Eurocentric Beauty Standards in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970)

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to highlight aspects of Eurocentrism and its impact in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970). Eurocentrism is the sum of perceptions and attitudes that distinguish Europeans from non-Europeans. It is a biased world-view that perceives European race, history and culture as superior, and those of non-European descent as inferior. On the one hand, it contributed to the promotion of Enlightenment ideals. On the other hand, however, it led to the creation of a hierarchical world with Westerners being on top and the rest of the world at the bottom. The first chapter of the present work is a theoretical study that endeavors to provide a theoretical overview and critique of Eurocentrism and its repercussions. Chapter two focuses mainly on the various ways Eurocentric beauty standards are promoted through different means in The Bluest Eye. The third chapter provides a psychoanalytic study of the protagonist Pecola as a victim of the blind perception of Eurocentric attitudes and standards and her opposite Claudia as well as other characters. It also highlights The Bluest Eye as an Anti-Eurocentric novel through which Morrison condemns the ideals that contributed to the distortion of Pecola’s image about herself.