最蓝的眼睛 论文

Racial Discrimination and Surging Desire in the Bluest Eye

Abstract: As one of the most outstanding black writers in contemporary American literature，Toni Morrison is the first African American woman winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. The Bluest Eye is her first novel, which establishes her literary reputation as a renowned black writer. Her works always explore and reflect the black’s destiny. This easy focuses on internalized racism which leads to deep hurt on the black. And in this environment, the undercurrent of desire popples fiercely. Key words: Toni Morrison; The black; Racial discrimination; Surging desire

摘 要：作为美国文坛中一位杰出的黑人作家，托尼.莫里森是第一位获得诺贝

尔文学奖的黑人女作家。《最蓝的眼睛》是她的第一本小说，奠定了她在文坛上的地位，使她成为一个有名的黑人作家。她的作品都以探索和反映黑人命运为主题。本文主要讨论的是内化的种族主义对黑人造成的心灵创伤，并且在这种环境下，欲望的横流汹涌澎湃。

关键词：托尼.莫里森；黑人；种族歧视；欲望横流

1. Background

The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by American author Toni Morrison. It is Morrison's first novel, written while Morrison was teaching at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own. The story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio named Pecola. It takes place against the backdrop of America's Midwest as well as in the years following the Great Depression. At that time, although slave system had been cancelled, the black had been unable to get rid of racial discrimination that exists in every corner of American society. The Bluest Eye is told from the perspective of Claudia MacTeer as a child and an adult, as well as from a third person omniscient viewpoint. Claudia and Frieda MacTeer live in Ohio with their parents. The MacTeers take in a boarder, Mr. Henry and Pecola. The protagonist of the novel, Pecola is a troubled young girl with a hard life. Her parents are constantly fighting, both physically and verbally. Pecola is continually being told and reminded of what an “ugly” girl she is, thus fueling her desire to be a Caucasian girl with blue eyes. Throughout the novel it is revealed that not only has Pecola had a life full of hatred and hardships, but her parents have as well. Pecola’s mother, Pauline only feels alive and happy when she is working for a rich white family. Her father, Cholly, is a drunk who was left with his aunt when he was young and ran away to find his father, who wanted nothing to do with him. Both Pauline and Cholly eventually lost the love they once had for one another. While Pecola is doing dishes, her father rapes her. His motives are unclear and confusing, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. Cholly flees after the second time he rapes Pecola, leaving her pregnant. The entire town of Lorain turns against her, except Claudia and Frieda. In the end Pecola’s child is born prematurely and dies. Claudia and Frieda give up the money they had been saving and plant flower seeds in hopes that if the flowers bloom, Pecola's baby will live; the marigolds never bloom. Pecola always eagers to have a pair of blue eyes and hope this pair of eyes gets her out of the pain of life. However, at

the end of the story, tortured Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes. 2. The reason of racial discrimination

White people have strong racial discrimination to the black. We easily find the reason in the history. First, there is the existence of an institutionalized racism. Although it had ben legally cancelled. But it showed us that before the policy the United States government has defined the black culture, behavior and morality of completely negative. This determines the black cannot escape the influence of racism. Second, there exists the performance of black discrimination in the provision of an excuse. Black people have their own reasons, many black people themselves for the performance of the Government to implement its policies of racial discrimination in the provision of a pretext. In addition, there are black people, in particular, a number of black women, who used to rely on government relief of life, nothing. 3. Influence of racial discrimination A. Imperceptible change on aesthetics

Throughout the novel, the concept that whiteness is superior is everywhere. White people think their skin is more beautiful than the black. Sadly, the black people have accepted white standards of beauty, thinking Maureen’s light skin to be attractive and Pecola’s dark skin to be ugly. The adoration of the Shirley Temple doll given to Claudia also proved it. And we can see that Pauline Breedlove’s preference for the little white girl she cares for. The person who suffers most from white beauty standards is Pecola. She believes that if she has a pair of blue eyes her life will full of respect and love, instead of bias and abuse. In her mind, it’s the simple of having a bright happy future. However, strong desire just destroys her. It’s one of the most vital facts which lead to the tragedy.

B. Profound damage on everyone’s life

In the novel, the Chollys are always victims of racial discrimination. They suffer from the loneliness, humiliation, prejudice and the violence. Even one’s life has been changed because of this. It can’t be hard to find that all of these terrible things extend from generation to generation. And Pecola is the most obvious candidate for our sympathy because she undergoes a shocking amount of abuse. Thomas Merton said, “ the truth that many people never understand, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you.\school boys humiliate her by making fun of her father and want her to absorb their self-hatred. A group of boys circle around her and scream, “Black e mo. Black a mo., Yadaddy sleeps necked”, defensively ignoring the color of their own skins. They forget that they are black, too. What they do is just an admittance of the insecurity that they have about their own identities. What’s more, Pecola sits alone. And teachers ignore her. Worse, even at home, Pecola can’t get a little love and care. Her mother thinks she is ugly and prefers the white baby who she looks after as a baby-sitting in a white family. Continuingly, she is forced to witness her parent’s quarrels, she is tormented by Junior, she is raped by her father, and she is used by Soaphead Church.

Pecola had a life full of hatred and hardships, but her parents have as well. Pauline,

her mother, has a lame foot and has always felt isolated. She loses herself in movies, which reaffirm her belief that she is ugly and that romantic love is reserved for the beautiful. She encourages her husband’s violent behavior in order to reinforce her own role as a martyr. She feels most alive when she is at work, cleaning a white woman’s home. She loves this home and despises her own. Cholly, Pecola’s father, was abandoned by his parents and raised by his great aunt, who died when he was a young teenager. He was humiliated by two white men who found him having sex for the first time and made him continue while they watched. He ran away to find his father but was rebuffed by him. By the time he met Pauline, he was a wild and rootless man. He feels trapped in his marriage and has lost interest in life. Later, he rapes Pecola with the mixed emotions of love and hatred. After Pecola miscarries of her pregnancy, Cholly rapes her again. What happens in Pauline and Cholly make them sensible. They can’t take good care of themselves. Their values still haven’t shape well. So how can Pecola have a happy life? We can imagine that good parents will have good children. But their family obviously has no fortune. 4. Surging Desire

A number of characters seem always hide their desires; maybe are the normal bodily needs or some abnormal desires. Geraldine prefers cleanness and order. She can’t tolerate anything about messiness of sex. It makes she becomes indifferent as a result. Similarly, Pauline indulged in leaning and organizing the house of a while family and even had little care of her family. She forgets to show her affection to her husband and daughter. Lacking of mother love leads Pecola tragic ending of life. What’s more, Soaphead Church is very disgusted to human body. And such peculiarity not only leads to preference for objects but also makes he had special affection to little girls. In the book, there is much distortion of human nature. Owing to the denial of the desire, people become another one and lost themselves.

We shouldn’t suppress our needs. Of course, neither can we pour the desire casually. However in the book, Cholly can’t control himself. It embodied in Cholly rapes her daughter this thing. One Saturday afternoon, drunken Cholly returnes home and see the daughter Pecola is washing dishes in the kitchen. Disgust, guilt, pity and love all of these are mixed in Cholly’s heart. Scene that Pecola scratches by the thumb of foot reminds Cholly the past he spent happily with Pauline. Gradually, it leads to the initiation of sexual desire. On the other hand, Pecola does not revolt eventually leads to the tragedy. Precisely because of his irreversible mistake, his daughter has a miserable life. It’s a mistake that has no doubt presented darkness of human nature. In contrast, Frieda’s experience is less painful than Pecola’s because her parents immediately come to her rescue, playing the appropriate role of protector. How important the parents mean to their children. Considering Cholly’s childhood and adolescent, we may be more forgiving to him. Cholly is abandoned by his parents. The lack of love nutrition afflicts little Cholly’s heart. In the process of growth, he suffers whites insult; it can be said to him buried violence. With the fall of the deep-rooted bad habits Cholly became another one. It is not difficult to explain the possibility of tragedy and will Nature. This tragedy is not isolated cases, but such as four seasons cycle kike occurs in each generation of black body.

No matter how messy and sometimes violent human desire is, it is also the origin of happiness. Read carefully, it is clear that many characters are getting happiness by reliving their desire. These experiences satisfy their body needs and know more about sexuality. Claudia prefers to have her sense indulged by wonderful scents, sounds, and tastes than to be given a hard white doll. Cholly’s greatest happiness is eating the best part of a watermelon and touching a girl for the first time. Pauline’s happiest memory is of sexual fulfillment with her husband. To a large degree, The Bluest Eye is about the pleasures and dangers of sexual initiation. At that time, parents wouldn’t teach the children what is sex. At the age of right time, they explore the difference of man and women. It’s the nature of human being. Only follow the nature people develop smoothly. 5. Conclusion

Toni Morrison said, “I wrote the Bluest Eye because someone would actually be apologetic about the fact that their skin was so dark…so the book was about to taking it in, before we all decide that we are all beautiful, and have always been beautiful; I wanted to speak on the behalf of those who didn’t catch this right away. I was deeply concerned about the feeling of being ugly.” Through the tragedy of Pecola, Morrison strives to expose the damages caused by the racial discrimination and strong condemns the oppression of the blacks by white mainstream culture. More importantly, the book shows us different perspectives towards such difficult dilemma. Claudia’s brave and kind, Cholly’s cruelty, Pauline’s cold and carelessness and Pecola’s innocence, all of these rich the level of theme. In addition, the undercurrent of desire flows and flows. The people who depress their desire get their heart distorted. The people who expose the body needs causally results the bitter life of the victim and himself. Only the people who relive their needs appropriately get happiness. We can explore many more themes from different ways .In a word; it’s really a meaningful book.