Sexism and Racism in"The Bluest Eyes " by Toni Morrison

Abstract

Toni Morrison is a famous Afro-American woman novelist who wins a Nobel prize of Literature for the novel beloved. This study explores issues related to sexism and racism which are manifested in her life and work. The novel examined by this study are Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, The texts recreate an ideology of African-American womanhood which privileges self-definition. Morrison creates remarkable black women characters in the novel. The characters attempt to establish their own identity amidst the multilayered and interconnected oppressions of sexism and racism. Thereafter, these women managed to retain their identities throughout the novels.

The research adopts to analyze the novel and reflects the varied complexities that black womanhood yields within the dominant culture and how each character either internalizes or resists the politics of race, gender and sexuality to provide readers with new insights to understand Morrison’s novel.

They are not human beings but simply things to be used and this is why they are subhuman, exploited and tortured all their life. This paper is an insight to discuss the life of African-American women who are the victims of the prejudices everywhere in the society and in their own families The Bluest Eye addresses sexism and racism. This relationship exposes the African American women’s intricate situation. Morrison criticizes both the oppressing forces in her (black) culture and white racism, whereas the whites take advantage of history to justify their right to rule based on the inferiority of a race and the superiority of another