THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF INTERNALIZED RACISM IN TONI MORRISON’S THE BLUEST EYE

Abstract

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a brilliant and exemplary novel based on racial
discrimination, sexism and class distinctions. Morrison at the primary stage of her literary
career considers racism as the African’s primary obstacle. Pecola, the protagonist of the novel
comes from a poor family and becomes the victim of several people. To gain beauty, affection,
care and self-respect she needs only a pair of the bluest eyes. Pecola desires the bluest eyes
because it is a symbol of white beauty. She longs for tender affection but she doesn’t receive it
till the end. Due to that Pecola creates an imaginary character within herself and talks with it
and at last the poor girl’s hopeless need for affection results in her madness. Though classism
and sexism, the other primary causes of oppression are also treated in the novel, they are over
showed by Morrison’s emphasis on racism.
At the end of the novel, Morrison does not suggest that the victim is to blame for all that
happens, in every instance. She is, however, exploring a larger question of ‘being’ through the
characters of this novel. In spite of the existence of the “other”, what is important is each
individual’s willingness to take responsibility for his or her own life. Morrison does not suggest
that external forces, such as racism and sexism, are unimportant. Neither the indictment of white
society for its oppression of blacks nor the indictment of blacks for their treatment of women is
her sole interest or focus.