In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl living in an abusive home in an economically depressed area of Ohio. Throughout the novel, Pecola feels subject to our American standards of beauty which elevate white features.  She experiences rejection and both physical and emotional abuse because her features don’t match societal standards. Morrison utilizes the motif of blue eyes firstly to convey that American society considers them a symbol of beauty and power, secondly through illustrating Pecola’s belief that people will perceive her as beautiful and love her only if she has blue eyes, and finally, demonstrating how Pecola’s quest for blue eyes leads to her blindness and societal neglect. Through the motif of blue eyes, Morrison expands on our American society’s construct of who is lovable and who is not, and the devastating impact this can have on an individual. 

   Morrison aims to show that American society considers blue eyes the ultimate standard of beauty and power.  She juxtaposes the experiences of people with blue eyes with the experiences of those without to show that blue eyes are idolized by society as symbols of beauty and power. They are typically white features and therefore, those with blue eyes experience more privilege. When Claudia, a nine-year-old who is friends with Pecola, receives a doll for Christmas, she quickly learns that their society of “adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs” and “all the world” agree that a “blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll [is] what every girl treasure[s]” (Morrison 20). Society “treasure[s]” blue eyes, meaning they must view blue eyes as beautiful. Additionally, on the wrapper of a candy that Pecola purchases is an image of a white girl with blond hair and “blue eyes looking at her out of a world of clean comfort” (Morrison 50). Candy is sweet and enjoyable, and is typically consumed by children, therefore it symbolizes sweetness and purity. Morrison implies that people with blue eyes and lighter skin, like Mary Jane, the white girl featured on a candy wrapper, are considered more pure and sweet, therefore, are favored by society and experience increased comfort and luxury. 

  While the lightly colored eyes of white people are idolized, Morrison also reveals the other end of the stick in how Black people are seen as inferior. When Cholly Breedlove, Pecola’s abusive father, searches for his father and comes upon a room of black men, he sees how their eyes are “cold eyes, eyes gone flat with malice” and “laced with fear” (Morrison 154). Morrison utilizes word with negative connotations, such as “malice”, and “coldness”, to describe the Black men’s eyes, revealing how, while whiteness and blue eyes are associated with purity and good virtues, blackness, and dark eyes is correlated with inferiority, harmful intentions, and being poorer or of lower wealth status. This juxtaposition of lighter eyes compared to darker eyes reveals that blue eyes are often associated with privilege and power, while darker eyes are not. 

   Morrison utilizes the motif of blue eyes to illustrate Pecola’s belief that people will see her as beautiful and love her only if she has blue eyes. Through Pecola’s intense longing for blue eyes, Morrison illustrates how Pecola believes that she must change her appearance as a means of protection. Pecola has lived in an increasingly unstable home environment, enduring emotional and physical pain “as consistent as it [is] deep,” often wishing that “she herself could die” (Morrison 43). In the beginning of the novel, the reader learns that Pecola fervently longs for blue eyes, and each night “without fail,” Pecola “pray[s] for blue eyes,” because if her eyes were “different, that is to say, beautiful” then perhaps her parents would say “‘why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes” (Morrison 46). Many white girls with blue eyes depicted in the novel, such as Shirley Temple or the little girl that Mrs. Breedlove cares for, are living a comfortable lifestyle, which Pecola craves leading Pecola to believe that if she were to gain blue eyes, people “mustn't do bad things” to her anymore, and the degree of severe violence she endures would be reduced. The motif of blue eyes serves as a form of self-protection for Pecola, for by acquiring blue eyes she’d also gain the perception of being valuable, as someone worth protecting and abstaining violence from, which would allow her to live a safer life of love.

   Through the motif of blue eyes, Morrison demonstrates how Pecola’s quest for blue eyes leads to her blindness and societal neglect. Through Pecola’s resulting blindness, Morrison exemplifies the detrimental impact of society being able to decide who is deemed loveable. After being raped by her father, society turns its back on Pecola, as “grown people looked away,” children “laughed outright,” paired with “gossip” and the “slow wagging of heads” (Morrison 204). As a young, Black, female perceived as ugly and “ruined” because she’s the victim of rape, society deems her as no longer worthy of love and care. Society has neglected, teased, and bullied Pecola to the point where the “damage done [is] total” (Morrison 204). An accumulation of small rejections, such as frequently being called ugly, and larger ones, such as being raped and then shunned by society, combined with a lifetime of neglect is the recipe for destruction, and eventually, Pecola “ slip[s] over into madness” (Morrison 206). Pecola remarks that she can “look right at the sun” because it does not hurt her eyes, as she doesn’t even “blink,” implying that Pecola is losing her sight (Morrison 195). Those going blind lose the color pixels in their eyes, which becomes a blue or green hue, similar to Pecola’s faded blue eyes as she eventually becomes what she perceives as beautiful, but at the cost of her sanity and sight. As Morrison reflects in the foreword of the novel, the “far more tragic and disabling consequences of accepting rejection as legitimate” shows how some “collapse, silently.”  Morrison ultimately wants to convey the tragedy of how society encourages Pecola to alter herself to fit in, and yet, this hopeless quest induces her destruction.

   Throughout her novel, Morrison employs the motif of blue eyes to emphasize the tragic reality of America’s societal beauty standards. Blue eyes represent beauty, privilege, and power, and in America, white people typically possess these traits—further sustaining a system preserving and prioritizing white superiority. Pecola believes that if she can fit into America’s societal standard by acquiring blue eyes, she will be loved and protected from violence, and finally see a world less horrific than her own. Our society must drastically expand its perception of what beauty truly is, as well as separate that from ideas of privilege and power, or else certain individuals will become blinded by the crushing weight of trying to reach those standards, and as a consequence, sink deeper into ruin as they lose sight of their self-worth and the value they offer our society.