The Bluest Eye I

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, all the protagonist Pecola wants is to have blue eyes so that she can become her definition of beautiful. Through all of the horrible things that happen in her life, she places the blame for the occurrences on the fact that she herself is ugly and unworthy and grasps on to the hope that one day she will be loved when she receives her blue eyes. “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.” (Morrison 46). She believes that blue eyes will solve her every problem and in some way replace the pain and fear in her heart with joy. What seems like an instant fix to a little girl, however, serves merely as a Band-Aid to cover the wounds which she has for so long endured. Even as Pecola, in a state of insanity, receives her prized blue eyes, she is still filled with an emptiness leaving her yearning for more.

Today, our generation is characterized by this constant struggle for wanting more and for settling for instant gratification that leaves us miserable and confused in the long run. Constantly conforming to society’s standards of “beauty” and appearance, the youth of today has become increasingly self absorbed and indifferent towards the mind-set and insecurities of others. Though we all have our own personal struggles with self-confidence raging within us that we feel a need to deal with, we are not for a moment concerned that our peers are for the most part facing the same daily struggles. Often times we think that others cannot possibly understand how we feel and are scared to seek counsel from them because they are different from us, but are not all humans capable of understanding human suffering?
Pauline says is well when she says, “I hurt just like them white women. Just ‘cause I wasn’t hoping and hollering before didn’t mean I wasn’t feeling pain” (Morrison 125).Many of us, like myself, have learned to disregard the emotions we are experiencing, and turn to superficial things such as alcohol and money to try to erase this hurt that arises when we actually come face to face with our problems. What we must realize is that we cannot remove our past from our present and that we must confront our problems because they make up and huge part of who we are. Last year, I experienced a lot of bullying from a particularly hateful individual in my grade. Much like Pecola, I was ridiculed and “insult(ed) (about things) above which (I) had not control” (Morrison 65). This tormenting left my self esteem at an all time low and it was not until I actually acknowledged the pain I was feeling that I was able to become confident again and cast away all of my temporary solutions.
The Dove Campaign for real beauty encourages girls to accept themselves for who they are.

The ever raging battle of self acceptance is one that our society needs to embrace in order to ease the inner turmoil in so many lives in the world. We must remember to be compassionate towards others because we would want them to be compassionate towards us in our time of need. “To imagine what it is like to be (another), to feel (their) pain, is to take the first step toward breaking the habits of racism and judging by appearance that “created” (them)” (Bump193). Most of all, we must accept ourselves with all of our imperfections and strive to let our inner beauty shine through and become the beautiful that so many of us our striving for. Only when we think we are beautiful, will the world be able to view us in the same light.