The Bluest Eyes Essay, Research Paper
“The Bluest Eyes”
Toni Morrison was an African American woman that had gone through almost forty years of suppression. In an excerpt from her novel The Bluest Eyes, she tells the story of a young girl named Claudia who receives a white baby doll every Christmas. Claudia does not like the doll so she decided to tear it apart like every other “white baby doll” that she has received.
At this time, African American women were still not able to participate in some of the activities that Caucasian women were involved in. Through the eyes of Claudia is when the reader sees how and African American views the world and what other people think about them. It is expected of a young African American girl to desire to be Caucasian. Obviously this is not true. Everyone is proud to be who he or she is no matter what the color of your skin is.
After receiving the baby doll, Claudia proceeded to then dismember the baby doll to see what made it tick and to hopefully discover the secret of its beauty. After she took the baby doll apart, all the adults started to scold her. But she didn’t care. She did not like the baby doll anyways.
The most disturbing part of the story is when Morrison says that Claudia, after dismembering the dolls, wishes she could also do the same thing to little Caucasian girls. Those are not thoughts of a little girl. But then again everyone has his or her own opinion.
Morrison’s use of all these negatives thoughts towards Caucasian give me the feeling that she was not too fond of them. She uses Claudia as her voice. Only through Claudia could she discuss her true feelings towards Caucasians without getting reprimanded.
I enjoyed reading this little excerpt because it made me realize that there are certain things that will never change. No matter how many laws are passed and no matter what anybody does, there will always be racism. There is little change from the way people thought about other races since this time. But society will always have stereotypes of other races and people no matter what you do or what you accomplish.
Morrison has used her novels to voice the thoughts of African Americans since it is never heard of that often. I feel that whoever reads any of Morrison’s novels will learn a little more about African Americans and not rely on the stereotypes that have been passed down to ever generation. Hopefully, by that time, everyone will have their own opinion on different races and not just follow previous beliefs.