Character Analysis Of Pecola And Frieda Admire Shirley...

The female characters are victims of the America society as they are taught at a young age what is considered as beautiful and what is not. The characters are continually subjected to America’s ideals of whiteness through many different ways such as dolls and sweets. In the beginning of the novel, Pecola and Frieda admire Shirley Temple s beauty which consists of the white skin and blue eyes. The American society highly associates beauty with being white and although claims that there is no expectations, it clearly demonstrates that beauty is on the exterior rather than the interior making ones value inferior such as characters like Pecola who believes that her ugliness defines who she is and her role in society, which is still similar to the time where slavery was around as the American society is still restricting them without having to own them. Although in Martin’s novel, Manon is also oppressed, she has more control than the characters in the Bluest Eye as she fits into the standards of what is considered beautiful and therefore she is able to be in command of some of the choices she makes, whereas in Toni Morrison’s novel, none of the female character have any control over anything that they do. An extreme example of this is when Pecola’s father Cholly rapes her and she is unable to do anything about it. Another comparison that is able to be made between the two novels is the expectations of the American society. Property is set in 1828 where slavery was still