SELF-WORTH AND THE EFFECTS OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS: TONI MORRISON'S THE BLUEST EYES

Abstract

The Bluest Eyes depicts the tragic condition of Blacks in racist America. It examines how the ideologies perpetuated by the dominant groups and adopted by the marginal groups influence the identity of the black people. Due to the colour of their skins, Blacks are always subject to different types of disrespect and insecurity in their society. The intention of this work is to analyze how the concepts of identity and race are portrayed in the novel, and how they relate to issues of white beauty standards, self-loathing and racial pride. Du Bios created a kind of new trend of dealing with African-American culture by inventing the concept known as “double consciousnessâ€, and arguing that these black people were trapped between dual personalities. Meanwhile, the concept of beauty is an example of cultural institution; hence, the standard of beauty is based on the dominant group, so there is the White beauty standard—light skinned, blue eyes, blonde, slim body image—as the hegemonic practice that is consciously alive in the African Americans society involved in the story. Anchoring on the theory of double consciousness proposed by W. E.B. DuBois, the study aims at the idea that the African American must navigate the voyages of life from within a form of “two-nessâ€, because he is both man, and black. Therefore, the implications are that White beauty standard hegemony has led to the emergence of intra-racial discrimination happening within the African American society as it is reflected in the literary work due to the characters' efforts to seek White's approval. The second is the emergence of the self-loathing upon the characters, and the third is they try to obliterate their heritage. Eventually like Pecola Breedlove, the child protagonist, who yearns for blue eyes, has no recourse except madness.