Abstract

The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, talks about Pecola, a little black girl, who is disliked by her mother; the dominant white culture’s standard of beauty affected her life, which results in a tragedy. This paper treats maternal love as a key point. By contrasting three mothers’ different attitudes toward black culture in this novel and the influence of their attitudes on children’s rearing, this paper points out that black culture faces crisis of being assimilated by white culture. Finally, it comes to a conclusion that black people should have an ethnic sense of identity, confidence and pride to protect themselves from being brainwashed by white culture.

Key Words: maternal love; black culture; assimilate; protect

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction 1

2 Opposite Practice in Parenting 2

2.1 Pauline as an Indifferent Mother 2

2.2 Jane’s Mother as a Devoted Mother 4

3 Mothers’ Self-Negation and Children’s Self-Hatred .5

3.1 Geraldine and Junior 5

3.2 Pauline and Pecola 7

3.3 The Root of Tragedy 8

4 Source of Maternal Power .8

4.1 Pauline, A Brainwashed and Fragile Mother 8

4.2 Mrs. Macteer, A Traditonal and Confident Mother 9

5 Conclusion 10

References.12