The Interweaving of Ecofeminism and Trauma in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Abstract

Toni Morrison, the first black woman who was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, in her novel The Bluest Eye, delineates how class, race and gender prejudices victimize the protagonist, an eleven-year-old black girl, Pecola Breedlove. The doomed protagonist internalizes the destructive obsession with the white standards of beauty and nurtures a fatal fascination for a pair of blue eyes, characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race. The novel is a poignant portrayal of the cruelty the black heroine witnesses and experiences in society and her own home, along with the devastating effects of the Western notion of beauty. Through an ecofeminist lens, the present paper analyses the injustice unleashed against women and Nature, and their subservient role in this biosphere. It also studies the traumatic experiences undergone by the heroine, highlighting the emotional, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse that the child protagonist experienced in her short life span and how these experiences led her to insanity. The novel demonstrates how trauma transcends personal suffering, affecting entire communities and generations. It critiques a society that dehumanizes black women and makes an urgent call to dismantle the systemic inequalities that continue to victimize marginalized individuals and Nature alike.