الهيمنة العرقية: رواية العين الأكثر زرقة لتوني موريسون(1970) | ||
| مجلة کلية الآداب . جامعة بني سويف | ||
| Article 8, Volume 15, Issue 30, March 2014, Pages 5-38 PDF (10.68 M) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jfabsu.2014.423694 | ||
| Author | ||
| Dr. Muhammad Moustafa Muhammad* | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Abstract: Despite the enormous critical approaches done on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), the Nobel Laureate’s first novel, none has referred to its resemblance to the Snow White fairy tale. All of Morrison’s novels turn to the complex racial, social and cultural issues that impact Africans in America. Empirical evidence suggests that these phenomena are the legacy of slavery. As a famous literary tale, the fairy tale features in the novel through the mirror as a patriarchal tool enslaving women. The study focuses primarily on Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old girl who has been socially indoctrinated through a system of rewards and punishments. Through observation and participation, Pecola develops an inferiority complex and believes that she is ugly and that African standards of beauty are inferior to European standards. The emasculation of Pecola’s self-image is rooted in the legacy of slavery passed on to her by her parents. Every aspect of Pecola’s young life is stamped and represented with Eurocentric imagery. These representations of superior Eurocentric aesthetic standards are super-heightened by Pecola’s view of divinity in white flesh. The manifestation of Pecola’s hatred of her self-image is represented by her fervent desire for blue eyes. She constantly prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. After she is raped by her father and gives birth to a premature baby that later dies, Pecola’s obsessions drive her insane and she withdraws into a world of fantasy wherein she is convinced that no one has eyes that are bluer than hers. Pecola’s self-hatred is nurtured by her social environment where white cultural norms and aesthetics permeate every aspect of her being. Morrison highlights the importance of recognizing the dehumanization and objectification of children, specifically black girls, who are often most vulnerable to problems in society due to poverty, gender, and racial identity. Through recognizing the racial subtext in “fairness” as associated with beauty, this study explores the problem the young African-American girls face by trying to imitate fictitious white fairy tale icons. By referring to the parallelism between the fairy tale and The Bluest Eye, the study shows the image of the broken mirror featuring literally as a metaphor of the fragmented psyche of the major black female characters in the novel. The study also proves that Pecola does try to fight her subjection, but it is impossible to be avoided at the end. The study reaches the conclusion that Pecola is the truest kind of victim in The Bluest Eye. However, through another character, Claudia, Morrison gives a gleam of hope to her characters at the end of the novel. While resolving that even Claudia’s voice is amputated, the study proposes that what Morrison is offering is not only hope but an invocation for all women to destroy their captivating mirrors. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| الهيمنة العرقية....رواية العين الأكثر زرقة لتوني موريسون | ||
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