Racism

Racism is perceived differently by each of the characters in The Bluest Eye.

For Pecola, racism is something very hurtful and intimidating although she is the one using racism against herself. She accepts the standards of beauty set by white people and she detests her ugliness because she cannot have white skin and blue eyes. She blames her brown eyes for the hardship she goes through because she believes “if those eyes … were different, … beautiful, [things] would be different” (46). Pecola is always worried of being discriminated and if anything happens she suspects her skin and eye color to be the reason. Because of this self destructive mentality, “she would never know her beauty” (47).

Frieda and Claudia see racism as a completely different thing. For them, racism is an injustice that they do not understand why it exists. For them, nothing’s wrong with having dark colored skin and in no way is it worse than being white. They “felt comfortable in … [their] skins … and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (74). Unlike Pecola, they were not intimidated by racism and they even fought against it.

Maureen Peal uses racism as a tool to defend herself in adverse situations. Although she would not show any racist behaviors in any other occasions, she calls Frieda, Claudia and Pecola “Black and ugly black e mos” (73) because she felt offended. This gives her a sense of superiority because she has something that the black girls do not have: the wealth and beauty.

The way each of the characters response to racism reflects their personality. The contrasting responses Frieda, Claudia and Pecola demonstrate prove the importance of self confidence and courage because the sisters’ way of fronting racism would be better for Pecola.