Jessica Marie

o Baran, Stanley J. “Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture”. Mayfield Publishing Company. 1999.
o Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.

Thesis:
R: Culture/ History.
R: Beauty
R: Self-image/ self-hatred

Outline:
R: Culture/ History/ discrimination
E: Pecola tries to be a bird, her culture ignores black beauty. She was born black and there’s nothing she can do about it.
E: Pecola asks soaphead to grant her, her blue eyes.
E: Maureen’s quote; displaying white and black discrimintation/racism.
E: How discrimination is the whole cause of the existence of the story.

R: Beauty
E: Claudia receives a doll for Christmas that she destroys out of disgust and hatred. Doesn’t understand what’s so special about it.
E: Pecola wishes that she had blue eyes. She thinks that if her eyes were blue, and therefore beautiful, then her problems would go away and her life would be beautiful. Then maybe, her classmates and teachers would not despise her and think she was so ugly
E: Being a black little girl in a society that idolizes blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty, Pecola thinks she is ugly. Pecola sympathizes for the dandelions because she knows what it is like to be devalued. She finds beauty in the weeds, for she thinks that people see her as a weed.
 
R: Media/ society
E: Shirley Temple cup= Pecola adores. Shirley Temple was the epitome of what all of America adored in little girls: her bouncy blonde curls and big blue eyes.
E: The Breedloves are poor and ugly; think its because their black do to how the media portrays whites as being what represent beauty.
E: Pauline spent a lot of time at the movie theatre: learned American standards of true beauty. Constantly faced with actresses like Jean Harlow; Hollywood blonde.
E: Mr. Henry flatters Claudia and Frieda, telling them they look like Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers; two white American female actresses.
E: When the girls are walking home from school, they pass a movie theater with a picture of Betty Grable on the building. Maureen and Pecola both express their adoration for the blue-eyed actress America loves.
 

The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, and was published in 1970, focus’s on the life of a young girl named Pecola Breedlove. This story brings with it, a sense of historical and cultural content against discrimination that is undeniable to the reader. It also displays a controversy based on beauty in relation to race. Finally, it captures the issues of media and its influences on society.
 As history documents, in the 1800’s, if not lasting longer,  ‘black people’ were discriminated upon immensely, yet this story takes place in a time where African American rights were making their ‘daybue’, as there were suburbs, and towns where ‘blacks’ were more dominant and they had the rights to move around as they pleased; slavery being diminished; generally, and were legally accepted in public schools; allowed to receive an education. However, although legally, discrimination might have somehow been controlled under policies, this has no effect on what people truly think, and judge. So although they; black people, could not be sold and bought, it had no relevance to how society chose to treat them. Some of their jobs were just as bad as those back in the days of ‘slavery’. Discrimination was not silenced, and to this very day is still not, and does in fact exist.
 Evidence in the story that gives an idea of the sort of bullying involving discrimination that went on, would be the explanation given for how Maureen; a girl between races, was treated differently, yet it covers the typical bullying tactics against either side; ‘blacks’ bullying ‘whites’, and vice versa.
‘When teachers called on her, they smiled encouragingly. Black boys didn’t trip her in halls; white boys didn’t stone her, white girls didn’t suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their work partner; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to used the sink in the girls’ toilet.’(Morrison. The Bluest Eye)
The first sentence, basically says that normally, for ‘black’ children teachers aren’t the kindest, nor feel joyous for have ‘these people’ in their classrooms. The second sentence describes what typical ‘black’ boys would do to ‘white’ girls walking down the halls; trip them. In the meantime, with the third sentence, you see how ‘white’ girls detest partnering with ‘black’ females. Finally, in the last phrase you see how ‘black’ females were expected to respect the ‘white’ ones, by doing such actions as allowing them; white females, to use the facilities; in this case the sink, first.
 This whole ordeal with discrimination is basically the whole root to the story; reasons why everything happened. This also means that there were probably many cases such as Pecola’s back in the time period. However, as an end result to her story, it drove little Pecola  to insanity. Pecola had begun flapping her arms like a bird, attempting to fly up in to the sky. Although, that’s physically impossible for her to do, she believed it was because she has been held back by the culture in which she lived, a culture that only values white beauty, and ignores black. It was inevitable that poor Pecola, as much as she tried, and prayed; as she attempted to with Mr. Soaphead, a supposed miracle healer of the church, her wishes would never come true. This was not because she didn’t deserve to have them come true, but because they were not humanly possible to achieve, for the only thing she desired, was to have blue eyes. And in a metaphorical sense, this could also suggest the probability of a black child being accepted in such a culture; none. The cultural difference is what bounded her without any escape; stuck in a society that doesn’t accept black beauty. See, although in the end of the story, Pecola thinks she has blue eyes; fixed in her mentally, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world around her does; they don’t see it. Thus conclusively explains Pecola’s downfall; her derivative to madness was due to the pressure caused by the social standards of her culture.
 There are many different classes and types of beauty, yet there is no actual set ‘model’ to which beauty is judged, nor what it can be. The simple definition of beauty resides within the characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction’. In this story; The Bluest Eye, Beauty is seen as the stereotypical white girl, with blue eyes; emphasis on the blue eyes, which is evidently shown, not to mention explicitly explained. Examples in which it is evident would be firstly, when Claudia tells a story about one of her childhood memories at the beginning of the book. She explains how she received a doll one Christmas; the doll supposedly being very ‘beautiful’; blonde hair, blue eyes, and of course pink skinned. Yet out of pure anger, spite, and curiosity of what was so special about the ‘thing’, she destroyed/ dismembered it, making sure to pay attention to every detail of the dolls make; especially the eyes; the blue eyes. Another example would be when a new girl named Maureen; not quite white, but lighter skinned, comes to Claudia and Frieda’s school. Maureen is treated noticeably different by teachers and classmates; more nice, and respectably than ‘black’ kids are normally treated. This is due to her ‘white person’ characteristics; instead of the typical brown eyes of a black person, she has green eyes; as if between brown and blue. This is where the idea of ‘pure beauty’ lies within ‘blue eyes’; exactly what Pecola strives for. Pecola, the protagonist, is a young black girl by the age of 11 who wholeheartedly wishes she had these ‘beauteous’ eyes; blue eyes, and thinks that with them, her life would be better. You see Pecola’s life is filled with drama; sorrow, neglect, and the constant ‘cold-shoulder’ for being a young black girl in a ‘white man’s world’; more or less, a town where ‘white people’ are more dominant than ‘black’. She relates this too Maureen’s life, being perfect; a girl who has everything, and anything she asks for. To Pecola, it’s all because of how Maureen looks that is the soul reason for why her life is so good; Maureen’s.
 During the story, Pecola makes a reference to the how dandelions are perceived. Dandelions are nothing more than weeds, and she explains how she is no more significant than that of the value of weeds; nothing. She sympathizes with these weeds, because she knows what it’s like to be devalued in such a sense. Furthermore, Pecola found beauty in these weeds, for these weeds in reality contain no actual ‘beauty’ in them at all, at least in their current society, just as she, Pecola contains none.
 Media affects our society in several ways and controls the direction of society. The Issues and influences of media are no more different in the time period of the story then it is in our everyday current society. (Baran, Stanley J. 1999)
 Going back to what is deemed as ‘beauty’ in Pecola’s society, the question posed, is who exactly said that ‘black’s’ were ugly? It’s actually pretty simple, and not hard to figure out. The beliefs that ‘blacks’ were ugly came from the white American media always portraying whites as representations of what is beautiful. Because of this, the Breedlove’s, Pecola’s family, believed that they were poor and ugly because of how the rest of the world viewed them. This is why they live poor lives as they do not strive to have/be anything else, thinking they don’t deserve to have/be anything else; even if they thought otherwise, with the way the rest of society sees them, there’s no possible way in which things could turn out differently.
 Evidence from the story that proves how Media affects society especially in the case of ‘white American beauty’, would be when Pauline Breedlove; Pecola’s mother, came from a family that resided in suburbs surrounded by fellow black people, and once she met Cholly; Pecola’s father, and moved into the small town of the name of Lorain where ‘whites’ were more dominant, at first Pauline couldn’t understand. It wasn’t until she started spending a lot of time at the movie theatre; while Cholly was away at work that she learned about these ‘American standards’. Pauline was constantly faced with actresses like Jean Harlow, the ultimate Hollywood ‘blonde bombshell’, forcing Pauline to examine her own beauty in terms of Harlow’s. It then came apparent, if not obvious to Pauline that she did not look anything like Harlow, and based on this, came to the conclusion that she was no doubt ‘ugly’. However, her feeling of ugliness, were purely based on standards set on her through the medium of Hollywood.
 Speaking of Hollywood stars, another example of a scenario in the story in which these stars are referred too would be when Mr. Henry flattered Claudia and Frieda by telling them they looked just like Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers, two white American female actresses; which basically relates back to why Pecola, a little black girl, doesn’t fit into a society that idolizes blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty.
Moreover, just like when the girls; Claudia, Frieda, Pecola, and Maureen, were passing by the movie theatre, noticed a picture of Bettey Grable; another blonde-haired, blue-eyed American actress, in which Maureen noted she admired, Pecola agreeing without a doubt. Lastly, another evident moment would be when the girls were playing, and Pecola got thirsty, they; Claudia and Frieda, fetched her a glass of milk. However, not just any glass, this glass had the face of Shirley Temple on it; a beautiful little American girl who’s bouncy blonde curls, and big blue eyes were the epitome of what all America adored in little girls. As a result, this drove Pecola to constantly want more and more milk, just so that she could get a hold of the cup that she longed for, in order to gaze at it all day.
Thus concludes how The Bluest Eye, focused on historical and cultural content based on discrimination. Along with it’s exposure to controversies based on beauty in relation to race. Lastly, it demonstrated the issues of media and its influences on society.