Bluest Eyes: Black People and a Quest for the Lost Identity

Abstract

This article aimed to study characters in Toni Morrison’s novel “Bluest Eyes” on the aspects of being treated as a marginal person, a quest for identity, and constructing meaning. The documentary research method was employed based on the concept of marginal people and presented via a descriptive analysis method. The study results reflected the cultivated belief in skin color discrimination in enhancing the value of white people as the stereotyped beauty while degrading black people as ugliness. As for spaces and constructing identity of black people, it was viewed in terms of social space which was a gap between white and black people; geographical space was skin color discrimination, and spiritual space was related to the roots of African-Americans. These were the criteria, which were established to evaluate the value of human beings. Peola Breedlove, created by the author, was a stereotyped African-American who accepted the power of the white’s discourse and defined white characters as being clean or virgin. On the aspect of communication between black people and the world’s society, it was reflected that not all of the black people accepted this stereotyped concept but tried to quest for their identity by grouping and adapting themselves to increase their bargaining power.