The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison - 1409 Words

What role do societal values and different cultures play in developing one’s sense of self. Bildungsroman literature in the 20th century embodies the virtues of different authors’ contexts and cultures, influencing the fictional stories of children’s lives around the world.. The Bluest Eye is a 1970 publication by Toni Morrison set in 1940s Ohio in America, focal around the consequence of racism in an American community on the growth of a child, distinct in its use of a range of narrative perspectives. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid is a novel set in post colonial Antigua, published in 1985 similarly revolving around the development of a child with strong relations to her traditional family, through a first person perspective. One’s sense†¦show more content†¦The omniscient perspective narrates the shop-owner’s reluctant acknowledgement of Pecola, explained through, â€Å"her blackness is static and dread†¦ that creates†¦ distaste in white eyes.† Emotive language is used to illustrate the antagonist, when the man is chara cterised unfavourably, speaking with ‘phlegm and impatience in his voice’, extending the author’s attitude towards racists and the social construct they represent. When Pecola leaves the store, the weeds on the ground she had previously embraced as pretty despite other’s opinions, is then identified as ugly as she rejects them - and with them, herself. This demonstrates how the experience taints the protagonist as she metaphorically conforms into society’s intolerant culture, and negatively affects her impression of her own acceptance in society. As the novel draws to a conclusion, Pecola’s sense of belonging is irrationally justified when she becomes insane and believes she has blue eyes, a theme throughout the book that represents Pecola’s internalised Eurocentric beauty ideals, a byproduct of the white-prejudiced society she is exposed to. Claudia, a narrative bystander in Pecola’s life, sympathises with Pecola’s menta l deterioration saying, â€Å"This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear†¦ the land kills of its own volition,† with Morrison again metaphorically blaming