Hegemonic Domination of White over Black in “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

Abstract

Every human being is beautiful with his own colour and appearance. No colour makes one beautiful but the white people of America have propagated the idea of white beauty as a tool of their politics to show themselves superior to the blacks. They focused on the colour because to be white for a black is unattainable as it is biological. They also tried to create self-hatred among the blacks by spreading the white ideology. They hegemonized the blacks to accept the concept of white beauty by using advertisements, media, actors and education. They also forced the blacks to be considered as ugly creating the least opportunities in the work places for the black community of America; alienating them from the society and torturing them both mentally and physically. As in The Bluest Eye, Pecola and her family are the worst victims of white men’s politics. Pecola together with her family members is both mentally and physically tortured and tormented to accept the white ideology. However, Pecola and her mother have accepted the white ideology and Pecola has mostly desired to get the bluest eye. On the other hand, Claudia resisted against the white men and their ideology. At the end, Pecola has accepted the baby of Cholly Breedlove as a token of love and self-reliance and both Claudia and Frieda wish to have the safe delivery of it. Therefore, in this article I would like to show that how the white men employed their evil intention of using the colour for dominating the blacks in America as a part of power politics, and also show black people’s reaction toward the white ideology with reference to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.