Racial Prejudice in the Bluest Eye and to Kill a Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader is introduced to the theme of racial prejudice through the experiences of the characters Scout and Jem Finch. The story is told from the perspective of Scout. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, the reader is also introduced to the theme of racial prejudice through the experiences of Pecola Breedlove and Claudia MacTeer. The story is told through the perspective of Pecola Breedlove, and Claudia MacTeer. Both of the novels show different ways of illustrating the same theme. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader sees the young and innocent children; Scout and Jem Finch become exposed to the racial prejudices of Maycomb. Scout is not like the typical young girl in†¦show more content†¦People in the African-American community express their self-hatred toward Pecola and degrade her. Pecola’s ugliness has made others feel beautiful, and her suffering has made others feel better about themselves. Pecola is regarded as an ‘ugly little black girl’ who is not worthy of any respect or dignity, and because Pecola continues to live after she becomes insane she serves as a reminder to the town or the ugliness and hatred that they have tried to repress. Claudia’s life is quite different from Pecola’s life. Claudia is a victim of beauty standards, as Pecola is, but Claudia is able to fight back against the standards because she has a stable family life. When Claudia is given a white doll to play with, she despises the doll, and dissects and destroys the doll, and Claudia hates Shirley Temple because Shirley is pretty and white â€Å"I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid dow n under their heels†(Pg. 19). Claudia is not jaded because when Pecola becomes pregnant with Pecola’s father’s child Claudia tries to come up with a plan to save Pecola’s baby â€Å"We have to do it right, now. We’ll bury the money over by her house so we can’t go back and dig it up, and we’ll plant the