Shirley Temple is a cultural icon that was considered beautiful for her curly blonde hair and blue eyes. I couldn’t join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley.” “Frieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. This idea made her think that being more beautiful would improve her life.Ĥ. Pecola believed that if she had blue eyes she would be seen as beautiful by others. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes…were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” Many other aspects of their life made it hard for them to get out of poverty such as their self- hate and psychological issues.ģ. The Breedlove family had the internalized belief that they were ugly. No one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly.” Although their poverty was traditional and stultifying, it was not unique. “They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly. This idea was seen in many aspects of culture.Ģ. “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” Society promoted the idea that white blue eyed girls with blonde hair were the most beautiful. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison the characters live in a society where whiteness is the epitome of beauty, causing black girls and women struggle with self love.ġ.

The bluest eye quotes about beauty