I thi
nk the line “Beauty is a simple passion, but, oh my friends, in the end/ you will dance the fire dance in iron shoes,” from Anne Sexton means that in the end we will all “dance in iron shoes” because in the end we all grow old. There will always be someone younger than us or someone prettier than us but we all age. We get to choose how we age, whether it be gracefully/beautiful or ugly/evil like the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The queen was so concerned about her looks and how Snow White was younger and prettier than she was that she didn't age well. The queen became ugly and evil and tried to kill Snow White over something as simple and trivial as beauty. I think this pertains to the context of The Bluest Eye because in both cases it involves beauty being used to measure value, despite us all ending up the same way no matter how beautiful someone is.
I think our ideas about beauty are formed by a number of things, such as our family, the media, and our society. Our ideas are influenced by what we grow up around. If our parents or other family members tell you what is considered beautiful, more often than not that is what you will grow up believing is beautiful too. Also, magazines and film play a part in how our ideas about beauty are formed. Models and celebrities are normally obsessed/gossiped over. We look at how beautiful and successful they are and strive to be and look like them. Furthermore, our society plays a huge role in what we consider to be beautiful. For example, in The Bluest EyeAfrican Americans are not considered the epitome of beauty, beauty is portrayed as blonde-haired and blue-eyed in magazines, movies, toys, etc.
I think people desire beauty so much goes along with our ideas on what beauty is. People desire to be beautiful because they think that beauty determines how valuable you are as a person. Beauty is highly sought after because if you are beautiful, then you feel like you are important and of high value. This idea also goes with how people idolize the successful and beautiful celebrities seen on television and in magazines.
So far, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, it is portrayed that for one to be beautiful you had to have blonde hair and blue eyes. The African American characters in The Bluest Eye are taught by the adults and the society around them that “whiteness” is the epitome of beauty and that everyone should strive to be that beautiful. Beauty is a way for the characters to establish a sense of self-worth. Many of the characters believe that their beauty/ugliness is what defines their value in society. One example of this is seen in the beginning of the book when Pecola and Frieda are gossiping about Shirley Temple.
“Frieda brought her four graham crackers on a saucer and some milk in a
blue-and-white Shirley Temple cup. She was a long time with the milk, and
gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face. Freida and she
had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was.” (Morrison, p 19).
Another example of “whiteness” being portrayed as the epitome of beauty is when the narrator, Claudia, is discussing baby dolls as Christmas gifts.
“It had begun with Christmad and the gift of dolls. The big, the special, the
loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll. From the clucking sounds
of adults I knew that the doll represented what they thought was my fondest
wish. I was bemused with the thing itself, and the way it looked. What was
I supposed to do with it? Pretend I was its mother? I had no interest in babies
or the concept of motherhood. ...I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see
of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the
desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me. Adults, older girls,
shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs - all the world had agreed that
a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child
treasured. ‘Here,’ they said, ‘this is beautiful, and if you are on this day ‘worthy’
you may have it.’ ...How strong was their outrage. Tears threatened to erase
the aloofness of their authority. The emotion of years of unfulfilled longing
preened in their voices.” (Morrison, p 19-21).
Another example from The Bluest Eye is when the narrator discusses where the Breedloves lived and why they continued to stay there.
“The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having
temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived
there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because
they believed they were ugly. Although their poverty was traditional and
stultifying, it was not unique. But their ugliness was unique. No one could
have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly. ...
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely
and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction,
their conviction. It was as though some mysterious al-knowing master had
given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it
without question. The master had said, ‘You are ugly people.’ They had
looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw,
in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie,
every glance. ‘Yes,’ they had said. ‘You are right.’ And they took the ugliness in
their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with
it. Dealing with it each according to his way.” (Morrison, p 38-39).
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