The Bluest Eye Classism

Often dreaming of being in Phoenix with her grandma, she admits, “I even liked all of her rules. I liked how she woke us up every morning at dawn, shouting, “Rise and shine, everybody!” and insisted we wash our hands and comb our hair before eating breakfast” (91). Children growing up in more traditional families might find Grandma Smith’s actions to be pestering and bothersome or not think much of it. Jeannette on the other hand, enjoys and craves these tiny acts of motherly attention, revealing how different their life must be from a common family and Rosemary’s neglect of being a mom. Rex and Rosemary’s inability to keep a job also take a toll on her and her siblings.

Philips establishes the sewing woman's appearance underneath her mask of makeup as unappealing in order to contrast what an individual craves for in life to what

Her mother’s strength of tolerating unacceptable nonsense from her father makes her a stronger person. Moss’s yearning to appear beautiful misguides her from the true meaning of beauty, but she learns beauty is not defined by physical appearances. Barbara Moss’s memoir inspires people everywhere. This novel displays a sense of escaping poverty and becoming successful in anything yearned

Pauline in her narration shows no pride in her heritage and dislikes everything, wishing she was white (Erdrich, 20). During her narration, the reader is led on to her ways of abandoning her culture and forgetting her family ties. Pauline’s narration is filled with conflict of who she is as well as who she becomes, even after she adopts the white world. She uses an arrogant tone, and at some points, she refers herself as a martyr but is not quite sure. Throughout her narration, Pauline wishes that she could forget the actions and the life she lived in the past and start a new

In the novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” by Louisa May Alcott, Polly Milton, a young country girl, moves to the city to become a music teacher. This is because her older brother wants to go to college but the family does not have the money. Polly being the good sister that she is, leaves her family to earn the much needed money. As the novel progresses, Polly begins to struggle against the high class society that surrounds her, though this is far more undesirable than she expected in the beginning. Though not always easy Polly tries to adjust to her new lifestyle, and proves herself to be kind, sensible, and brave.

In Louisa May Alcotts novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” the main character, Polly Milton, finds herself struggling against a man versus society conflict, as she confronts the rich first class society that surrounds her. The fourteen year old country girl who ventures into the city to visit her good friend, is constantly being told she is old fashioned, poor, and too simple for the city. The basis of the conflict is that all the people Polly encounters during her time in the city, expect her to look and behave like the rest. When Polly cannot do this, people begin to tease and mock her all because she has no wealth.

In addition, the story also underlines the verity that it is not a crime for women to have flaws as depicted by Cisneros (1991), “Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left foot that’s melted a little-so? If you dress her in new ‘Prom Pink’ outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt, clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress right?-who’s to know”(p. 15). Even though

Throughout the lives of Jeannette and her siblings, her parents are unable to provide them with their basic necessities such as food, water, clothing,

The world she lived in was so ugly and plain and she choose to “create beauty in the midst of [all that] ugliness" (62). This helps to create the theme because even though Miss Lottie had so little she still worked hard to care for the beautiful marigolds. In “Marigolds” the author uses diction, symbolism and point of view, to develop the theme that people can create beauty even in the poorest of situations. Through diction, Collier is able to show the reader the contrast between the beauty of the marigolds compared to the run-down town the story is set in.

Rachel Price is a beautiful young girl who joins her family on a one year mission trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is a girl who likes herself a little too much. She is completely vain and self-conscious. Rachel is constantly worried about her appearance, as most teenage girls are in the United States. She brings along with her a mirror just to keep in touch with herself.

Myrtle’s obsession of achieving her American dream compelled her to both look and act the part of a high class woman which made her greedy. Myrtle showed greed while on the way to Tom’s apartment party, “she let four taxi cabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery” (Fitzgerald 31). Myrtle’s obsession with self-image caused her to avoid four ordinary taxi cabs before choosing a special looking one. Myrtle did not want to be seen in an average looking car because of her insecurity of appearing impoverished. This led her to become greedy and go out of her way to take a good-looking cab.

We clearly see that here beauty is the treasure that has been excavated through hardship and love the Little Seamstress experiences. We can contrast this to the experience of the narrator in reading the same novels. The narrator instead of being more self-confident, learns about romance, love and sex. He says it himself on

She is always nice to Charley, their neighbor, when he comes over. She also treats Bernard as one of her own kids when he comes over in the

Motifs: The Fur Coat: In Laura’s novella, when the woman meets her lover, she’s always wearing the most ordinary attire she owns, a costly fur coat. The coat becomes a source of bitterness for the man who disgusted by the wealthy’s usage of money, and it strains the relationship between the couple. Social Class: Iris faces many issues because of her class in both her childhood and adulthood. As a child, she was prohibited by her father to play with the other kids in their town and even after she gets married, she is expected to act like her class in order to “keep the Griffen family’s honor intact.

Toni Morrison, the first black women Nobel Prize winner, in her first novel, The Bluest Eye depicts the tragic condition of the 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 women. Through the depictions of white beauty icons, Morrison’s black characters lose themselves to self-hatred. They try to obliterate their heritage, and eventually like Pecola Breedlove, the child protagonist, who yearns for blue eyes, has no recourse except madness. This assignment focusses on double consciousness and its devastating effects on Pecola.