The Bluest Eye

"Here is the house it is green and white it has a red door it is very pretty here is the family mother father dick and jane live in the green-and-white house they are very happy. . . ." (Morrison 1)

Concepts of the norm. The societal understanding of perfection, of what is perfect and beautiful. How hurtful and exclusionary humankind can be. None are perfect, but some are allowed to pretend at it more perfectly than others. The rest are left to wallow in their own inadequacy and eventual hatred of all those whom are what is beautiful in their mind. A major theme of The Bluest Eye, perhaps the theme, is the affects that self-perception and self-worth-- or lack thereof-- can have on the human mind. The characters involved in this work, even though it at times is subconscious, deal with constant reiterations of the fact that they are less than worthwhile, a nuisance to family and society. They will never amount to the societal concepts of what is beautiful or the norm, nor did their parents, and are accordingly punished for it every day. "What did you puke on the bed clothes for? Don't you have sense enough to hold your head out of bed?" (Morrison 9) Claudia, one of the major protagonist and the only character narrated through first person, is made very early on to understand that she is pain to her family and society as a whole, second class. She responds to this lower citizenship with rancor and violence toward any object that is considered to be beautiful or perfect by traditional standards, such as Shirley Temple or dolls given to her at Christmas.

Soon a white girl comes to the school that Claudia and her sister Frieda attend. She seems to enchant everyone she comes into contact with-- except for the two sisters. "Frieda and I were bemused, irritated, and fascinated by her. We look hard for flaws to restore our equilibrium, but had to be content at first with uglying up her name" (Morrison 61). They felt this way about the girl not because of anything in particular she had done, but because they knew that by societal definitions, she was above them, more perfect and beautiful than they could ever be. Later encounters with her only serve to further confirm their beliefs, the girl shouting "I am cute! And you ugly!" (Morrison 71) at them repeatedly. Pecola, another narrator of this sad tale, shares these beliefs and is told in an even more violent and destructive way that she is worth nothing. She, in contrast, responds by hiding herself from the world. "Pecola tucked her head in- a funny, sad, helpless movement. . . as though she wanted to cover her ears." (Morrison 70)
We must ask ourselves, as a society: is conceptualized perfection something we still use to exclude those who do not possess "it". the overwhelming answer is yes, of course we do. Those who "have it" are paraded about in front of us in every media form at our disposal, making us feel less than they are, less human, less important. We do all we can to buy beauty, with one product or another, but always seem to find ourselves at a loss. Woman especially, are constantly degrading for not looking like the societal  ideal of perfection. Can we stop this vicious cycle? In some ways we have tried. "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (Anthology 586) In some ways we have even succeeded, but it seems that exclusive is part of the human condition, and ways will always be found to  employ it based upon physical criteria. Maybe one day the gene pool will thin and we'll collectively be ugly or beautiful. Although I hope for the latter, I'm sure at that point we'll base discrimination on some other criteria.