The Bluest Eyes: Objectification of Women and Victimization of Male Sex-offenders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/2.1.6Keywords:
Incest, Rape, Sex-Offenders, Oppressors, Paedophilia, Victimization, FeminismAbstract
The present study intends to study Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eyes with a Feminist approach. It shows how the sex-offenders oppress little black girls in a patriarchal society. The sex-offenders on the other hand are presented as victims of circumstances and their victimization of black girls is justified by portraying the girls to be the cause of the heinous acts committed to violate their innocence. All black girls, despite the claim of the novelist that it is written from their perspective, are presented in the novel to be reasonably oppressed by the male characters. The author through a series of incidents has tried to depict the objectification of the female sex on one side while the victimization of the sex-offenders on the other. It is a strange dichotomy of events and incidents which has been explored through Catherine Belsey’s Textual Analysis as tool of interpreting various scenes and dialogues.
References
Ahlawat, A. (2013). Eco-feminist study of Toni Morrison’s novels: The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 2(8), 56-58.
Alwan, R. M., & Kadir, Z. A. (2018). Black women and their struggle for survival: A study in Toni Morrison’s and Alice Walker’s novels through various perspectives: A narrative review. Opción, 34(85).
Sharma, J. K. (2011). Thematic concerns in the novels of Toni Morrison. Researchers World, 2(3), 173-176.
Any, J. S. (2016). Exploring postcolonial ecofeminism in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (Doctoral dissertation, East West University).
Babamiri, N. S. (2014). Deformed motherhood in the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Journal of Academic and Applied Studies (Special Issue on Applied and Humanity Sciences), 4(12), 1-12.
Beauvoir, S. D. (1989). The Second Sex. New York: The Vintage Books.
Belsey, C. (2005). Textual analysis as a research method. In E. G. Griffin, Research Methods for English Studies (pp. 157-174). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sarulatha, D., & Geetha, N. (2015). Quest for identity in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eyes. Asia Pacific Journal of Research, 33(1), 174-177.
Heinart, J. L. J. (2009). Novel of education: Bildungsroman and The Bluest Eyes. In N. P., Narrative Conventions and Race in the Novels of Toni. New York: Routledge.
Laksmitarukmi, A. (2017). Patriarchal viewpoint on women and nature: An ecofeminist reading on Dan Brown’s Inferno (Doctoral dissertation, Sanata Dharma University).
Mbalia, D. D. (1991). The Bluest Eye: The need for racial approbation. In N. P., Toni Morrison’s Developing Class Consciousness (p. 28). Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press.
Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eyes. London: Vintage.
Tyson, L. (2006). Feminist criticism. In L. Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A Use-Friendly Guide (Second Edition ed., pp. 83-130). New York: Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Zenab Jahangir, Tayyaba Bashir, Rasib Mahmood

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Please click here for details about the LASSIJ's Licensing and Copyright policies.