Two part reading response: "The Bluest Eye"

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison weaves stories of violation and hardship to examine the ugliness that racism produces. In this novel, the childhood icons of white culture are negative representations instrumental in engendering internalized racism. For the black child in a racist, white culture, these icons are never innocent. Embodying the ideals of white beauty, they expose the basis for Claudia's bewilderment at why she is not attractive and Pecola's desperate desire for beauty. They nourish neither innocent desire, nor the need for acceptance, but denigrate the very idea of blackness.
Appearing on screen with male and female, African-American actors, Shirley Temple also symbolizes the directed energy of African-American adults toward the care of white children. Subservient to her needs, and trapped in the stereotyped roles available to them, the adult actors who appeared as her caretakers often appeared to be childish, rather than child like, a demeaning position, especially when contrasted with the simulated adult behavior exhibited on screen by Shirley Temple. She keeps them "in their place" partly by imitating Little Eva, the wise and noble, white child of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and partly by her mere presence on screen. As a representation of Little Eva, Shirley Temple characterizes the saintliness of the "good" child, a saintliness "worthy" of glorified attention and near worship. If we think of Shirley Temple as Little Eva, then we might also visualize her companions as Uncle Tom or Aunt Chloe, who love their own children, but in embracing the conditions of slavery, willingly put the welfare of white children above their own.
On screen, the presence of Shirley Temple as a white child signifies the neglect of the African-American child. For Claudia, Shirley Temple represents her own absence in the attention of her family.
Claudia does not agree with the assumption of her own ugliness, or lack of beauty. Nevertheless, she is stymied by those around her who buy into the cultural construct of white beauty. She recognizes that while she can destroy her dolls, and can even think negatively about Maureen, she cannot convince those around her that the cultural assumption of beauty is wrong.
In The Bluest Eye, Morrison rails against the concept of the superiority of white beauty through the thoughts and actions of the narrator, Claudia. Claudia resents the assumption of beauty being measured by whiteness, and attempts to destroy it, while at the same time fighting against the converse: that her blackness should be equated with ugliness.