Quest for Personal Identity in Toni Morrison's the Bluest Eye

Post World War I, many new opportunities were disposed to the growing and expanding pigeonholing of African Americans living in the North. healthy-nigh 500,00 African Americans moved to the northern states between 1910 and 1920. This was the beginning of a continuing migration northward. More than 1,500,000 blacks went north in the 1930s and 2,500,00 in the 1940s. sustenance in the North was very hard for African Americans. run for riots, limited housing resulting in slum housing, and restricted job opportunities were except a few of the many hardships that the African American people had to attend at this time. Families often had to separate, social agencies were overcrowded with people that all infallible help, crime rates increased and many other resulting problems ensued. The Bluest bosom by Toni Morrison takes place during this time period. A main story in this novel is the quest for individual identity and the influences of the family and community in that quest (Trescott). This theme is present throughout the novel and unpatterned in many of the characters. Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, and Pauline Breedlove and are all embodiments of this quest for identity, as well as symbols of the quest of many of the Black northern newcomers of that time.

The Breedlove family is a group of people under the same roof, a family by name only. Cholly (the father) is a constantly drunk and abusive man. His abusive manner is obvious towards his wife Pauline physically and towards his daughter Pecola sexually. Pauline is a mammy to a white family and continues to favor them over her biologic family. Pecola is a little black girl with low self esteem. The being has led her to believe that she is ugly and that the epitome of beautiful requires blue eyes. thus every night she prays that she will wake up with blue eyes. Brought up as a poor unwanted girl, Pecola Breedlove desires the acceptance and love of society. The show of Shirley Temple beauty... If you want to get a bounteous essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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