In The Bluest Eye, on the of the most important themes in the book is how characters view their eye color. The book, which is named to reference Pecola Breedlove’s desire to have blue eyes, stresses that the emphasis placed on eye color is more than just arbitrary aesthetic preference. It shows that eye color has the power, socially, to determine racial and social ‘worth’. Very often, people with more ‘exotic’ or ‘rare’ eye colors, or in The Bluest Eye, girls with blue eyes, have the most social currency and are the most ‘adored’ and appreciated, whereas having common brown eyes in the novel (like Pecola does) is considered boring and not at all endearing.
For further reading, I’ve found three sources to illuminate the subject of eye color and how it plays into social worth.
1. Stewart, Tracie L., et al. “Do The “Eyes” Have It? A Program Evaluation Of Jane Elliott’s “Blue-Eyes/Brown-Eyes” Diversity Training Exercise.” Journal Of Applied Social Psychology 33.9 (2003): 1898-1921. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 8 May 2015.
In this article, the way eye color plays into social interactions and how stereotypes affect those interactions is reassessed. In the abstract the author explains that her article was an attempt to reassess Jane Elliot’s “Blue eyes/Brown Eyes” experiment on “reducing college students’ stereotyping and prejudice”. She explains:
“College students were randomly assigned to either the exercise group or a comparison group. Blue-eyed and brown-eyed exercise participants were given discriminatory versus preferential treatment, respectively; a procedure purportedly designed to sensitize participants to the emotional and behavioral consequences of discrimination. Participation in the exercise was found to be associated with White students (a) indicating significantly more positive attitudes toward Asian American and Latino/Latina individuals, but only marginally more positive attitudes toward African American individuals; and (b) reporting anger with themselves when noticing themselves engaging in prejudiced thoughts or actions-negative affect that theoretically could prove to be either helpful or detrimental in promoting long-term reduction of stereotyping and prejudice.”
2. Espitia, Marilyn. “My Eyes Didn’t Turn To Blue’: U.S. Citizenship Among Mexicans And Salvadorans In Houston, Texas.”Conference Papers — American Sociological Association (2005): 1-20. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 8 May 2015.
In this article, which analyzes the American Sociological Association annual meeting in 2005, Mexican immigrants to the United States explain their naturalization process and integration into Texan and American society, and how they firmly held on to their Mexican culture even while becoming a part of American society. To explain, they claimed “Their eyes didn’t turn blue.” Again, eye color here becomes a symbol for how much social currency and social value a person has.
“In other words, although these naturalized U.S. citizens were firmly established in Houston through their families, occupations, and residential property, their everyday use of Spanish, their enduring claim to their country of birth identity, and even their hope to one day return to Mexico and El Salvador, reveal the complexity of their membership within the United States.”
3. “Limp Bizkit – Behind Blue Eyes Lyrics.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 May 2015.
In Limp Bizkit’s song, “Behind Blue Eyes” talks about the pain of being the “bad guy”–how no one knows what it’s like to be hated “behind blue eyes”, which seems to indicate that the blue eyes symbolize innocence and goodness, contrary to the singer’s inner feelings.