Identity Crisis in the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Identity Crisis in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is regarded as one of the greatest Afro-American woman novelists. She is the first African-American woman who wins the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is successful in writing about race and gender. Most of her works highlight the problems of racism, marginalization and the identity crisis of Black community in the White society. She enumerates the struggles of the African-Americans in search of their own identity. She portrays how the African-American women long for their identity and dignity in the society where they are alienated and marginalized.

The Bluest Eye is the first novel of Toni Morrison which relates her own personal experiences as an Afro-American woman. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio which was the home town of Morrison. The novel talks about two black families – the Breedlove and the MacTeer.  Both are African Americans, however the Breedloves are poor African Americans “and they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantel over them, and went about the world with it” (28), whereas the MacTeers face the discrimination of racist society with the inner strength. The novel reflects the psychological conflict between the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ in a racially disintegrated society.

The novel talks about a young African-American girl, Pecola Breedlove who is preoccupied by the White standards of beauty. Morrison projects Pecola as the central character of the novel. Pecola seems to be physically ugly, financially deprived, emotionally unbalanced and socially disrespected.

Geraldine thinks that Pecola is the representation of all the negative characteristics of Black females. Geraldine hides her Black characteristics which are not accepted in the African-American society.

…She looked at Pecola. Saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head, hair matted where the plaits had come undone, the muddy shoes with the wad of gum peeping out from between the cheap soles, the soiled socks, one of which had been walked down into the heel on the shoe….(71)

Thus, Pecola feels inferior and she longs to have ‘Blue Eyes’ which to her seems to be the symbol of beauty. She struggles for her identity among the white community. She believes that if she has blue eyes, the symbol of white beauty; she will be beautiful like Shirley Temple whose golden locks, blue eyes, and pale skin serves as an image of perfection. She prays every night to have blue eyes with the hope that would change her life and everyone would love her.

…Long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike. She was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk. The first letter of her last name forced her to sit in the front of the room always…. She also knew that when one of the girls at school wanted to be particularly insulting to a boy, or wanted to get an immediate response from him, she could say, “Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove! Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove!” and never fail to get peals of laughter from those in earshot, and mock anger from the accused. (34)

Pecola is rejected for being Black, not only by the White society but also rejected by the Black people. The Black people admire the White beauty and see themselves through the eyes of White people. Pecola is hated by her own mother, Pauline Breedlove, who considers Pecola as ‘ugly’. Pecola is dominated by her own people, own race. Even among her own community she longs for her identity.  She suffers oppression because of race and gender. She is not supported and protected by her own family. She is a victim of both sexist and racist oppression. She is raped and pregnant by her own father, Cholly Breedlove who is a drunken. Cholly is also a victim of the White society which hates and exploits him. He doesn’t provide any support to his family. He abuses his wife and the whole family. He burns their house. He has no opportunity to get self-respect. Finally he dies in a workhouse.

Morrison brings out the conflict of the self against the ‘Other’ through the remarkable characters, Pecola and Claudia who were the primary focus of the novel. Morrison uses the character Pecola to represent the identity crisis. Pecola has been depicted as a voiceless character and it is Claudia who speaks for her. Being voiceless, Pecola cannot represent herself. Claudia functions as the narrator who retells the story of Pecola. Claudia gives voice to Pecola who remains silent because of the society which rejects her for being black.

Claudia and her sister Frieda satisfied themselves with their blackness. “We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (57).

When Pecola is in search of her identity, her own community, her family and her peers cast her as the ‘Other’ and she cannot rise above it. She is powerless. She is isolated and marginalized by the American society and by her own community. The society in which she lives considered her as the ‘Other’. They marginalize her for being black and ugly. Morrison gives a description about the marginalization of Pecola:

All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was first hers and she gave to us. All of us – all who knew her – felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. (162-163)

        Pecola’s self-representation was denied in her own community and it leads to the crisis of self-identity. Identity plays an important role in knowing and understanding of who we are and who we are not. In order to create and define one’s own identity, people use their own appearance, intellect and social status. Bernd Simon argues: