The Portrait of African American in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: Black Feminism Study

The aims of the research are to discover the portrait of African American and to understand the characters’ perspective of beauty myths occurred in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. This research uses Black Feminism literary theory to analyze the source of the study. The novel revolves around an African American girl named Pecola living in Lorain, Ohio aftermath the Great depression in United States of America. Due to her exposure of white beauty standard, she begins wishing for having a pair of blue eyes. This unrealistic longing in the end pushes her into insanity.
This research is classified as qualitative research. The activity of data collection is done by reading the source of data several times and selecting the data to answer the research questions. The data analysis process uses the Miles and Huberman’s technique: data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing.
The result of the study describes the life of African American people in the 1930’s. This research discovers that Southern African American feels alienated in their first encounter in Northern part of United States. African American people also have different concern with their white people counterpart. Moreover, issues in Black Feminism literature, such as the beauty standard set by Eurocentric ideal and double consciousness, are commonly happened in the life of colored people. Almost every character in the novel fall into the illusion of Eurocentric ideal, diminishing black people’s value and affects their way of viewing life.