Beauty is something that a lot of people in life strive for, because everyone
has fitted in their mind what exactly beauty is. People know that it can help
you out in life. But what most people don’t know is that, beauty is in the eye
of the beholder. Meaning that beauty should not be characterized by what people
are told it is, beauty is different for everyone, what is beautiful for you may
be ugly to someone else. The characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are
confronted with the ideal of beauty and strive for it whether they know it or
not. The two characters that I think were followed the ideal of beauty in Toni
Morison’s story are Pauline and Pecola. In Toni Morrison’s story and in real
life, beauty is described by people as having blond hair, blue eyes , perfect
figure, etc. It’s been said that if you have good looks, you can make it in
life with just looks alone. People only strive for becoming beautiful because
they want attention. As is the case in Toni Morrison’s story. The characters
in her story think that they are ugly, by others opinions of them, and want to
become beautiful so they will be recognized and be the center of attention. But
the harder both characters try, the worse things get. Pauline strived for beauty
because she wanted to attention and wanted to be beautiful. Pauline seemed to
have just worse case of bad luck, when she was a child she stepped on a nail and
she was left with a limp forever. “The wound left her with a crooked, archless
foot that flopped when she walked…” (110). She tried to put that behind her
but she lost three middle teeth, not all the same time but slowly. It wasn’t
because her teeth were rotten the tooth just fell out. “I was sitting back in
my seat, and I taken a big bite of that candy, and it pulled a tooth right out
of my mouth. I could of cried. I had good teeth, not a rotten one in my head. I
don’t believe I ever did get over that” (123). After trying so hard to
become beautiful and things going bad the harder she tried, she just gave up.
Pecola strived for beauty throughout the whole book, she knew that people though
she was an ugly child. So she thought if she had blue eyes, things would be
different and she would be recognized and become beautiful. Pecola, being a
child, did not know that her wish was just not possible. But she was a kid and
didn’t know any better. She figured that if she had blue eyes like Maurine
Pie, she would be popular and beautiful. Pecola asked Soaphead Church for blue
eyes, and he told he would. Although Pecola never really got blue eyes, she
thought she did and it was enough to fulfill her needs. In Conclusion, the
characters did not achieve the beauty they desired. Pauline gave up on her quest
to become beautiful, the harder she tired the worse things got. Pecola did not
really get her blue eyes, although she thought she got them and that was
fulfilling for her. If the characters had not worried about becoming beautiful,
I think they would have been better of in the end.