Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Seeing Structural Violence

Toni Morrison aims to show through her novel, The Bluest Eyes, violence within the black community is not innate or natural but the byproduct of layers of structural violence that are imposed upon the black community. Morrison portrays the decay of the community through the violent acts of child molestation, incest, spousal abuse among others. The forms of structural violence are racism, sexism and classism which play out in education systems, popular culture and class systems that value white culture. Institutionalized violence is interdependent with direct violent actions. Violence causes decay.
Pecola and Claudia contrast each other in how they deal with the institutionalized racism which rejects minority values and leads to violence. Pecola is used to show how even the meekest are turned out by their own community and victimized when layers of violence exist.Pecola is sacrificed by everyone around her in an effort to escape white oppression, reflecting a community failure, “All of us- all who knew her – felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dreams we used – to silence our own night-mares.” (Morrison, 205). The community is too fragmented by violence which itself stems from the internalization of racism. Pecola's very existence is her downfall because it grates against normative white culture. Due to structural violence in the form of poverty, poor education, pop culture promoting white values, her community was fragmented and was not able to prevent her destruction.
Claudia however perseveres. Claudia is one of the only people in the book to recognize Pecola was in part destroyed by the fragmentation of her community. Claudia's character rejects white normative culture. Through the juxtaposition of the two characters it seems Morrison implies that only through the valuing of black culture and community and rejection of white images will there be hope to undermine structural violence.
I think its important to bring up as well the notion of eyes as an important theme within this book in relation to violence. I believe Morrison put an emphasis on eyes rather than hair or anything else that differentiates white people and black people because our eyes act as witnesses. Blue and brown eyes are both able to bear witness to the social injustices that result in violence and allowed for the destruction of someone as innocent as Pecola. Claudia's eyes serve as a form of hope to the future of the black community because she was able to see through structural injustices.



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