The Bluest Eye Appearances Quotes

They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly. Although their poverty was traditional and stultifying, it was not unique. But their ugliness was unique. No one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly. (1.3.1)

It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes...were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different." (1.3.18)

Thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people. (1.3.21)