The Burden of the Black Women in the Bluest Eye

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Morrison explores the duality between the external stress of the white area on black neighborhoods, as well as the internal segregation within the black community itself. Through the eyes of 9-year-old Claudia MacTeer, the book follows Pecola Breedlove and the Breedlove family. Throughout the book, Morrison focuses her work on a group previously voiceless and ignored: African American women. Particularly, in the chapter titled, “Spring,” Morrison examines the daily struggles and unhealthy environment of these women.

She explores the role of white men and women, as well as the role of black men on these black women. Ultimately, Morrison uses allegories and irony to reveal African American women’s reactions to societal oppression in the 1940s.

Morrison uses body part metaphors to illustrate the unacknowledged difficult responsibility of black women. Morrison writes, “They patted biscuits into flaky ovals of virtue – and also shrouded the dead,” (Morrison, 138). On one hand, these women must shroud the dead; on the other hand, these women are able to enjoy some level of comfort in their pastimes. This juxtaposition represents the enormous responsibility of African American women in and out of the home but more importantly, the societal requirement for these women to undertake this chore. Morrison uses “flaky biscuits of virtue” to symbolize the unpredictability of their pain and volatile nature of the men around them. Moreover, Morrison uses a hyphen to connect the biscuits to the funeral of the dead because the fracturing of virtue itself directly leads to the conflict and death of people in these communities. These harsh encounters with death directly cause the destruction of their mental state. Immediately after the aforementioned quote, she describes the effect of these conditions.

Morrison says, “And the lives of these old black women were synthesized in their eyes – a purée of tragedy and wit, wickedness and peace, truth, and fantasy,” (139). The amount of pressure clarified in the first quotation directly culminates in the contrast shown in the second quotation. Morrison uses the metaphor of the eye to connect the lives of these women in order to demonstrate the contrast between the joys and burdens of life. Additionally, the use of the word “purée” parallels the cooking imagery in the first quote. Morrison seeks to evoke the sense of responsibility African American women held in their families and their contributions to the community around them.

Morrison uses irony to showcase the despair of African American women in the 1940s. Morrison contrasts the power dynamics within these white families as the black female servants attempt to maintain a sense of self-esteem. Morrison writes, “The only people they need not take orders from were black children and each other. Yet they took all of that and re-created it in their own image. They ran the houses of white people, and knew it,” (138). Morrison shows that black women had to take orders from everyone, even Caucasian children, due to the raw racial hierarchy in the 1940s. These African American women physically run through the houses and perform all the labor for the white families. This act echoes house slaves from before the abolition of slavery in the U.S., as house slaves also had to care for the houses and children of white families.

However, the females feel in control of their lives when they are in control of the possessions of white individuals. Emboldened by their preeminence over these estates, these black ladies experience a sense of supremacy and self-worth. Although the females are put down, the ownership of the house empowers them. In spite of this ephemeral joy, this liberation rapidly subsides as the ladies are unable to maintain their freedom. Morrison describes, “They were old enough to be cranky when and where they chose, tired enough to expect death, indifferent enough to accept the concept of pain while ignoring the existence of pain,” (139). Morrison includes this quote at the end of the paragraph to parallel the completion of the lives of these women. More importantly, Morrison invokes the concept of choice for these black

females. While unable to control the other white males and females or the African American males, they have learned to control their own emotions and accept their state of being. The women “expect death” because they have been battling against oppressive forces their entire lives with little success. At the end of these women’s lives, they not only forfeit a sense of innocence and wellbeing but also distance themselves from the ideals of humanity itself: love and hope. After decades of social oppression, these women are compelled to acknowledge the painful reality of subordination in the eyes of the men and women around them.

This passage itself depicts the transition of the mindset of these African American women. Throughout the entire passage, Morrison outlines how these women endeavor to balance their sorrows with their moments of joy and even strive to assert their authority. However, she concludes with the previous quotation to imply that numerous African American women have learned to endure this level of injustice; Morrison not only condemns this type of mistreatment but also aspires to enhance the issues concerning African American women by providing them a voice in literature.

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