Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye . Beauty standards and their influence on the main characters’ lives

Abstract

White beauty standards have influenced American society and contributed to the development of racism, colorism and even, sexism. African American women have been disfavored due to their blackness, either among the white society or the black one. Moreover, the fact of being a woman aggravated their situation. What is even more surprising is that these beauty standards have been internalised even by the oppressed black women, whose obsession with their aspect increased, as well as, the desire to change it at any price, by adopting these ideals. These beauty standards worship Western physical features such as light skin, blue eyes, straight hair, etc. For this reason, writers such as Wallace Thurman or Toni Morrison decided to write fiction based on the African Americans’ real issues, trying to raise awareness on the impact these standards have on the black community, especially on black women. Thus, the aim of this paper was to analyse the impact of these ideals on the main characters of two books, The Blacker the Berry and The Bluest Eye and, compare their similarities and differences. These books, written by the two authors aforementioned in different periods of the 20th century, indicate that the situation has remained unaltered over time.