The Bluest Eyes

Hameeda Tasneem
Pd. 2

The Bluest Eye

How does Pecola struggle throughout the story and how does Toni Morrison use metaphors, foreshadowing and symbolism in this book?



There is a lot of white cultural domination in The Bluest Eye, which eventually sets the theme of the book. I thought that Pecola is very particularly vulnerable to cultural voices that eventually teach her to hate herself. And I really think Claudia is an interesting choice of a narrator. She and her sister, Frieda, grow up in the same environment as Pecola. They are similarly poor and black, attend the same school, and live in the same neighborhood. Like Pecola, they are subject and vulnerable to the message of black self-hatred. The white baby doll given to Claudia as a Christmas gift wounds her self-esteem because the inherent message in such a gift is that whiteness, not blackness, is desirable. In a way, I thought that Claudia was proud of being an African American, if society didn’t see white...