The Bluest Eye-Expository Essay

In this book the author talks about an African American girl that wants blue eyes because she thinks that by having blue eyes, people will think that she’s beautiful. She grew up in a time when white skin and color eyes were consider beautiful while black skin and no-blue eyes weren’t. During the period of time, racism was common. There were the KKK and discrimination towards all minorities but mostly towards African Americans. Many people suffered during this time.

One of the suffering ways were the low self-steeem of people. As we see in "The Bluest eye" Pecola wants blue eyes so people around her would think she's pretty. She thinks that blue eyes are the only thing that people like and appreciate. This is due to the low self-steem on Pecola. During this period of time beauty was considered to be white only.

People often don't think that there's a solution to racism but it is hard to find it. During all this time people have acted worst than ANIMALS killing and making others suffer. According to http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/NewYorker/Race.html; "The 1930's were a turbulent time for race relations in America. Despite the decline of such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan (which had enjoyed renewed support during the 1910's and 1920's) racism was as strong as ever in the Southern states. Furthermore, as this picture alluedes to, the increased presence of Black Americans in Northern cities (where many had migrated during WWII and especially during the Depression) resulted in increased tension between the races there as well. This image of a drunken African-American passed out in the middle of the city reflects the apprehension which many rich white New Yorkers felt at the the presence of so many blacks in what they considered to be their city." Basically this tells how big was racism in that time, ofcourse this affected African Americans' lives in many ways.

First, they don't have trust on themselves. They basically believe what they hear from other people or hope to be trated equally but that doesn't happens. Second, they just felt down by the propaganda as shown in http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/NewYorker/Race.html. And very last as we see in the Bluest Eye, the perception of beauty goes beyond real life. White skin and blue eyes were the only thing that Pecola wanted and what others saw or perceive in people.

Overall this book is a good perception of how a girl lived during this time and the reflection of people against each other. When I read this book I was impress on how out-of-real were the lifes of this characters. Racism still a big deal in this world.