” can only locally support female’s
independence, but may become a new place for women to be confined in hidden form.
(Hanfang, 2012)
2.2 Do people, female people, do yourself
“The female mystique defines a woman as the wife of her husband, the mother of
her children, the provider of the physiological needs of her husband, children, and
family, rather than as defined by her own actions in society.” (Friedan, 1995)
According to the definition from Betty Friedan, similarly, in the novel, black women
are also be oppressed by white supremacy on every aspects and the gender
discrimination both from white and black.
Pecola, each night without fail, she prayed for blue eyes, “Blue eyes” actually
represents Pecola’s desire to have an identity, and selecting blue eyes means that she
completely has accepted the white culture and uses white vision to see the world.
Long hours she sat lookingin the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness,
theugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachersand classmates
alike.(Morison, 1970, p.46)
She creates a new, imaginary concept of ‘self’ which she finds in the eyes of the other
people, When she becomes pregnant, this image gets associated with a sense of
perverse sexism and guilt. This guilt is directly related to the blackness of Pecola and
her family.
Under the the Eurocentric Conceptions of Beauty heavily affects Pauline, Pecola’s
mother, she internalized white standards of beauty and hatred of her own natural self
and also internalized these concepts of white supremacy and projected these standards
and images to Pecola. It result in Pecola’s madness in the end of the story, she lost her
identity both as a female and a black and people around her despite her and use her
ugliness to build their confident and whish their self-loathing rather than give her help
and sense of security
Besides, their skin color, or more clearly, their degree of blackness shows their value.
3. Conclusion
The black is the vulnerable groups in the society, black females are even more
vulnerable not only does their skin color push them toward the margin, but also their
gender causes their being doubly marginalized.
All these oppressions course Pecola’s tragedy and her tragic fate is inevitable.
Therefore, the purpose of Morrison to depict the tragedy of Pecola and the disunity
inside the black community is to encourage black people to move from disunity to
unity, from self-interest to self-regard. Because of their weak position, the black
community should become a place can protect and tolerate their kins. Like Morrison
asserts: “all the blacks are men, all the women are white but few of us are brave.”
There still are lots of details we can find and analysis in The Bluest Eye, form
different perspectives, you can always find the new in your own idea.
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