At a time when blue-eyed, pale-skinned Shirley Temple is idolized by whites and blacks alike, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove searches for desperately beauty for its own sake. In order to achieve beauty in her culture, Pecola must do the impossible: find white beauty. Toni Morrison shows the disastrous effects that colorism and racism can have on an entire culture and how African-Americans will tear themselves apart to fit into the graces of white society. The desire to be seen as beautiful in the white world is so overwhelming that the characters in The Bluest Eyeloo hate their own skin color and feel shame for their culture. These feelings of self-loathing and contempt are passed down from adults to their children, creating an ongoing cycle of negativity and self-hatred. “Here was an ugly little black girl who asked for beauty… A little black girl who wanted to come out of the pit. of its darkness and see the world with blue eyes” (Morrison, 174). Competing for white beauty, Pecola Breedlove desperately attempts to extricate herself from the abyss of blackness. Because Pecola has dark skin and authentic African American features, both black and white society have conditioned her to believe that she is ugly. Pecola's physical characteristics ensure that he is a victim of classic racism; classic racism being the idea that “the physical ugliness of blackness is a sign of deeper ugliness and depravity” (Taylor, 16). This notion authorizes the mistreatment of dark-skinned people because their blackness is a link to a “dark past” and uncivilized practices. Pecola does not embody white society's standards of beauty because she does not have the characteristic fair skin and blue eyes; therefore, it must be ugly and ba...... middle of paper ......Melus: 19.4 (1994): 109-127. Academic research completed. EBSCO.Web. March 24, 2014.Lobodziec, Agnieszka. “Theological Patterns of Black Middle-Class Performance in ToniMorrison’s Novels.” Black Theology: An International Journal 8.1 (2010): 32-52. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Internet. March 24, 2014.McKittrick, Katherine. “Black and “Because I am black, I am blue.” : transversal racial geographies in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. » Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 7.2 (2000): 125. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Internet. March 24, 2014. Morrison, Toni. The bluest eye. New York: Penguin, 1970. Print.Taylor, Paul C. “Malcom's Conk and Danto.s Colors; or four logical petitions regarding race, beauty and aesthetics. Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 57.1 (2000): 16-20. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Internet. March 23 2014.