The Bluest Eye and Internalized Oppression Pecola

Internalized Racism Is to accept the opinions and institutions of one’s oppressor as one’s own, eventually fulfilling a detrimental stereotype while feeling as though the stereotype is inherently part of one’s person.

How This Manifests in Pecola’s life Feeling as though she cannot be loved Through her family’s conviction She is young and impressionable People telling her that she is ugly Her wanting/trying to figure out why She is searching for the love she sees others people having

The Evidence

Black e mo Black e mo Ya daddy sleeps nekked. Her Society “They danced a macabre ballet around the victim, whom, for their own sake, they were prepared to sacrifice to the flaming pit. Black e mo Black e mo Ya daddy sleeps nekked. Stch ta ta stch ta ta stach ta ta ta ta ta Pecola edged around the circle crying. She had dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands.” Morrison, page 65

Her Family “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question. The master had said, “You are ugly people.” They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. “Yes,” they had said. “You are right” Morrison, page 38

Herself “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” “Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big blue pretty eyes. Run, Jip, run. Jip runs, Alice runs. Alice has blue eyes. Jerry has blue eyes. Jerry runs. Alice runs. They run with their blue eyes.” Morrison, page 46

The Connection

“Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”” -Toni Morrison

El Fin