Triangle of Hatred: Sexism, Racism and Alienation in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Abstract

The dilemma of the African American woman is based on racial and sexist oppression that constantly marginalizes her where she is confined in a pitiful state of nothingness. This double oppression is best featured in Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye. The present article purports to investigate how African American women have tragically fallen under the destructive spell of sexism and racism and, consequently, marginality and alienation. My argument runs within the main lines of both feminist and cultural theoretical approaches.
The Bluest Eye addresses three important issues: sexism, racism and alienation. This triangle relationship exposes the African American women’s intricate situation. Morrison criticizes both the oppressing forces in her (black) culture and white racism, whereas the whites take advantage of history to justify their own right to rule on the basis of the inferiority of a race and the superiority of another. This view of the justification of history conforms to Althusser’s concept of falsified ideology exploited to hegemonize others, where the black man justifies his sexism against his fellow women. Thus, the idea of the justification of history and the falsified ideology establish cultural and ideological oppression leading to the alienation of black women.