The Concept of Race in Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject African Studies - African diaspora, grade: 14/20, Sultan Moulay Sliman University, language: English, abstract: This research paper tends to cover several issues that concern the black race in the light of The Bluest Eye. It consists of two parts. Each part includes two chapters. The first chapter of the first part is about the racialization of beauty. In other words, it shows how the notion of beauty is culturally constructed. The white dominant culture creates standards of beauty, which do not allow African Americans to consider themselves as beautiful because of their dark of skin.

The second chapter further explains how some of the characters in The Bluest Eye long for whiteness because it stands for beauty, purity as well as cleanliness. It also tries to uncover the veil on the issue of whiteness in various fields including the cinema, the American literary canon as well as the Christian creed.

The first chapter of the second part explores the abusive interactions between black and white characters and shows how a small variation in the color of skin can strike some people of their human nature. It also examines the role of capitalism in giving rise to racism and classism. The second and the last chapter examines the issue of internalized racism. That is to say, to what extent all the issues that were mentioned in the previous chapters can affect the psyche of the main characters throughout the novel.