K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Language and Literature (Jan 2000)
ABJECT SELFHOOD IN TONI MORISSON'S THE BLUEST EYE
Abstract
The Bluest Eye (TBE) is Toni Morrison's tribute to Afro-American women who are derailed by psychological racism and black complicity. As "a minority in both class and class" (TBE 18), they are defenseless against the insidiousness of psychological racism, which induces them to devalue their self-worth. In this novel Morrison talks about Pecola Breedlove, who is affected by the dominant culture's beauty's standard which results in leading here to her tragic life. Her belief that she is ugly and that the supreme beauty means White and blond is reinforced by commercialism. Therefore she wants to be as White as possible and have a pair of blue eyes, as the ultimate emblem of inclusion, though the White reject her. Having been induced to reject her own culture and being rejected by that which she longs for membership, she is stranded in no man's land. Her self cannot be healthily articulated, having no community to anchor it. Thus she becomes an abject person.
