In A Lesson Before Dying, there are a few mentions of how Grant would like the children to find a pine tree so that they can properly celebrate Christmas. I believe that the pine tree is a symbol of the unfulfilling search for perfection – or the desire for Grant (and Jefferson) to find belonging in what is at this time, a white man’s world. During the Christmas play, there is a paragraph describing what the tree has been through, and how it has made it to the stage. The boys of the class had to cut the tree and drag it into the church. Black men at the time had to do heavy work, there are frequent references to how men work in the fields. The girls of the class had to wash and decorate the tree so that it would look presentable. The perception of others is a huge theme in this novel, Jefferson’s aunt spends the novel saying how she wants him to be seen as a man, and not a hug. Grant goes on to narrate that even though the tree wasn’t perfect, it was still a tree and that it took on a character of its own – and that made it beautiful.
- The Bluest Eye
One of the most important themes in The Bluest Eye is how Pecola wants to have blue eyes, she wants to be white and beautiful. She thinks that that will make people accept her more, and that she will have an easier time. Pecola never had anyone to tell her that she was a “beautiful tree”, and that she was beautiful for the fact that she was herself.
- Lindsey, Treva B., Ph.D. “Black No More.” Black No More: Skin Bleaching and the Emergence of New Negro Womanhood Beauty Culture (2011): n. pag.Http://web.a.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=83ab1da2-908a-42e1-832f-ed17b36fe39f%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4209. University of Missouri. Web.
This article discusses how African American women once utilized skin bleaching in order to lighten their skin and have a lighter complexion. Some women did it so that it would be easier, and some women did it because they thought that it made them more beautiful. Although there were more reasons, both of these reasons have to do with fitting in. Women, like Pecola will go through extreme measures to fit in, to become more than what society sees them as, something that Grant can relate to very well.
- Intimacy – Thomas Blackshear
This painting shows a young African American woman who is holding a while mask that covers half of her face. Her very green eyes can be seen. Even though she is covering some of her face, there is a shining that is coming from where her heart is. This could be to show that African American women can go through may processes to become more “white”, but beauty lies on the inside. She is a person, and that is what is beautiful.