Essay 2

In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and the film “Precious” beauty relating to black girls is treated very similarly. In both the novel and the film ideal beauty is expressed through the characteristics and traits of a white woman. Especially in the novel, the ideal and desired lifestyles are represented through the standards and depictions on whites. All the chapters in novel begin with excerpts from a story containing a white family who has everything desired in life. These excerpts promote the idea that according to all the characters in the novel, being white is the ideal life and beauty is only depicted in white terms. These ideas cause both Precious and Pecola much trouble and stress throughout their lives which in the end causes much pain and discontent.
In both the novel and the film, skin color plays and extremely strong role in the thoughts and feelings of the characters. In the film “Precious,” the main character Precious is constantly feeling a sense of worthlessness and sadness due to her skin color. In the film, she most desperately wants to be white and marry a white man. While in school she fantasizes about marrying her math teacher and moving in to live with him in a white suburban neighborhood. She also periodically fantasizes throughout the movie about being rich, white, and famous. In different portions of the movie, often times whenever Precious is experiencing painful situations she reverts into a dream world where she is white and famous. In her fantasy world, she is loved by all and is a famous singer. This fantasy Precious periodically experiences greatly explains what her deep down feelings and desires are and helps depict what in her eyes and the eyes of society real beauty is. In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Pecola is constantly searching for a way to become white and not ugly anymore. In Pecola’s eyes, she is ugly because she is black and she envies everyone who is whiter than her even if they are still black. Her greatest desire in the novel is to have blue eyes instead of the ugly brown eyes she was born with. She is so desperate to have these blue eyes and become whiter that she is willing to kill a dog in order to attain them. This fact is very sad in the novel because Pecola kills the dog, but her eye color does not change.
In the film, the longing Precious has for lighter skin explains quite a bit about the culture she is currently living in. In the film, everything that is wonderful about the world is expressed through being light skinned and she is unable to achieve this happiness and is forced to settle for less because of her skin color. She wants nothing more but to be loved and care for, but in her mind this cannot occur because of her skin color. Until she becomes lighter, she will forever be undesired and unloved. Throughout the film, she strives to become smarter and educate herself, but her mother continually berates her telling her that she is black and because of that she is worthless and will never be smart. These constant remarks of hatred and disgust by her mom are definitely one of the reasons Precious desired to be white so much. And throughout the film, the only people Precious came across who were struggling in life were black just like Precious. Lighter skin represented happiness and pleasure to Precious. Everything Precious dreamed of pertained to her having lighter skin.
In the novel, Pecola’s longing for lighter skin also explains quite a bit about the culture she is living in. In the novel, everyone Pecola is associated desire to be white. Pecola is even neglected by her mother in the novel, to work as a maid for a wealthy white family. Pecola was frustrated in the novel because the white family her mother worked for called her by her first name, Pauline while Pecola and all her friends had to call her Mrs. Breedlove. Pecola’s mother treated the family that she worked for better than her own and treated the Fisher’s daughter more like her child than she did Pecola.
Pecola and her friends are constantly being exposed throughout the novel to the message that ”you ugly! Black and ugly black” and being white is beautiful (73). These messages cause Pecola to desire blue eyes in order to look whiter and be more beautiful more than anything in the world.
I think that the life Precious lived throughout the film would not have been any different if her skin color was different. Precious was unfortunate to be given a horrible living situation. She was born to a mother who was jealous of her and therefore took out her hatred and frustration on her and a father who sexually abused her and had 2 kids with her. Precious was also born into complete poverty. She was given very little opportunity and was always at a disadvantage. The story or Precious’ life is very sad and unfortunate, but that same story could have occurred to someone of a lighter skin color. Regardless of skin color, the situation could happen to anyone. Although Precious does not feel this way, she believes that if her skin color was lighter, life would be much easier for her.
In the novel, light skin meant happiness and beauty to Pecola. The idea that white was beauty and constantly reinforced to Pecola and her friends causing them to believe they were not beautiful. They began to hate themselves and long for lighter skin and envy those with lighter skin. Lighter skin was also associated with wealth and an easy lifestyle. The people with lighter skin that Pecola could compare life too her much better off and seemed to have a much better and easier life. In the novel the girls envy Rosemary for her light skin and social standing, “we stare at her, wanting her bread, but more than that wanting to poke the arrogance out of her eyes and smash the pride of ownership that curls her chewing mouth" (9).
As the film went on, Precious began to grow stronger and stronger as a character. As she becomes more and more educated her confidence begins to grow and she begins to love herself as well as her children. In the beginning of the film, Precious seemed to have given up on herself as well as the world, but as the film progressed; she became a much stronger person. She left her mother and her destructive home life and began providing for herself and her kids. She also began to love herself for the first time in her life and be happy.
Unlike Precious in the film, Pecola’s attitude throughout the novel did not change for the better. Instead of growing stronger and becoming more confident in herself, Pecola obsessed over having blue eyes to the point where she was willing to poison a dog to get them. Pecola never became comfortable with her skin color or her personal beauty she "was an ugly little girl asking for beauty,” the novel explained Pecola (174). This was the biggest difference between the film and the novel.
Both the film’s and novel’s titles played very significant roles. Both titles were very representative to their theme and idea. The titles were very well thought out and greatly promoted the underlying theme of both the book and film.
In the film, the title “Precious” was a very ironic and telling aspect. The title was ironic because it was the exact opposite of the character’s life. The name precious promotes a warm and loving image, but in reality, Precious experienced the exact opposite of that from the world. The title did end up becoming true in the film because throughout the story, Precious grew and grew as a character and finally became precious in the eyes of her children and her teacher and classmates.
In the novel, the title “The Bluest Eye,” was very telling like Precious, but was not nearly as ironic. In the novel, the title played a very crucial role in the explaining the key ideas and themes of the story. After reading the novel, the title became more and more understood and fitting.
I think both stories ended pretty poorly. I felt neither story had a happy ending which was probably the most realistic, but it made for a sad ending. I thought in the film, Precious even though she was free from her mother; she was still very bad off. She was most likely infected with HIV and was jobless trying to survive and provide for 2 kids. I thought this ending was very abrupt as well. I would have liked Precious to have found more happiness and maybe a job, but life does not always end happily and the film seemed very realistic. In the novel, I thought the ending was very sad as well. I felt very sorry for Pecola. Unlike Precious who still had her 2 kids to love and to be loved by, Pecola had lost everything in the world that meant something to her and was left in mourning. I envision both Precious and Pecola to both continue having lives filled with struggle and hardship. Precious was forever be fighting poverty trying to support her 2 kids and remain healthy. Precious will be the best off out the two characters in terms of self esteem because she has her 2 kids to love her. Unlike Precious though, I envision Pecola never being able to overcome her self esteem stumbling blocks. She never fully realized her inner beauty and I do not see her ever finding it.
In popular culture, many of these issues are reinforced on an everyday basis. Fortunately over the past few years, many of these themes and ideas have been reinforced in a more positive manner. More and more these days, I experience television shows and commercials that promote beauty as being both white and black. Some of the most beautiful and successful people in our culture have lighter and darker skin color. One example of a positive reinforcement is on television, Oprah is one of the most influential people to women in our country and I do not feel that lighter skin would make her any more popular. Oprah’s power to promote ideas and products is enormous and I think that through her lead our country has become much more open to new ideas regarding beauty and its different forms. One negative example of these beauty issues is through beauty’s portrayal in cartoons and Disney movies. In most cartoons and Disney movies, the beautiful princess is white. This message continues to promote the idea that beauty can only come in the form of white.