Pursuing Identity

How people look at themselves is not the same way others look at them. No matter what, people always care about their appearance, and if they care too much about it, it can easily eat away at their self-confidence. The beauty standard set for women that originated years ago and still remains today is blue eyes and blond hair. In America, the ideal has sustained, with the appearance of blond hair and blue eyes deemed as the superior physical features. From the brightness and youthfulness the colors of blond hair and blue eyes radiate, those two features are the epitome of beauty. The acceptance of these popularized beauty standards that contrast with the characters’ appearances in The Bluest Eye make them reject themselves to search for an alternative identity that satisfies the standard and themselves.

Although Morrison emphasizes the desire of having blue eyes more than wanting blonde hair, it is the eyes that affect the way people see the world. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola is an underprivileged girl in her community that is often looked down upon. To her peers, Pecola is the lowest of the low, encapsulating all the general characteristics of what it means to be black in America: poor, having working parents, and living with a dysfunctional family. Her desire for a new set of eyes is in hopes of getting a new and brighter perspective that clears up her darkened world.

A research done by the psychologist Festinger argued that individuals feel pressured towards uniformity within their group, which makes them compare themselves to others to find their place within their group. According to the social comparison theory, “individuals use other people to fulfill their informational needs to evaluate their own opinions and abilities” (Hegtdevt). In these cases of comparison, researchers Wood and Hooren observed that individuals who compared themselves to others ended up seeing themselves more favorably. When people feel their self-esteem targeted, they tend to target unalike individuals for comparison to verify their self-worth. In The Bluest Eye, the characters despise themselves because of how black they are, yet they also could not help but want blue eyes because of how unique they would be for an African American to have such a valuable and praised physical feature. Specifically, Pecola also dreams of having blue eyes as a solution to improve her life. To her peers, Pecola captures all the aspects of black lifestyle, making her the best target for comparison. Though they are merely all the same, they react to her wish by choosing Pecola as the scapegoat for their embarrassment of themselves. Since her peers are so shameful of themselves, they consciously pick on the most underprivileged member of the community, which allows them to boost their self-esteem.

Beauty is often tied in with wealth, with the level of presentability determining the attractiveness of a person. Generally, people in higher classes are able to afford luxurious care and a flattering wardrobe to enhance their appearance - seeming more orderly and elegant. Pecola’s mother, Pauline, works for a white family. Before, she often got into fights about money issues with her husband Cholly, who has a drinking problem. Making most of the money on her own and feeling detached from Cholly makes her feel isolated. She has a few physical damages to her appearance (loss of teeth and a deformed foot), which make her lose all her confidence and become detached from reality. To cope with her insecurities of appearance and her financial problems, she distances herself from her family and seeks a job of being a maid for a rich white family. Living with a dysfunctional family that makes her feel emptier inside prompts her turn to the white family she works for as a cleanse for all her impurities. Being able to observe and be involved in a white and wealthy environment allows her to feel the “beauty, order, cleanliness, and praise” (Morrison 127) that she could not have on her own. Her own family strips her of her happiness, and her heart fills up with satisfaction working for the white family because of the beauty she sees in their order and wealth that comes with higher class.

Geraldine is another African American woman who is in the middle-class and is much higher financially than those that live in Pecola and Claudia’s community. She wants to continue to “‘move up’ in the world and assimilate into white culture” by strongly rejecting black lifestyle, to which she considers being “dirt[y], [in] poverty, and ignoran[t]” (Telgen). She accepts and prioritizes the white standards of living in an attempt to absorb whiteness since she distinguishes herself so greatly from others who are lower in class. For example, she rarely allows her son to play with other black kids unless they are also high in class, and she generally sees interaction with other black people, especially in lower classes, as making her “dirtier” and going down rather than moving up into the superior white culture. When Geraldine encounters Pecola, she immediately notices her appearance - her worn-out and dirty clothes - and aggressively shoos her away. She can only find beauty in those that fit with ideal standards and class because eliminating the blackness surrounding her reassures herself that she satisfies these white standards.

Maureen is a more privileged black girl, who is lighter skinned and wealthier than most kids around her. She has no obvious flaws and has all the attention from teachers and students, the beauty, and the wealth that most black kids lack. She temporarily befriends Pecola only to turn against her as she mocks Pecola about her father. When Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola disapprove of her joking, she uses her reputation to belittle them more by shouting, "’I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly e mos. I am cute!’" (Morrison 73) As a result of attacking her pride, she immediately tears down at the girls to try to put herself above them again. In an interview with Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison, Maureen differentiates herself from these three girls because “she receives her self-esteem from society's approval of her beauty, not because she is confident and secure in who she is” (Telgen). She looks for societal standards for guidance, and because she internalizes them, she arrogantly holds her head up high knowing that she is admired and puts up a facade that seems picture-perfect.

Pecola’s infatuation for blue eyes also stems from her being in the low class, because obtaining them would allow her to be considered beautiful by societal standards and would give her the fame and wealth for her beauty. Famous white females known for their beauty such as Shirley Temple are loved for their lovable features that includes blue eyes and blond hair. Surely, Pecola also admires their beauty, especially Shirley Temple, by investing in merchandise and utilizing items like drinking milk out of a blue-and-white Shirley Temple cup in hopes of gaining all the whiteness and the beauty that shines around Shirley. As she deeply admires white female celebrities who all have bright blue eyes and fair skin, she associates their wealth and success with their beauty. They make so much money off of their beauty, which she could also do if she had the same features and was beautiful like them. 

On the other hand, the narrator Claudia, dislikes Shirley Temple and does not understand the admiration people have for her. She does not feel the urge to wish for blue eyes or a change in skin color because she feels content with what she is already naturally given. In a study, researchers found the African Americans were influenced by their surroundings, especially those who cared for them like parents, pastors, caretakers, etc. One subject was well-influenced by her mother, saying “‘she did such a good job with making me feel really good about myself.’ Therefore this subject was unaware of any racial identity conflict” (Johnson). Though Claudia’s mother is generally rough on her, she realizes it was all love behind all her mother’s actions, which gave her greater ability to be satisfied with what she has. In Pecola’s life, she did not have an established mother figure to turn to for reassurance and nurture. Furthermore, her mother was victim to white beauty standards before and gave up knowing she would never achieve it. However, she is still under the influence of white ideals even after because she found another imaginary world of whiteness and wealth to indulge herself in. Consequently, Pecola has lived out her desires of wanting to be someone else and not herself because she was never cared enough for to feel content with herself. Within African American families, “[t]he child's intense curiosity is not responded to verbally. Adults demand deference and fend off questions” (Rosenberg). The parents’ treatment leaves their younger girls full of naivety that forces them to experience things on their own but also makes them susceptible to major problems like the influence of white beauty standards.

The powers that beauty can have on an individual are destructive to the mind. Pecola’s sole desire for blue eyes drowns her into a belief that beauty determines her identity and is a solution to her problems. Many people, especially blacks, idolize the white beauty standard but feel pressured by its great difficulty to fully satisfy. As Patton says, “[t]he desire to change her outer appearance to meet a Eurocentric ideal may lead her to loathe her own physical appearance and believe that ‘Black is not beautiful...that she can only be lovely by impersonating someone else.’” As a last resort, many black females turn to this widely accepted standard to fit in and feel secured by society’s standards.

Historically, blacks were not always pressed about needing to fit in with white beauty standards. Early modern Europeans used to perceive Africans rather positively, praising their smooth and shiny skin, bright smiles, and unique hairstyles. The only source of negativity came from their unsettled feelings since Africans had a new and different appearance to them. The negativity escalated with the Enlightenment hierarchies and the rise of slavery in America. Starting from the late eighteenth century, people began to look down on Africans and make irrational assumptions, such as saying their dark skin coming from the labor they did under the sun. White owners ingrained into slaves’ minds that they were inferior. The massive emphasis on white beauty ideals and no exposure to a minority who was widely accepted was fixed into everyone’s minds that those white standards were undoubtedly considered beautiful. Judging physical appearance became the norm and also the method in which individuals defined and perceived others. White Americans believed that Europeans were superior, creating the white ideology, whereas they described Africans similar to primates. Years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, beauty became very important to African Americans as they demanded civil rights and raised awareness about cultural expression. The civil rights movement had the slogan “Black is Beautiful,” which hoped to spread positivity and allow African Americans to embrace their heritage and natural features. 

In fact, Morrison was inspired by the “Black is Beautiful” movement and her childhood to write The Bluest Eye. One of her friends from elementary school wished for blue eyes, which she remembered as an adult when the movement came about. She wanted to write a story that challenged the ideas of beauty and to acknowledge the destruction that it could lead to. As time went on, African Americans began to accept themselves and embrace their naturalness. Women reject straightened hair and attire that makes them look presentable to people that once feared them. They continue to celebrate their natural features “they were supposed to feel ashamed of: curly hair, brown skin color, lush features” (Camp) in response to the humiliation given by white supremacists who believed they should conform to their ideals. With the rejection of conforming and fully welcoming their true heritage, the pressure that the white beauty standard once had has been greatly reduced. To demonstrate the destructive powers of abiding by those societal ideals before that often lead to self-loathing, the embrace of one’s culture allows for the self-acceptance that is the true indicator of identity.

Works Cited

Camp, Stephanie M. H. "Black Is Beautiful: An American History." Journal of Southern History, vol. 81, no. 3, Aug. 2015, pp. 675–90. EBSCOhost. Accessed 8 Jan. 2021.

Hegtvedt, Karen A. "Social Comparison Processes." Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd ed., vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA, 2001, pp. 2649-57. Gale eBooks. Accessed 8 Jan. 2021.

Johnson, Rolanda L. "Racial Identity from an African Amercian Perspective." Journal of Cultural Diversity, vol. 9, no. 3, Fall 2002, p. 73+. Gale Academic OneFile. Accessed 12 Jan. 2021.

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage International, 2013.

Patton, Tracey Owens. "Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair." NWSA Journal, vol. 18, no. 2, Summer 2006, p. 24+. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Rosenberg, Ruth. "Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in the Bluest Eye." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Janet Witalec, vol. 173, Detroit, MI, Gale, 2003. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 5 Jan. 2021.

Telgen, Diane, "The Bluest Eye." Novels for Students, vol. 1, Gale, 1997, pp. 66-88. Gale eBooks. Accessed 5 Jan. 2021.

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