Racial Self-Loathing in the Bluest Eye Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Racial Self-Loathing in the Bluest Eye - Essay Example The MacTeer family shares several elements with Morrison's family, fighting poverty during the Great Depression, with a grandfather who played the violin and a mother who sang. When Morrison was emerging as a writer during the 1960's, the â€Å"Black is Beautiful† movement was in full swing, with the primary goal of reestablishing the notion that African-Americans could be beautiful. In this novel, Pecola Breedlove's development serves to express Morrison's vitriol toward the racial self-loathing that typified the black experience when Morrison was growing up. The desire that blacks felt in those years to be accepted as beautiful in the majority white culture caused the characters of the novel to hate their own color and feel ashamed of their cultural background. This self-loathing becomes a generational tradition, moving down from one set of parents to their children, and so on. Pecola Breedlove wants to emerge from the darkness of living as a black girl: â€Å"Here was an u gly little black girl asking for beauty...a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes† (174). She wants to have blue eyes so badly that she goes through the primitive ritual that Soaphead Church gives her, feeding a packet of meat to a dog on the porch, and divining from the dog's response what would happen to her. Interestingly, the dog chokes on the meat, â€Å"his mouth chomping the air, and promptly [falls] down...[moving] like a broken toy around the yard† (176). There is a reason, though, why Pecola is willing to go to such grotesque lengths to change her appearance. Pecola's genuine African-American features make her ugly, at least according to the white way of seeing things. The physical traits that she has will ensure that she will always be the subject of that prototypical racism – the same hatred that would teach that â€Å"[t]o give the black girl a white doll in the early sixties was to mainstream the black girl into the culture, to say that she was worthy of the same kind of doll that a white doll would have† (Early 414). Because this idea was so firmly entrenched when Morrison was a child, she grew up thinking that her blackness created a connection with a time of primitive and uncivilized ways. Pecola ultimately feels that she must be hideous and that tragedy will befall her, because she lacks white skin – and blue eyes. Indeed, she says that everyone would like her if she had blue eyes (46). In the years when Morrison was growing up, black society in the United States was still caught up in an imitation of unrealistic modes such as that which would be later perpetuated as the myth of Barbie, who is â€Å"anything but real† (Hooks 610). In other words, black artists tried to paint like an ideal of white artists instead of like themselves; black singers tried to sound like an ideal of white singers instead of like themselves, all pursuing a fa lse dream that was not attainable. The Harlem Renaissance and the advent of the jazz movement had yet to make their dent in this imitation – but those days were not far off. Pecola clearly wants to imitate the ways of white society; indeed, the reason that she loves Mary Jane candy is that she thinks eating it will turn her white: â€Å"Smiling white face. Blond hair in gentle disarray, blue eyes looking at her out of clean comfort...To eat the candy is somehow to eat the eyes, eat Mary Jane. Love Mary Jane. Be Mary Jane†

Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Brazil - Essay Example (CIA, 2007) Brazil has a multiethnic social structure with Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion and Portuguese as the main language. It is characterized by natural surroundings, wildlife diversity, protected habitats. It terms of demography, it is fifth most populous nation in the world and in terms of geographical area it is the fifth largest. Brazil is officially known as the Federative Republic of Brazil. (CIA, 2008) The natives of Brazil are perceived to have descended from the North Asian migrants of around 9000BC. In the beginning due to the already generated high profits from trade with India, Japan and China, Brazil did not evoke much interest in the Portugal colonists. The country was economically exploited mostly for its Brazilwood which provided the red dye. Previously they had established temporary trading establishments which ensured the trade of brazilwood but later permanent settlement ensured the setting up of sugarcane industry. The nation turned out to be agri culture based economy from where the Portuguese exported the agricultural commodities to European nations. With time the most crucial colonial product of Brazil was sugar and this remained equally important till the eighteenth century when there was a crisis as they faced competition from both Dutch and French sugar producers located close to Europe. This led to a fall in the price of sugar. Even gold production declined towards the close of the eighteenth century. The Portuguese administration still kept its integrity by sending bullions to the nation. The nation however has undergone wide scale changes overtime and currently are known as an emerging economy of the world. The changes have occurred in all dimensions including the social, economic and political scenario. Emerging Markets is a term which is used to refer to the social and economic operations of a nation which is in its way towards fast growth process and industrialization. China is currently considered to be the