Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is a tragic tale of how a black community hates itself simply because it isn't white. Yet, even more tragic is the fact that even an innocent little girl, Pecola, comes to hate herself because she is not white. She believes that only by having blue eyes can she be considered truly beautiful and that only by being beautiful can she be loved by those around her. Three critical factors, which push Pecola to this delusional conclusion, are the media she is heavily surrounded by, her family, and her community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayPecola, like her mother, bases her definitions of beauty heavily on the 1940s white media she is bombarded with. She is described as looking "fondly at the outline of Shirley Temple's dimpled face" on a cup of milk and admiring the faces of movie idols such as Betty Grable and Hedy Lamarr (19). The media shapes Pauline and Pecola Breedlove with the belief that they might perhaps not have been beautiful because they were not white. They saw the justification and confirmation of this idea “leaning on them from every billboard, from every film, from every glance” (39). The people who are most able to influence Pecola – negatively or positively – are those closest to her: her family. Already at Pecola's birth, Paolina had considered her ugly and treated her that way throughout her life. Soon after her daughter's birth, Pauline observed: “She was a really smart little girl... But I knew she was ugly. Head full of beautiful hair, but Lord, it was ugly” (126). An example that illustrates Pauline's low regard for her daughter is when Pecola accidentally knocks over a blueberry tart, splashing some of the bubbling juice onto her legs: “In a gallop, [Mrs. Breedlove] was on Pecola and with the back of his hand he knocked her to the ground. Pecola slipped into the cake juice, tucking one leg under her. Mrs. Breedlove pulled her up by the arm, slapped her again…” (109). Instead of caring about Pecola's well-being, Pauline beats her daughter both physically and verbally in front of a white girl whose family she works for. In stark, painful contrast, Pauline immediately changes her tone of voice when she sees that the white girl is upset by the episode and soothes her, ironically, as a mother would: "'Silence, darling, silence.' Come here. Oh Lord, look at your dress. Polly will change it'" (109). always drunk and her parents argue and argue incessantly. Pecola tragically believes that somehow all of her family's unhappiness stems from the fact that she is not beautiful. As a result, she wishes she was invisible and had "pretty blue eyes," hopefully that her family stops doing bad things in the presence of these beautiful eyes (46). Pecola's community – everyone she comes into contact with outside the home – influences her greatly too. Several encounters with adults in the community cause Pecola to succumb even more desperately to the belief that she is ugly. An example where Pecola is subtly but visibly rejected by an adult white man is when she is buying Mary Jane candy from the local grocer, Mr. Yacobowski; when she reaches over the counter to pay for his candy, “He hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand… He finally reaches over and takes the coins from her hand. Her nails graze her damp palm” (49-50). On another occasion, when Geraldine returns home and hears that Pecola has killed her cat, she maliciously spits, “Go away, you black bitch. Get out of my house” (92). Finally, also Soaphead Church,., 31(2), 299-312.