Existentialism, Beloved and the Bluest EyeToni Morrison has written several novels, many of which show the influence of existentialist thought; However, Beloved and The Bluest Eye both strongly illustrate all major existential themes. Beloved is a novel about a woman, Sethe, who escapes slavery with her children. She is haunted both physically and psychologically by her experience, as evidenced by the scars she bears on her back from brutal beatings and the scars she bears in her mind from the horrific treatment she suffered. . A few weeks after her escape, Sethe's owner tracked her down to reclaim her as his property. Fearing capture, Sethe decided that for her children, death would be better than slavery. She killed her penultimate child before being arrested. Beloved is the story of Sethe and how she must live with the ramifications of her terrible and necessary decision to kill her baby daughter. The Bluest Eye is an equally haunting novel. It is the story of Pecola, an ugly little black girl who tries to grow up in rural Ohio in the 1940s. She is looked down upon by white society because she is ugly, black and feminine, and because that she is the antithesis of everything that Western white culture idolizes: white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. In a dire parallel, Pecola is also looked down upon by black society: the society whose support she desperately needs to counter white negativity towards her. Instead of receiving this vital support, Pecola is seen as an ugly, passive and pitiful girl. Her mother, herself twisted by the ideals of white society, loves a young white, blonde child who she cares more about than her own daughter. His father loved him so much, he was in the middle of a paper......son." Michigan: GaleResearch Inc., 1994. 215-273. Eiermann, Katharena. "Themes of Existentialism." [ http ://members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/Existentialism/extheme.html]. 1996. March 16, 1997. “Existentialism” [http://www.sound.net/~melingl/existme.html] ( March 16, 1997) Morrison, Toni Beloved New York, New York: Plume, 1988.---. The Bluest Eye New York, New York: Plume, 1994. Sartre, Jean-Paul Nouveau York, New. York: Carol Publishing Group, 1994. Steiner, Wendy. “The Clearest Eye.” 239. Stone, Joanna “Morrison proves moving and eloquent.” America OnLine. /N22/morrison.22a.html]. Online, March 6, 1997. Trosky, Susan, ed. Gale Research Inc..., 1994. 319-328