The Bluest Eye A Central Component Of The Discussion...

‘Morrison makes race a central component of the discussion about gender’ The Bluest Eye concentrates on the key contemporary American issues: racial and sexual politics. More distinctly, the novel centres on the impact that socially constructed views of race have on gender relations within the black community. As Butler-Evans highlights, â€Å"race rather than gender had become the overriding sign for the oppression of black people† and Morrison’s novel responds to this political issue by focusing on this in correlation with the Eurocentric society setting of the novel. The racial oppression suffered by the black community shape ideas of black masculinity based on male feelings of inferiority and consequent sexual oppression of black females. Morrison systematically explores the relationship between the racial oppression of black males and sexual oppression of black females. The main focus of this essay will be an exploration of how racial oppression experienced by black males, specifically Cholly and Junior, relate to the sexual oppression they enforce on black females. Morrison epitomises the Breedlove family to highlight the relationship between racial and sexual oppression. Most notably, Cholly Breedlove oppresses the women in his family subsequent of the racial oppression he suffered during his first sexual experience with a black female, Darlene. The two white male intruders were able to exercise their racial power over Cholly and in that moment, â€Å"With a violence born