Introduction
In the books, Morrison addresses questions about the role and place of women in the world and attempts to deconstruct the traditional image of the black female that has emerged in the literature. All of her characters face the harsh conditions of the reality in which they live; some find the strength to cope with them. Meanwhile, some lose their identity under pressure, mentally rejecting their connection to their people, causing them to lose their sanity. The self-identity of the African American lady is one of the central issues in her work (Burcar 140). The paths of self-definition of black women are different. For some of Toni Morrison’s protagonists, the way to self-determination is through employment and material independence. Self-determination for certain heroines depends on whether the female heroine is satisfied with her appearance and whether her image conforms to her ideal of beauty. Other females achieve self-determination through a relationship with a man, friendship, and love (Burcar 140). Thus, it is essential to establish the challenge of perceiving the world picture of African Americans through color and the concept of beauty and ugliness.
Presentations of Cleanliness, Filth, and the Connection to Color in Text
It is significant to consider the themes of beauty, ugliness, and self-acceptance in the novel. The plot is based on the story of the eleven-year-old girl Pecola Breedlove and the trials she endured, which in the aftermath caused her insanity. Cholly Breedlove is Pecola’s father and the head of the family, a drunkard, and tyrant, who attempts to control everyone, extending his power and moral ugliness to his family members (Morrison 21). Mrs. Breedlove chooses to be a martyr, a victim of her tyrant husband, enduring his drunken antics. Once Cholly rapes his daughter, a desperate eleven-year-old Pecola goes to “Soap Head Pop,” who profits from people’s grief and problems (Morrison 28). The girl asks him only to grant her blue eyes, which confuses the man. Pecola’s story appeared extremely sad and heartwarming to him. Intending to help her, the Soap Head decides and resolve his issue by disposing of the old dog (Morrison 28). He provides the girl with a piece of poisoned meat to deliver to the dog, promising that if the dog responds to the meat extraordinarily, God will grant Pecola’s wish.
The girl’s situation, where instead of warm family relationships, she finds only violence and scolding, and she becomes the embodiment of ugliness to those around her, causes Pecola to feel invisible. She begged God to make her like this: “Please, Lord,” she whispered to herself, “please make me disappear,” and squeezed her eyes shut with all her might (Morrison 71). She blamed her eyes for everything: for not being capable of freedom, that she was such an ugly person, and that she remained miserable. Pecola was convinced that her life would change if her eyes were blue. The girl’s ugliness would disappear, and she herself would become happy, and everyone around would love her (Burcar 140). The girl’s appeal to a higher power suggests that with the appearance of an obsessive desire for the love of others, their approval and admiration, and Pecola’s madness begins.
In the novel, color has an important role; in particular, the blue color of the eyes that Pecola dreams of is a special symbol. A character is defined as something that serves as a conventional sign for a concept. A signifier is deeply emotional; to comprehend it, one needs to “become embedded” in the text’s mood (Burcar 144). It should also be mentioned that the mark in an artistic text is juxtaposed with such an artificial structure as the fictional image. In a general sense, blue can be interpreted as a symbol of the sky, eternity, wisdom, and tranquility. In many cultures, it symbolizes goodness, loyalty, constancy, and disposition, and in heraldry, it denotes chastity, good glory, and fidelity. Blue incorporates a paradox of excitement and relaxation, inducing a sense of coldness and reminiscent of the shadow. The blue surface appears to be distanced from the person, leading the eye into the depths. This color has “no bottom”; it never ends (Burcar 145). In myths, blue is a sacred image, the shade of the unknown, failure of reality, goals, and fanaticism.
In Christianity, blue is the color of the Virgin Mary, the color of heaven, the color of paradise, the place where all faithful Christians aspire to enter. In the mind of every Christian, there is a kind of “natural” association of the color of heaven with the Christian virtues that one follows, hence the association of blue with the Christian virtues (Burcar 145). In this association, it should be stated that the color blue also has negative meanings in English, which is proved by the enormous majority of negative values of the adjective blue: “dull, in a bad mood” (Burcar 146). In the context of the novel, blue as a symbol can be interpreted in the following senses: “blue dream” as something idyllic, unfulfilled, unattainable; “blue sky” is purity, chastity; “blue blood” is the noble origin (Burcar 146). Pecola was obsessed with the idea of obtaining blue eyes.
In her consciousness, this color released Pecola from the eyes of her ugliness, universal hatred, and neglect. It rendered her resemble the beautiful blond girl from the Mary Jane candy wrappers. Each pale-yellow square has a picture of little Mary Jane, its name after. A smiling white face, blond hair in a pleasant mess, eyes naturally blue, a world of absolute comfort and purity (Morrison 63). Although Mary Jane’s eyes themselves look defiantly, with underlying malice, Pecola still finds them very beautiful. She puts the sweet in her mouth and enjoys its sweetness. In a sense, to eat this candy means to eat those evil blue eyes, to eat Mary Jane (Burcar 146). This color possessed the girl, causing her to increasingly reject ethnicity and alienate herself from her nation and history.
Pecola believed that blue eyes were the only means to help her find her place in this stereotyped and racist society, something she had needed from the beginning. Indeed, in her heart, the girl knew that her wish was a pipe dream, but desperation and a hard life pushed her to explore every possible way to obtain what she wanted. Eventually, this dream caused Pecola to lose consciousness, permanently disconnecting her from reality. Pecola found her new bluest eyes in her madness, but only she saw them. They became for her a kind of cocoon in which she could hide from the others, protect herself from them, and not feel their anger (Morrison 79). It was not the freedom for which she had strived. Insanity, which served to further free the girl, was the solution for her. The motif of the girl’s madness serves in the novel not as a medical diagnosis but as a psychological device that allows the author to reveal the problem of the heroine’s alienation even from her nation.
It is also noteworthy that the author particularly emphasizes the presence of blue eyes as a privileged trait. A feature that elevates its wearer above all others is reached in a small, apparently insignificant fragment. It describes Cholly Breedlove’s idea of what God looks like: God is a good, kind older man with a gray head, a long gray beard, and small blue eyes. The eyes glance mournful when people die and evil when someone does terrible actions (Morrison 149). Completely obvious to the reader are the reasons for Pecola’s mental disorder. The girl perceived her skin color and ethnicity as a vice from the beginning, and society and white people only reinforced her belief (Morrison 151). A dysfunctional family, rape by her father, pregnancy and the death of a child, racism, and dreams of blue eyes contorted her consciousness; the girl was incapable of resisting this assault.
Thus, the function of the color blue in the novel consists of the following. A dysfunctional family, rape, pregnancy, the death of a child, the racial resentment of society, and the weight of awareness of her own ugliness forced Pecola to abandon her own inner beauty. That is, the beauty of her people, to distance herself from them, to renounce both herself and one’s true nature. The rejection of her culture led her to a standard of beauty that she could not conform to (Morrison 162). Dreams of blue eyes drove her crazy because she believed that only blue eyes would change her to white, making her happy. Blue as a symbol of purity and the sky would help the girl achieve mental and physical purity and cleanse herself of her skin’s dirty “blackness” (Morrison 157). Blue eyes would have opened her way to the ideal life of a white person who did not need to gather coal on the railroad.
Blue eyes would be a protection for the girl from the moral ugliness of her family and the hatred of those around her. The color blue in the novel symbolizes the unconscious desire for security. It can be stated that when the dreams of blue eyes finally drove the girl mad, all her desires were fulfilled. In the novel’s final pages, she converses with herself, admiring her bluest eyes while simultaneously worrying that someone else might have bluer ones (Morrison 181). Pecola Breedlove’s story was a reason for others to stop, reflect, and rethink the racial problem, the issue of self-perception, beauty, and ugliness.
Conclusion
Therefore, the author focuses on the issue of race and how Toni Morrison reveals it through color symbolism. The analysis aims to reveal the vision of the world of African-Americans because of the peculiarities of color symbolism. The color blue in the novel acts as a symbol of beauty and happiness that the protagonist strives for. As a characteristic of the unconscious desire for security, blue eyes drive the heroine out of her mind, thereby opening her way to a world she could never enter by remaining herself. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the idea of dirt and purity manifests itself in different ways. This theme is expressed in two different ways, related to each other.
The Bluest Eye refers to purity, honesty, beauty, and other values. At the same time, black people are associated with ugliness, filth, and immorality, not beauty. That is why the novel’s protagonist wanted azure eyes to change her disfigurement to beauty and have a chance at a better life. It is essential to note that the black characters in the novel argue themselves as ugly and insignificant to others. In this way, they form the opinion of those around them as dirty and unworthy people.
Works Cited
Burcar, Lilijana. “Imploding the Racialized and Patriarchal Beauty Myth through the Critical Lens of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” Journal for Foreign Languages, vol 9, no. 1, 2017, pp. 139-158.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage Books, 2007.