CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS A.

Analysis This sub chapter would like to analyze the black women as main characters of this study in both Toni Morrisons novels The Bluest Eye and A Mercy. It assumes that the black womens status as women and black influence them in associating themselves with people in the white society. As the blacks and women, they are subordinate based on race and gender perspective. They experience racism and gender oppression all at once. These double burdens can bring them into social and psychological impacts. 1. The Description of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in The Bluest Eye and A Mercy As an African-American writer who lives in this century, Toni Morrison awakens the African American culture and racial problems in the past through her novels entitled The Bluest Eye and A Mercy. They have different setting of times, A Mercy sets in the beginning of slavery era in 1680s, while The Bluest Eye is the depiction of the modern era of American society in 1941 which belongs to the 20th century. But both of them are written in the twentieth century and based on black womens lives which contain several problems of racism and gender oppression faced by black women. 1.1 Racism in A Mercy and The Bluest Eye The description of the fusion of racism and gender oppression will be started from describing racism first. Both The Bluest Eye and A Mercy have the same theme of racism, but A Mercy applies the old way of racism or traditional racism while The Bluest Eye applies a modern racism. The traditional racism in A Mercy is implemented in the enslavement practice of black people as the inferior race in the early of New World in 18 th century which exists openly because it is supported by country. The modern racism in The Bluest Eye is implemented in giving a freedom for black people to live as citizens who have the equal position as others, but in fact they keep discriminated by the superior group in every realm. They almost have no opportunity in their daily lives. The differences between modern and traditional racism in The Bluest Eye and A Mercy can be described more specifically in forms of racism. Racism operates in three forms. They are at individual, institutional, and cultural level which are applied intentionally or unintentionally. The superior group in society, in this case white people, has an unfavorable attitude, views, practices and action reflecting the belief toward black people who are

members of particular racial or ethnic groups which share certain attribute that make this group as a whole less desirable and inferior. 1.1.1 Individual Racism in A Mercy Once every seven days we learn to read and write. We are forbidden to leave the place so the four of us hide near the marsh (p. 6). The obedience toward the rules made by the master and society must be done by the black slaves if they want to live. But neither the master nor the society give guarantee for them to live safely. It can be seen in how Florens and Minha Mae live in the middle of the white society as dominant group. They have to stay in the masters place or plantation as long as they are owned. They do not have rights to recognize their environment. Let alone socialization, going outside is not allowed whereas it is human need. The master does not give a chance at all for them to develop their skills. If they want to develop their skills, they have to keep staying in that place and hiding near the marsh. Florens and Minha Mae have to stay at home serving and doing household. They have to be ready to meet any kinds of their masters demands without objection or refusal. Besides, they are really forbidden to leave the masters place because it is very dangerous for black slaves to go outside. They will be the target of cruelty or taken by everyone who finds them for the brutal human trading or enslavement. The more dangerous is if blacks are not owned or cannot give the proof that they are owned and show who their master is. But it does not mean that living with the master is the safest. Living with the master is as dangerous as being outside. Besides being the target in the outside, the black slaves are also the targets of their masters brutality. The cruelties of the master and his family are often received. Being whipped and tortured because of the mistake are usually happened. Female slaves are even raped by their own master, the family member or the masters sons to satisfy their lust. Living with no freedom and no choice for Florens and Minha Mae as black slaves reflects the system of racism which also becomes a means to maintain the power of whites in solidifying their higher position in society. That also can be proved from Florens journey to her other master. Florens experience of racism does not only stop in her old master DOrtega, but she also faces an abuse from the unknown white lady on the ship along her trip to her new master, Jacob Vaark. The second day it becomes hurting cold and I am happy I have a cloak however thin. Reverend Father excuses himself to go elsewhere on the boat and tells me to stay exact where I am. A woman comes to me and says stand up. I do and she takes my cloak from my shoulders. Then my wooden shoes. She walks away (p. 7).

This is also one of the proofs that being blacks are targets for mistreated in the society. That is why in her long trip to her new master Jacob Vaark, she must be accompanied by Reverend Father, a Catholic priest. A contemptible incident happens to Florens on the boat, when she is left somewhere not far from her for a while by him. She is suddenly visited by a woman who forces to take her stuffs. That woman gives command to stand up and immediately takes the cloak and wooden shoes that Florens wears. This action is outrageous considered that the weather is hurting cold. The only one stuff which can help her to protect herself from terrible weather is her cloak. Besides, the cloak she has is not thick but thin. It wont give enough warmth to be worn. And also the wooden shoes she has are throwaway shoes from her former Senhor. Both of the stuffs are worthless and less valuable. They also cannot give total protection for the wearer toward the deadly cold. Considered that Florens stuffs are less valuable for everyone in this condition, the womans action in carrying away her stuffs is not because she wants them so much, but her negative action must be based on the hatred of her as a black. She intentionally wants to show her hatred to the black like Florens because she feels that being black does not have a right to have protection behind a the complete stuffs as if European. Black slave never has avowal of her existence in the society. There is no punishment for someone who treats a black unfairly. Society seems to let it happened. Becoming a target of the whites hatred or receiving discriminations is always happened in her life. Discriminations are common things for black people in this slavery era where the authority is held by the fittest group of white people. Humiliation to physical attack becomes their daily incidents they have to face. Strange expression from white people when they see the color of her skin and relate it with negative thing is not surprising Florens. The white woman she meets in her journey to find the blacksmith feels strange with her blackness. She explicitly mentions the words black and Afric that are related to racism while seeing at Florens. One woman speaks saying I have never seen any human this black. I have says another, this one is as black as others I have seen. She is Afric. Afric and much more, says another (p. 111). Those words must offend the person who belongs to that particular race. Skin color becomes a problem for her because they stereotype it with the bad things. The impudent statement which comes from the white lady shows the verbal abuse over the black Florens. Florens seems as a threat to be in their environment for black people are savage, heathen and

demons follower, so that they are getting more vigilant of her existence (p. 111). The cruelty over Florens continues when she and her other partners accuses Floren as the minion of Satan and Lucifer because she is black. Whites distrust over Florens letter which is written by her mistress to inform that she is owned expresses their excessive suspicion because the strong belief those blacks are uncivilized people and the demons minion roots in their mind (p. 113). Their prejudice drives them to the bolder action in examining Florens. They point me to door that opens onto a storeroom and there, standing among carriage boxes and a spinning wheel, they tell me to take off my clothes. Without touching they tell me what to do. To show them my teeth, my tongue. They frown at the candle burn on my palm, the one you kissed to cool. They look under my arms, between my legs. They circle me, lean down to inspect my feet. Naked under their examination I watch for what is in their eyes (p. 113). Whites curiosity takes Florens as if she is an inanimate object that has no right to defend her self-regard. Following their unreasonable commands for taking off all her clothes is done because she is in the powerless position in the middle of racist society. Being examined in the naked condition in front of some people to proof she is not a demon is a kind of outrageous action between human beings. Whites accuse black people as the uncivilized people whereas whites themselves use the uncivilized ways in treating black people. The antiblack bigotry of whites corrupts human values that should be implemented to create civilized society. The implementation of individual racism in black peoples lives in A Mercy is worse than in The Bluest Eye for it does not only involve prejudice and discrimination in verbal abuse but also the outrage of non-verbal to physical attack from whites to black people. Those abuses become very common for black people in their everyday experience because of their positions as slaves under the enslavement of European immigrants in the slavery era who believe that they are destined to rule over all races, especially the darkest skin of black people. Whites arbitrary thoughts and views toward the inferior of black people result abusive words which are related to their skin color or culture with its stereotypes. Almost every bad views and thought toward them turns into the non-verbal and physical attack. The way a white lady expresses her shock to the black girls Florens because she never sees anyone as black as her is a kind of racist expression which can humiliate her identity as a black. The cruelty of white people starts when they relate her blackness with the minion of Satan or Lucifer. Then the command to take Florens clothes until she is naked for the white lady and her friends can examine her body to prove that she is not a demon reflects a physical abuse from the group of people with authority toward the girl from the inferior race.

Besides, the master who seizes Florens familys freedom for they are owned as his slaves also shows the authority of the superior person over black peoples bodies. Blacks cannot leave their masters house without a permission and reason. There is no choice for them to decide something good for their lives. Society never receives their existence, so that they cannot melt into population. Living outside without being owned endangers their lives because they will be caught and sold. Those actions may not cause a wound or hurt her physically, but the disrespectful physical contact is a kind of aggression in which all the more this action is directed to the marginal person like Florens and other blacks. Black people in A Mercy are at a much greater risk for abuses than black people in The Bluest Eye because the racism in individual level involves both verbal and physical abuses. Verbal abuse itself can hurt the victim severely, moreover if she also faces the physical abuse. The uses of verbal and physical force against the powerless people endanger them badly. Experiencing both abuses give negative impacts to the victim mentally and physically. 1.1.2 Individual Racism in The Bluest Eye Chollys experience of individual racism which is directed by two white guys starts when he goes down to the river with his girl friend, Darlene during his aunts funeral, they start to have a sexual intercourse, but in the middle of their action two white men come and shine a light on them. Their unexpected visit interrupts Chollys activity. They snicker and force Cholly to finish his sexual intercourse for their amusement although he begs them for not finishing it. This situation brings him into a difficult situation because he indeed feels humiliated but he has no power in front of two bigger and stronger white men who are also completed with guns. Two white men keep making a joke of the powerless black boy by forcing him to continue his action until the two white men grow bored and leave Cholly and his girl friend. There stood two white men. One with spirit lamp, the other with a flashlight. There was no mistake about their being white; he could smell it. Cholly jumped, trying to kneel, stand, and get his pants up all in one motion. The men had long guns. Hee hee hee heeeee, The snicker was a long asthmatic cough The other raced the flashlight all over Cholly and Darlene. Get on wid it, nigger, said the flashlight one. Sir? said Cholly, trying to find a buttonhole. I said, get on wid it. An make it good, nigger, make it good (p. 116-117). The way two white men humiliate Cholly is a kind of individual racism. The brutal harassment directed to the powerless black boy to do a sexual intercourse in front of them is the humiliated action toward someone who has no power and belongs to the minority group.

Cholly experiences a genuine suffering because what he does should be his private activity but two white men do not pay much attention of it. Their interruption is purposeful to insult him. Chollys willingness of being forced and begging to them reflect how powerless he is in front of two white men who consider as the superior group with power. Furthermore, the word nigger used by two white men in calling Cholly belongs to the racist nickname for the person who has black skin for they are an African descendent. It is the ignoble name and deliberate mockery to show their power for they are able to make a joke to someone who belongs to the inferior group, like the black boy Cholly. Laughing and sneering done by two white men and calling him coon when they look at Chollys activity reflect that they absolutely despise the behavior of the black boy. By forcing Cholly to do the shamed thing in front of him and realizing his afraid, two white men seem to celebrate Chollys powerless. Hee hee hee hee heeeeee. Come on, coon. Faster. You aint doing nothing for her (p. 117). Besides nigger, the name-calling coon from two white men for Cholly is a kind of mockery for the black boy. They indicate the darker skin that must have worse attitude as reflected in Cholly. His attitude is not more than an animal; raccoon that release his lust wildly without considering the place and the partner he invites to sleep with while white men are regarded to live more civilized. Two white men deliberately distinguish them with black people in case of way of life. The mockery that Cholly faces because of his blackness does not only come from two white men near the river, but also from another white man in the bus station he meets when he is going to go to see his father to Macon. How much to Macon, sir? Eleven dollars. Five-fifty for children under twelve. Cholly had twelve dollars and four cents. How old you be? Just on twelve, sir, but my mama only give me ten dollars. You jest about the biggest twelve I ever seed. Please, sir, I got to get to Macon. My mamas sick. Thought you said you mama give you ten dollars. Thats my play mama. My real mama is in Macon, sir. I reckon I knows a lying nigger when I sees one, but jest in case you aint, jest in case one of them mammies is really dyin and wants to see her little old smoke before she meets her maker, I gone do it (p. 121). In his journey to Macon to find his father, Cholly once again has to face racism from the white man in the ticket counter. It is because the ticket officer catches Chollys deceitfulness, first in mentioning his age and second about his mother, but he pretends to

believe and let him finish his lie. Moreover he knows that the lying person in front of him is the black boy. He then teases Cholly to make him suffering a good deal of embarrassment in his identity as a black. Chollys lie shows the unprepared and spontaneous lie from a boy who has no experience in being away from his house as reflected when he deceives the ticket officer that he just receives lesser money from his mama than the total cost that should be paid. But he forgets, he had said to the ticket officer that his mama is sick in Macon, so he has to get there immediately. It is one of his efforts how to get to Macon to find his father with limited money in his pocket. It is common happen to almost all people in this condition, old or young, black or white to do this kind of lie. But it becomes a problem for the ticket officer because the lying boy is powerless black boy. Making a fool of Cholly by saying some words that can hurt him is a kind of an attack directed to Chollys identity as a black by calling him lying nigger and little old smoke. The prejudice towards the black boy as liar that has a bad physical appearance and behavior is reflected through the ticket officers words lying nigger and little old smoke. Darker skinned black is more likely to have a bad attitude and a bad attitude of him will turn into a negative relationship with other people. The black feature like Cholly is likely to receive a much more severe punishment from the white who has a right to insult him because of his superiority. Being oppressed by the whites is not only common happened to Cholys life but also to black peoples lives whether they behave morally acceptable or not, they are going to receive a discrimination and oppression from the superior group. It is a kind of reinforcing the idea that those of lighter complexion are value. Chollys experience is also occurred to the black girl, Pecola. As the minority who lives in the middle of the white society, the mistreated from the superior group cannot be avoided. He urges his eyes out of his thoughts to encounter her. Blue eyes. Blear-dropped. Slowly, like Indian summer moving imperceptibly toward fall, he looks toward her. Somewhere between retina and object, between vision and view, his eyes drawback, hesitate, and hover. At some fixed point in time and space he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see (p. 41). The local grocer, a middle-aged white immigrant, Mr. Yacobowski carries much of the hatred toward the black girl, Pecola. Through the way he sees her, it can be seen that he is reluctant to get her in his eyes. The blankness in his eyes shows his hostility to the black girl as the marginal person. For the white like Mr. Yacobowski, there is no need to waste time to see a black.

Here the prejudice toward the black girl, Pecola really exists. He has a tendency to think about her in negative ways through his sight to Pecola. From his face to face interaction, it implies that he releases a negative emotion to her. He reacts with antipathy as if the little black girl Pecola as a threat. The anti-black prejudice is very common to be done by the dominant group, the white to the black as the minority group to show a rejection. His hatred to black girl Pecola is manifested through physical interaction in where he takes money from her hand roughly as shown in the statement below. She holds the money toward him. He hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand. She does not know how to move the finger of her right hand from the display counter or how to get the coins out of her left hand. Finally he reaches over and takes the pennies from her hand. His nails graze her damp palm (p. 43). Pecolas confusing to give the money to Mr.Yacobowski is because she knows that he does not welcome her. Let alone touching her hand, he even does not want to see her. These kinds of treatments are not new for her. She represents the black whose existence is always absent in the society. The negative feeling of him toward the black girl, Pecola turns into the rough action. The way he takes money from Pecolas hand reflects how he keeps a strong hatred and rejection to her so that it takes the form into physical action. Race dominance brings Mr.Yacobowski into the arrogance of anti- black which extend to the thought that being black is completely contemptible. The apparent sharpness of racial differences fuels abuses among racial groups in society. As the result, the dominant group emerges as the oppressor that directs racism to the marginal people. The implementation of racism in individual level in Toni Morrisons novel The Bluest Eye involves the discriminations from the superior group of whites to the inferior group of blacks. Whites have huge freedom to treat black people like Cholly and Pecola, shamefully through contemptible words and actions that are directed to them. The strong thought about white as the dominant race becomes a basic of the occurrence of the verbal abuse and discrimination from them. The individual racism in The Bluest Eye tends to the verbal abuse which is implemented in mockery, indignity or name-calling that occur both intentionally and unintentionally as reflected in Chollys experience when the ticket officer calls him black, nigger, and little old smoke while two white guys he meets calls him an animal. Although there is no physical abuse but many negative defining statements which are told to the black people by withholding any response thus defining them as non-existent can be more

detrimental to their psychology. It is as dangerous and damaging as physical abuse although verbal abuse has no visible proof. Society never takes this as seriously as other types. Black people in The Bluest Eye can melt into the population, but they keep experiencing discrimination through verbal abuse and discriminatory behavior from the superior group of whites that make them feel unwelcome, marginalized, excluded, powerless or worthless because of their color, ethnicity, culture, faith, community, national origin or national status. Racist words and behavior are experienced as attacks on the central values to black peoples identity and often they hurt more deeply as well as more widely. 1.1.3 Institutional Racism in A Mercy -He is forbidden to do this but he teaches us anyway watching out for wicked Virginians and Protestants who want to catch him. If they do he will be in prison or pay money or both (p. 6). The black women and their status as slaves have to accept a fate determined by the superior group of the white to be a neglected group. As human beings, Florens and Minha Mae must have human rights to be respected, but the fact they are treated unfair. Hiding from the white for studying is done by the black women like Florens and Minha Mae. Let alone Minha and Florens as the black women slaves, one of Catholic priests even has to hide in helping them to be literate to avoid the attack of the local society. It is because slaves are prevented from becoming literate, in order to hinder aspirations for escape or rebellion while being literate through education is human rights but nobody is allowed to help them in gained their rights. The law and the rules which created by the whites deny the black womens existence. Even law cannot protect them from unfair treatments because lawmakers keep shaping and perpetuating race and gender roles problems. The law maintains the pattern of disadvantages for the black women slaves as minority group. The institutional policies are created for a group privilege which defend the whites advantages. Their disregarded rights become a proof that being black, woman and slave as Florens and Minha Mae have no excuses to learn or study to be literate. Their rights are neglected because of their powerless position in the society. The existence of black women slaves cannot be counted on in the white society. They have to face the unfair treatments as the consequences of their inferiority of race and gender. The various religious practices exist in the New World society but most all of them keep neglecting the human rights of black women as the inferior society. The religion, educational and more over political institution do not give a guarantee for inferior group to gain their human rights. Race and male dominance have more control over the economy practice and more access to leadership roles in religion, politics and other institutions. The

strong tradition of patriarchy and race bigotry of the European society applied in the New World place the black women slaves as a separate minority group which is not counted on in the institutional policies. -By eliminating manumission, gatherings, travel and bearing arms for black people only; by granting license to any white to kill any black for any reason; by compensating owners for a slaves maiming or death, they separated and protected all whites from all others forever (p. 10). In the slavery era, the minority groups are not allowed to use public facilities. They even are kept illiterate for being able to be used for whites interest. The policies or regulations are not only discriminative as in modern era of The Bluest Eye, but also deadly. Granting license to any white to kill any blacks and compensating owners for slaves maiming or death are kinds of deadly regulation applied by the superior groups to achieve their goals. The strong racial bigotry emerges the existence of institutional systemic policies, practices and politics which belong to the institutional racism. 1.1.4 Institutional Racism in The Bluest Eye She was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk. The first letter of her last name forced her to sit in the front of the room always. But what about Marie Appolonaire? Marie was in front of her, but she shared a desk with Luke Angelino (p. 39). The teachers take her in the double desk without friend. She is the only one student who sits alone in class whereas her other friends can enjoy having friends beside them. If Pecola has always to sit in front alone because of her first letter of her last name, the different condition occurs to her friend, Marie Appolonaire. Although the letter of her last name is the first letter of alphabet, she is able to share the desk with her friend Luke Angelino in front of Pecolas desk. The different condition experienced by Pecola and Marie is because of the color of their skins. If Pecola were the white, she would be treated like Marie. It can be seen that the teachers as the ones who have authority at school and every individual in the school as a public institution implement discriminatory regulation. The institutional discrimination is present in the public school where Pecola studies. The members of the school put the black girl Pecola at a disadvantage. As a black and girl, she is considered powerless. Therefore she is treated unfair. Her teachers had always treated her this way. They tried never to glance at her, called on her only when everyone was required to respond. She also knew that when one of the girls at school wanted to be particularly insulting to a boy, or wanted to get an immediate response from him, she could say, Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove! Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove! and never fail to get peals of laughter from those in earshot, and mock anger from the accused (p. 40).

As Mr. Yacobowski does, teachers never want to get Pecola in their eyes. They are reluctant to see the black person which is believed as the ugly creature in the society. For them, black is unseen. There is no importance for the whites to see her. That is why she is treated different in her class. She is the one in the class who does not have the same opportunity like the other students. Besides being discriminated by the teachers through the regulation applied at school, Pecola also becomes an object for bullying among her friends. Both teachers and classmates are scornful of her. It is because she is too ugly to be accepted. Her blackness is the reason for her friends to mock her. School as the one of public institution should give equal treatment and opportunity for all students to develop themselves. It must be free from any kinds of discriminations, including racial discrimination. Besides for studying, school is a place for students to learn how to interact and socialize with other students. So that they are acquaint with diversity. But in this case, school becomes terrifying place for the black girl, Pecola. How terrible for her to be at school where teachers and friends despise her. Her feeling has to be sacrificed to be mocked by her friends because of her blackness. Moreover, the teachers who have to be wise and protective do not carry out their functions as well. They take a part in insulting her instead. Both teachers and classmates take their hatred out on her. That must be hurt for a black girl Pecola where everyone does not care for her. Feeling lonely and isolated is the condition which has to be faced by Pecola as the result of being black. That condition brings her to be lack of confident. It is the proof that public institution sides to the dominant group. A little old doctor come to examine me. He had all sorts of stuff. He gloved his hand and put some kind of jelly on it and rammed it up between my legs. When he left off, some more doctors come. One old one and some young ones. The old one was learning the young ones about babies. Showing them how to do. When he got to me he said now these here women you dont have any trouble with. They deliver right away and with no pain. Just like horses. The young ones smiled little (p. 99). The racial loathing toward black women in the public institution is also experienced by Pecolas mother, Pauline Breedlove. She decides to deliver a baby at the hospital with the purpose to get a better treatment. As the member of the society, Pauline has a right to go to the hospital which is provided for all people. But the fact is she has to be mistreated by the doctors who examine her there. They give both verbal and physical abuse. She receives a bad treatment from one of the doctor who is little old. He serves her by putting some kind of jelly by pushing it between her legs with force. He does not treat Pauline gently as if a doctor who has to help the patient. The service is lack of graceful. That rough treatment is based on the hatred toward black like her.

Similarly, another senior doctor insults Pauline through humiliating expression to show his refusal toward black people like her. A long his trip to learn young ones about baby, finally he stops to Pauline. Knowing she is black, he says to them that she is the woman who does not need to be worried. He equalizes the black woman with the horse that is wild and has no pain. So that the woman like her will deliver right away. The senior doctor deliberately says this joke and he successfully makes the other ones smile hearing his statements. This joke is hurtful to be heard by her because this joke is connected to a particular race. She becomes an object for his jokes with some younger ones. Racial discriminations which are occurred in public institutions come from the prejudice and refusal of every individual of dominant group. The public institutions which are mostly run by the whites as the dominant group in the society do not give the same opportunity for the citizens. It means that the pattern of unequal treatment based on group membership, a pattern built into the daily operations of society whether or not it is consciously intended. There must be institutional discrimination in every public institution like school and hospital like what are experienced by Pecola and Pauline Breedlove. The discriminatory policies in the public institutions are implemented and enforced by individuals who belong to the dominant group in the society that keep the prejudice and discriminatory inclination toward the inferior group. All policies and regulation applied are directed for their own interests as reflected in Chollys aunt who has to follow the unfair regulation from white folks. Ill say. Did she leave anything? Not even a pocket handkerchief. The house belongs to some white folks in Clarksville. Oh, yeah? I thought she owned it. May have at one time. But not no more. I hear the insurance folks been down talking to her brother. How much do it come to? Eighty-five dollars, I hear. That all? Can she get in the ground on that? Dont see how. When my daddy died last year this April it costed one hundred and fifty dollars. Course, we had to have everything just so. Now Jimmys people may all have to chip in. That undertaker that lays out black folks aint none too cheap (p. 112). All policies and regulations do not take side on the inferior black people. The collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people is caused by distinguishing peoples color, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behavior which amount to discrimination through

unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people. Running away from home for a Georgia black boy was not a great problem. You just sneaked way and started walking. When night came you slept in a barn, if there were no dogs, a cane field, or an empty sawmill. You ate from the ground and bought root beer and licorice in little country stores. There was always an easy tale of woe to tell inquiring black adults, and whites didnt care, unless they were looking for sport (p. 120). Cholly and almost all black boys use to have simple lives. The life with no binding rules is likely to be haphazard life for society that worships whites standard of life. Living outside far away for home is not a big deal for the black boy like Cholly. He just needs to live in harmony with nature and the real condition in his surroundings. Chollys acceptance of any condition never brings him into complicated life. If he decides to run away from home, he just has to walk along the street and find a shelter or building for storing grain at night. But his living on street will be disturbed when white people want to play with him by intruding upon his composure. Having fun with blacks causes a great deal of amusement for whites. It is a kind of sport in killing their leisure time. Blacks can do nothing if their lives are disturbed by white people. Whites courage and freedom in teasing black boy, Cholly reflects the low protection of law. As a part of society, he should be protected by prevailing law because law must be able to protect all citizens regardless of who or what he is. Law, regulation and policies are directed to all citizens with no discrimination but they obviously side with whites interest. The implementation of discriminated regulation raises whites arbitrary prejudice and discrimination toward blacks. Law enforcement is implemented in such a way that the whites have a freedom and courage in oppressing the minority. All regulations are created by whites and directed to protect them. The implication of whites interest in creating the regulation for society leads to the injustice practice that will certainly give advantages for the superior group to oppress the marginal one. In The Bluest Eye, the minorities like black people are allowed to use public facilities that the country has. They are called as citizens as others. But in practice, services and treatments they receive are not the same with the superior group of white people. Discrimination policy, regulation or law places non-white racial and ethnic groups, in this case black people, at a disadvantage in relation to an institutions white members. Different race or ethnic will have differential access to goods, services, and opportunity in society.

1.1.5 Cultural Racism in A Mercy It was not true, then, what she had heard; that for them only children and loved ones could be looked in the eye; for all others it was disrespect or a threat. In the town Lina had been taken to, after the conflagration had wiped away her village, that kind of boldness from any African was legitimate cause for a whip. An unfathomable puzzle. Europes could calmly cut mothers down, blast old men in the face with muskets louder than moose calls, but were enraged if a not-Europe looked a Europe in the eye (p. 45-46). Europeans are not only undoubtedly aware of the skin color, but also ethnic difference. All differences start from the color of the skin. The ideas of skin color they establish come to have both a biological and a social dimension. Biologically, it is an isolated, inbreeding population with a distinctive genetic heritage. And for them it assumes defining characteristics which bring different social classes in the society. Society and law are embraced the assumption that black or negro is slave, uncivilized, invisible, and powerless while the white is free, civilized, visible and powerful. The distinguished traits that the whites create are more arbitrary and subjective, but they are perpetuated. They are deeply rooted in the society. Their aggressiveness can conquer the people who belong to the subordinate group. They can even destroy the culture from the conquered people and change them into the concept they have. As a result the blacks as the minority group have no power to defend with their culture. Everything must be based on the white standards. The superiority of the whites evokes a confidence to be exclusive. They are free to express their negative feeling through prejudice which turns into a discrimination toward blacks. The discrimination is implemented through arbitrary and unfair rules which are able to harm them. The superior position of the whites leads them into despotism. Tortures toward the black for punishment are legitimated. They have rights to decide which one is correct or not over the black. One of the unfavorable mistakes is if the black is courageous in looking at the white. For them, that action is insulting because as the civilized people, they must not be looked by the wild people like blacks. Being looked by the black is also threat for they assume that black people are stereotyped as low-morality people who can do despicable actions. While the whites themselves are arbitrarily can do the same things or even kill someone innocently. But because they have authority to create the regulations in the society because of their superiority, this kind of action belongs to the favorable action considered they do it to defend themselves.

Native and Africans, for instance, had access to grace but not to heaven a heaven they knew as intimately as they knew their own gardens (p. 98-99). She narrows her eyes and asks if I am of this earth or elsewhere? Her face is hard. I say this earth Madam I know no other. Christian or heathen, she asks. Never heathen I say (p. 106107). From the conversation between Florens and the woman can be seen that it is one of the doctrines of racial superiority which is related to belief. The blacks are believed to be devil followers because they are not Christian. For those who do not embrace Christian will belong to the savages or more than that, heathen. That is why when the woman sees Florens at the first time, prejudice arise through her sight by narrowing her eyes because she is black woman. Everyone has been indoctrinated that black are the savages who allied with devils spirit. That is the one reason of the woman to ask Florens whether she is Christian or heathen. The domination of the whites forces the minority group, in this case black people, to trust the belief they follow. Being Christian means being civilized because it teaches a kindness, affection, love and good manner. Christian is a receiving religion which can give renaissance for the wild black. The Christian doctrines they implant become a standard for those who want to be called civilized persons. Within their effort in taking over the New World, the extension of the whites belief becomes a colonial domination culturally which intends to abolish all religion practices of the minority group. There is no opportunity for the blacks as the minority group to hold their religion practice for the freedom to embrace a religion is the whites rights, except blacks are willing to dispose of their faith and conform of the whites belief. The notions of black ugliness, wild, dirt and intellectual inferiority are only be able to be concealed if they become Christian. But the fact, although they have conformed themselves to be Christian, they are still discriminated. Becoming a target of any kinds of oppression always occurs in their lives. The cultural racism in A Mercy tends to force the whites belief, in this case religion, to the non-whites. Christian belief becomes the only one belief that is admitted to be a religion for civilized people. For those who want to be called as civilized, they have to convert to the whites religion. 1.1.6 Cultural Racism in The Bluest Eye Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the green-and-white house. They are very happy. See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat. It goes meow-meow. Come and play. Come play with Jane. The kitten will not play. See mother. Mother is very nice. Mother, will you play with Jane? Mother laughs. Laugh, Mother, laugh. See father. He is big and strong. Father, will you play with Jane? Father is smiling. Smile, father, smile. See the dog. Bowwow goes the dog. Do you want to play with Jane? See the

dog run. Run, dog, run. Look, look. Here comes a friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game. Play, Jane, play (p. 7). Besides indicates the high social status, the condition of Dick and Jane also symbolizes the white value of a family and good emotional relationship among the member of the families. The ideal family is vividly depicted in Dick and Janes family. Parents and children love each other. All characters in this family experience happiness. Parents never carry much of blame for children; therefore they never get into a fight. A father can bring the family living in prosperity, the life which is far from poverty and suffering. The bright-colorful house is associated with beauty and happiness. The color of rainbow of that house describes cheerfulness. It symbolizes the house and neighborhood that are clean, safe, and friendly. It is the house and neighborhood of the whites. The values of their lives show their classes and rank. Their white picket fence makes the family who lives in feel secure and convenient. In the era of Depression and World War II, the life of Dick and Jane is very rare to be experienced by the society. Only particular people can reach this kind of life. This life seems to be a dream for all people in America. That is totally different with the Breedloves family. Cholly had come home drunk. Unfortunately he had been too drunk to quarrel, so the whole business would have to erupt this morning. Because it had not taken place immediately, the oncoming fight would lack spontaneity; it would be calculated, uninspired, and deadly (p. 35). The misbehaving father invites a brutal fight among the member of the family. His habit to get drunk always makes the family in trouble. When he is drunk, he loses his consciousness and does with his desire. All members of the family will finally involve in the uncontrolled quarrel. This condition creates inconvenience for the family. The condition of Breedlove family shows the bad emotional relationship among others. This terrible situation gives bad influence especially for the children. Their family is always punished by the society for the fathers misbehaving. Living with the low-education and poverty become the outcomes of Blacks problems. That contradictory condition shows a huge gap between the idealized and uppermiddle-class world of Dick and Jane and the dark and ugly world of Breedlove. In the larger society and the stereotype, black family is disassociated from images of happy parents, wellscrubbed children, and sparkling homes. The value of the white family emphasizes the superiority upon the blacks who will not be in the equal class or rank in the society. The depiction of civilized people can be seen through the way the whites live.

The ideal life of the white Americans through their great-white values brings people into an awareness of the social class. Everyone competes to adopt the white value in order to be classified as the white. As the minority, the blacks are tempted to adopt the white value to be admitted as the civilized people. 3. They go to land-grant colleges, normal schools, and learn how to do the white mans work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul. Here they learn the rest of the lesson begun in those soft houses with porch swings and pots of bleeding hearts: how to behave. The careful development of thrift, patience, high moral, and good manners. In sort, how to get rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotion (p. 68). Living in the whites society with the value that people think is superior affects the way the black people live. They think that they have to change what have become the stereotypes of blacks way of life by learning the whites way of life. They go to the school or college to get a better education so that they can be well-behaved people like the white. They learn to live in obedience, patience and good manners in order to be classified as the people with high moral like the white. They really force themselves for the things that may be a compulsion for them, but they have to for being called as the civilized people. That shows how the blacks in the white society are never given opportunity to see anything positive in them. The social stigma of black people makes them think that they are different and unacceptable, so that they need to expunge their identity by adopting the whites value. Frieda brought her four graham crackers on a saucer and some milk in a blue-and-white Shirley Temple cup. She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temples dimpled face. Frieda and she had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldnt join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Bojangles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels (p. 19). Shirley Temple is the little girl that is adored by all Americans. The blonde hair and the big blue eyes of hers hypnotize everyone who looks at her, especially the black girl like Frieda and Pecola. The idea of cute in the society is being white, blonde and having the blue eyes. That is why they use everything with Shirley Temple picture on it. They gaze fondly at the picture and enjoy getting conversation about how cute she is. Their adoration of Shirley Temple turns into worshiping her. They have a strong desire to look like her. Their desires for being white, blonde, and blue eyes are based on a belief that having white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes can be called as the cute ones.

They also believe that the beauty of Shirley Temple can bring love and happiness. She gets love from everyone so that she can enjoy doing interesting activities happily. The love and happiness of her are connected to how she is seen. But the more they look thoroughly at the Shirley Temple the more they realize the differences. That makes them believe on their own ugliness. It can be seen from Claudias hatred to Shirley Temple. She expresses her hatred toward Shirley temple because she feels so jealous. She cant get love and happiness from someone she loves like what Shirley Temple gets. While Pecola loves white beauty so much and wants to have the blue eyes to be able to see a wonderful things. It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. Her teeth were good, and at least her nose was not big and flat like some of those who were thought so cute. If she looked different, beautiful, may be Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. May be theyd say, Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustnt do bad things in front of those pretty eyes. (p. 40). Pecola is obsessed to have the white beauty, especially the blue eyes because she believes that they will change the way she is seen. If she possesses the blue eyes, the cruelty she experiences in her life will be replaced by affection and respect. By having the blue eyes, people will be reluctant to do the bad things in front of her. People do not want to do the bad things to her. The strong belief upon the white beauty turns the black people become unrealistic. This belief is affirmed by her sight in Shirley Temple and the experience in her family. She connects a beauty with being loved. With the blue eyes, Shirley Temple can have beautiful life and love from everyone. While having a black skin and ugly is the unfortunate of her. Her wish for the blue eyes indicates that she wants to see things differently as much as she wishes. She blinds herself for something impossible, having the blue eyes. Having looked at Pecolas wish, it shows that the strong belief upon white beauty can affect the blacks sanity. The onliest time I be happy seem like was when I was in the picture show. Everytime I got, I went. Id go early, before the show started. Theyd cut off the lights, and everything be black. Then the screen would light up, and Id move right on in them pictures. White men taking such a good care of they women, and they all dressed up in big clean houses with the bathtubs right in the same room with the toilet. Them pictures gave me a lot of pleasure, but it made coming home hard, and looking at Cholly hard. I dont know. Imember one time I went to see Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. I fixed my hair up like Id seen hers on a magazine. A part on the side, with one little curl on my forehead. It looked just like her. Well, almost just like (p. 97). The belief upon the white beauty as the popular culture is also emphasized through a mass media like theatre, magazine, television, advertisement and others. It becomes deeply

rooted in everyones mind, especially in the blacks mind that the white beauty represents positive image of a women. That is why the happiest moment for Pauline is when she is in the picture show. There she can enjoy the way white women live happily. The white beauties of the main characters make them treated well. Pauline tries to imitate the style of the white characters of Jean Harlow or Greta Garbo, in order to look like her and dream to get the good treatment like her. The white value which is applied by the white society turns into a belief that deeply rooted in peoples mind. Based on the cultural belief, white women with their beauty are much more likely than the black women to be depicted as a symbol of American standard of beauty. In the stilted world, the role of white women is strongly linked to love, sex, and marriage. The discriminations toward peoples culture are convinced to maintain the superiority of the whites in the society because blacks are considered to be the most suffering citizens who are inferior based on racial traits for the belief that the darker is the worse. The existence of the whites power structure will not give any opportunity for black people to actualize themselves. Although it is in the modern and democracy era, they will not have the equal position in the white society. Through those discriminations, they are kept powerless in the society and also in the family. In the era where the awareness of peoples freedom is upheld, people are still living in a white dominant culture. They all are Anglophiles, especially black people who try hard to expunge any trace of the Africans in them. The cultural racism has been changed, from the belief that related to the religion to the life style which is supported by the power of media that extremely affects peoples lives as reflected in The Bluest Eye. The existence of media throughout the years especially in the twentieth century takes an important role for the expansion of whites culture rapidly. The modern life style of whites becomes the standard of living where everyone attempts to meet those requirements for being called as modern person. 1.2 Gender Oppression in A Mercy and The Bluest Eye This section tries to reveal how women are abused by men in the patriarchy system which regards dominant and subordinate position between men and women. Gender oppression in the slavery era in A Mercy and in the modern era in The Bluest Eye does not have a significant change. Womens rights are seized and all kinds of relationship will be ended in womens victimization. Women are exploited and face oppression from their

husbands, fathers, friends or other men. The seizure of womens rights for mens interest that exists in womens lives is kind of the victimization that is occurred to the marginal group. 1.2.1 Gender Oppression in A Mercy -He had searched the advertisements posted at the printers town. A likely woman who has had small pox and measles. A likely Negro about 9 years . Girl or woman that is handy in the kitchen, sensible, speaks good English, complexion between yellow and black. Five years time of white woman that understands Country work, with a child upwards of two years old.Mulatto fellow very much pitted with small pox, honest and sober.White lad fit to serve.Wanted a servant able to drive a carriage, white or black.Sober and prudent woman who. Likely wench, white, 29 years with child. Healthy Deutsche woman for rent.stout healthy, healthy strong, strong healthy likely sober sober sober until he got to Hardy female, Christianized and capable in all matters domestic available for exchange of goods and specie (p. 52). -A bachelor expecting the arrival of a new wife, he required precisely that kind of female on his land (52). - I am first to get the knocking away. The back of your hand strikes my face. I fall and curl up on the floor. Tight. Why are you killing me I ask you. I want you to go. Let me explain. No. Now. Why? Why? Because you are slave. What? You heard me. Sir makes me that. I dont mean him. Then who? You. What is your meaning? I am a slave because Sir trades for me. No. You have become one. How? Your head is empty and your body is wild. I am adoring you. And a slave to that too. You alone own me. Own yourself, woman, and leave us be. You could have killed this child. No. Wait. You put me in misery. You are nothing but wilderness. No constraint. No mind. You shout the word mind, mind, mind over and over and then you laugh, saying as I live and breathe, a slave by choice (p. 140-141). Florens struggle to protect her from man oppressions is difficult under any circumstances. The privilege is awarded to everybody in the society, white men and even the black men themselves have unlimited violence access over her, as a black woman. The disgraceful treatment she receives is from the black man instead. He is the freedman who has never been enslaved along his life. Assuming that his position is much higher than the black

woman whose status is a slave makes him dauntless to strike Florens. His crudities over her are not only for giving a punishment of her mistake, but it is more to show his power as a man and also freedman who wants nothing of woman submission. Gender entrapment keeps Florens locked into relationship where oppression occurs. The main reason which makes the freedman in courage to do violence over her is related to her status as a slave and woman. He uses the terms slave and woman when he calls her. For him, being a woman and slave are associated with empty head and wild body. He has a sneer on his face when he says mind over and over to Florens. It seems he wants to emphasize that woman slave is nothing because she has no mind but wilderness. His rejection over Florens through the violence he does is the result of gender oppression which exists in the society. The absence of fair law enforcement makes everyone in the society act violently and arbitrarily to her, including the black man himself. When he calls Florens as a slave, it means he humiliates her blackness and indirectly implements racism while he himself is black. Slave is related to the black people. From the beginning the exploitation of slaves is noticed in terms of the innate racial inferiority of blacks. He feels that a man who never enslaved like him does not belong to them although he is black. His status as a freedman makes him proud of himself because he can melt in the white society. He indirectly adopts the whites way of thinking. Besides, the term woman he says to Florens shows his superiority as a man who claims more property, prestige, and power. He treats her as a separate minority group who has no power. It once again shows his worship over patriarchy system the whites follow. 1.2.2 Gender Oppression in The Bluest Eye Everybody in the world was in a position to give them orders. White women said, Do this. White children said, Give me that. White men said, Come here. Black men said, Lay down The only people they need not take orders from were black children and each other (p. 109). At the individual or group level, there is no difference between what the whites think and act to the black woman as a group or individual. A prejudiced people, the white society whether they are men, women, children and even the black men themselves, think about the black women in terms of stereotypes which are used to generalize her. They are identical with weakness, dependent or ignorant. So that people treat them in arbitrary, unfair and destructive ways. They deny the opportunity and equality for the black women to actualize and develop their capabilities. It places them into helpless, powerless, and suffers people. Mrs. Breedlove came swiftly into the room and stood at the foot of the bed where Cholly lay. I need some coal in this house.

Cholly did not move. Hear me? Mrs. Breedlove jabbed Chollys foot. Cholly opened his eyes slowly. They were red and menacing. With no exception, Cholly had the meanest eyes in town. Awwwwww, woman! I said I need some coal. Its as cold as a witchs tit in this house. Your whiskey ass wouldnt feel hellfire, but Im cold. I got to do a lot of things, but I aint got to freeze. Leave me lone (p. 35-36). Cholly regards Pauline as the inferior, dependent and the servant of him. His function as a head of the family is absent for he never fulfills what becomes the rights of his family. His habit to come home drunk that makes him loose his consciousness causes poor condition for his wife and children. When his family runs out the coal in which it needs great effort to get them because someone has to wade out in the deadly cold, Cholly as a man who heads this family has no wish to get them for his family. The urgent need of coal does not make Cholly move to get them to warm their bodies. Instead of going outside to get them, he goes to bed and heap this responsibility to Pauline. What Cholly does to his wife, Pauline is based on his perspective of woman. For him, Pauline is not more than a woman with no value and worthless who perturbs his life. He does not want to be burdened with responsibility while as a mature man who decides to marry his spouse, he will automatically takeover the responsibility upon her. 1. She does not know what keeps his glance suspended. Perhaps because he is grown, or a man, and she a little girl. But she has seen interest, disgust, even anger in grown male eyes. Yet this vacuum is not new to her. It has an edge; somewhere in the bottom lid is the distaste. She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness. All things in her are flux and anticipation. But her blackness is static and dread. And it is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes (p. 42). 2. Cholly commenced to getting meaner and meaner and wanted to fight with me all of the time. I give him as good as I got. Had to. Look like working for that woman and fighting Cholly was all I did. Tiresome. But I holt on to my jobs, even though working for that woman was more than a notion (p. 94). Paulines effort to work for household expenses in her family exchanges Chollys position as a head of household. It is a must for her because she has no choice. If she wants to keep alive she must work because she needs a cost for living. Chollys action in refusing to give money to his wife Pauline is a kind of carrying away her rights and dignity as a woman. But Pauline does not take this as a big deal. She receives that treatment for Cholly is her husband who has rights of her. Getting tired for having a work, Pauline has to face Chollys

bad behavior at home for he is often under the influence of alcohol. Chollys superiority as a man over a Pauline as his wife is reflected in this section. Oppressions come in many forms in Paulines life when she is exploited and oppressed in the workplace as the housekeeper in the whites house and also at home with her husband. Working in the white family for the black woman like Pauline is not an easy thing to do. As the black and woman, she has to work hard and face the ungenerous and pretentious white family who treat her unfair without any objection. That family also seizes Pauline rights by hiring and firing her at will without any payment just for Cholly shows up at her workplace drunk. She sacrifices what she has for her husband but in the opposite his husband treats her badly. Her marriage with Cholly deteriorates rapidly because the fights become more and more violent. With all of her inferiorities, Pauline is forced to accept her fate. Work for her family, receive unfair treatment in the workplace until receive abuse from her husband when she gets home are like her routine duties in life that brings her into an exhausted condition. She has no choice but accept them. In spite of all her efforts to improve her life she must be in the disadvantage condition that brings her in the victimization. 3. When white men beat their men, they cleaned up the blood and went home to receive abuse from the victim. They beat their children with one hand and stole for them with the other. The hands that felled trees also cut umbilical cords; the hands that wrung the necks of chickens and butchered hogs also nudged African violets into bloom; the arms that loaded sheaves, bales, and sacks rocked babies into sleep. They patted biscuits into flaky ovals of innocenceand shrouded the dead. They plowed all day and came home to nestle like plums under the limbs of their men. The legs that straddled a mules back were the same ones that straddled their mens hips. And the difference was all the difference there was (p. 110). 4. Then they were old. Their bodies honed, their odor sour. Squatting in a cane field, stooping in a cotton field, kneeling by a river bank, they had carried a world on their heads. They had given over the lives of their own children and tendered their grandchildren. With relief they wrapped their heads in rags, and their breasts in flannel; eased their feet into felt. They were through with lust and lactation, beyond tears and terror. They alone could walk the roads of Mississippi, the lanes of Georgia, the fields of Alabama unmolested. They were old enough to be irritable when and where they chose, tired enough to look forward to death, disinterested enough to accept the idea of pain while ignoring the presence of pain. They were, in fact and at last, free. And the lives of these old black women were synthesized in their eyesa pure of tragedy and humor, wickedness and serenity, truth and fantasy (p. 110). 1.3 The Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in Toni Morrisons Novels The Bluest Eye And A Mercy

The fusion of racism and gender oppression results black women as the most suffering groups for they are oppressed by white men and white women, as well as black men in society. Black women positions, both as a women and black, in subordinated communities are always taken into disadvantages. As the black women, they are viewed as a separate entity. Black women like them seem locked inside their own head, and inside their own fate. The white racism and gender oppression implemented in the society find the way to oppress them. Being an object of racism and gender oppression brings them into the worst thing human can be. Every relationship they involve in the society is always ended in the victimization. They arrive at their destination in which black women are targets of violence and ignorance as the result of the fusion of racism and gender oppression practice in the society. Together with black men, they come into race oppression which implemented in the individual, institutional and cultural level. Individual: Attitudes and actions that reflect prejudice against a social group (intentional and unintentional). Institutional: Policies, laws, rules, norms and customs enacted by organizations and social institutions that disadvantage some social groups and advantage other social groups. These institutions include religion, government, education, law, the media, and the health care system (intentional and unintentional). Societal/Cultural: Social norms, roles, rituals, language, music and art that reflect and reinforce the belief that one social group is superior to another (Intentional and unintentional). Oppression is a system that maintains advantage and disadvantage based on social group memberships and operates, intentionally and unintentionally, on individual, institutional and cultural levels. All women do not have the same experiences in being a woman. The white and black women have different experiences in being a woman. The black women suffer from racism and gender oppression than the white women because they have double burdens as ones who are subordinated based on race and gender. The cultural representation which is shaped by the whites perspectives can be seen through the different experiences they are experienced. 2. The Social Impacts of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in A Mercy and The Bluest Eye The cultural forces of the fusion of racism and gender oppression result two negative social impacts as phenomenon in which people affect one another in social situation. The inferiority of black women based on race and gender places them in the lower position and

victims that brings abuses from people who have power and higher position in society. Those abuses are sexual abuse and trafficking. 2.1 The Social Impacts of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in A Mercy Neither one will want your brother. I know their tastes. Breasts provide the pleasure more than simpler things. Yours are rising too soon and are becoming irritated by the cloth covering your little girl chest. And they see and I see them see (p. 162). Being a target for sexual abuse is common happened in female slaves life, whether she is still a girl or woman. The slave girl Florens is heavily surrounded by the males of her masters family who have an eye on the growing girl like her. She grows into an adult in which everything in her body changes. Her rising breasts are signs that she is growing adult. Everyone can see them although they are covered by the clothes she wears. Nothing can hide the signs of puberty in her. The master and his sons watch closely to Florens changes like the wild animals that wait the right time to pounce on their tender prey. As a woman who is also become the victim of sexual abuse, Florens mother Minha Mae knows exactly that Florens changes will invite the master and his sons lust. She knows that they want Florens than the baby boy because she is female and her rising breast can give much pleasure for them. However she and her mother are aware of this condition, they can do nothing if someday it happens. Soon or later Florens will be raped by the master or his sons. Although her mother tries to hamper their effort, they will not give up until they meet that need. That condition will continue if she does not immediately leave this place. There is nothing to do for the female slaves like Florens and Minha Mae, but only keep silent. Their silence represents their powerlessness. Suffering from sexual harassment is the result of racism and gender oppression experienced by black women. They are repressed individually, institutionally and culturally in the society. These repressions carry away their rights as human in which this condition gives an opportunity for the superior group to exploit them without being afraid to be punished. It brings them into a suffering life because they always become victims in every slavery practice. As no one and nothing can help them, they absolutely live in hopelessness. I dont know who is your father. It was too dark to see any of them. They came at night and took we there including Bess to a curing shed. Shadows of men sat on barrels, then stood. They said they were told to break we in. There is no protection. To be female in this place is to be an open wound that cannot heal. Even if scars form, the festering is ever below (p. 163). Black women are always groped for any reason, from being a slave until becoming a target of being abused. They are forced to meet what the whites want. That is experienced by

Minha Mae and many other female slaves. They are taken in the middle of the night into a curing shed without knowing what the reason is. There is nothing to do to defend themselves from any mistreated. The horrible action from the white man from brutal Portuguese slave colony of Angola over Minha mae and Bess cannot be avoided. Black women and slave are the status in which they have to submit to the fate and beg for a mercy, but a good fate and mercy are never in their sides. As powerful men, the whites have absolute control over black womens lives. They play the dominant role in slave society. Just giving a command, they can gain what they want. Bringing Minha Mae and Bess to satisfy their lust is not a big deal for them. Having sex with the black women for the whites is acceptable as long as it is not done publicly. The relation between the whites and black women involve rape and other forms of violence. Free access to black women is largely held by white men in positions of power and a symbol of white males privilege. Sexual abuse of slaves is partially rooted in the patriarchal nurture of white culture. Sex between white men and black women does not threaten the white power structure, but instead reinforce the domination of the white men. The unlimited sexual access does not challenge the purity of the white race because children born of white fathers and black mothers are demoted to a slave status. That is why Florens has no father. She becomes a slave following her mothers status because she is the product of rape. As the black women and slave, Minha Mae cannot prosecute the responsibility over the white men who rape her whether she knows the person or not. Black women suffer from sexual harassment as well as physical and verbal abuse in the homes of white employers and in the society. There is no place to protect themselves from any unfair treatments. It seems that they are at a disproportionate risk for being abused. That belongs to public molestation action because society which becomes the witness just keeps silent with that condition. It is kind of big support to take black women in the disadvantages. That is the result of being ignored individually, institutionally and culturally. Everyone who belongs in the superior group can express their prejudice and hatred to them. Moreover, they always receive discrimination in the public institution. They and their family are always in danger of being abused by the white law enforcement officials. Besides, the white cultural forms add threats for black womens existence. Their efforts to fight for dignity, respect, and self-determination over their bodies are absolutely hindered. They just struggle in their day to day survival without being known when it is over.

2.2.2 Trafficking Bound with vine one to another we are moved four times, each time more trading, more culling, more dying. We increase in number or we decrease in number until maybe seven times ten or ten times ten of we are driven into a holding pen (p. 163-164). Trafficking is always associated with black people, especially black women in the slavery era in the New World. It is an era in which horrible actions and events occur in black womens lives. Shipped to the Southern colonies, Minha Mae and other black women are traded to be slaves. They are under the system which legalizes exploitation over them as slaves. The trafficking is supported from all level of society, from the white men and women as slaveholders and also the black men themselves who oppress them or help the slaveholders in flesh trading. In shipping to the colonies which demand them, Minha Mae and other black women do not treat like human. They are bounded each other along their trip. Moving from one colony to other ones, they are chosen and sold like goods. Besides facing the trading, they have to face the terrible condition in shipping, from the hurting weather, the virulent of disease epidemic, until cruel treatments. These conditions are bad enough, not to mention the slaveholders wickedness. Their movement belongs to the violation of the human rights. It seems that they do not have rights over their own body. They cannot decide their own future because it is decided by the dominant groups who have power. The harassment and brutal trafficking directed at them is the result of the individual, institutional and cultural racism and gender oppression which is done at the individual or group level, institution and cultural level applied in the society. Taking them into separate people, ease everyone to authorize their lives. That kind of condition will be experienced by their descendants. Florens is Minha maes daughter who is the product of the rape of her mother by a plantation hand. She automatically follows her mother status and becomes a slave. The institutionalized power of the whites frees the white man from any legal responsibility to acknowledge or support their children. Florens life is not much different with her mother. Being black and woman means being threatened by trafficking to be a slave. They wrote new papers. Agreeing that the girl was worth twenty pieces of eight, considering the number of years ahead of her and reducing the balance by three hogsheads of tobacco or fifteen English pounds, the later preferred (p. 27). This is the depiction how Florens moves from one master to another master through trafficking. She is sold in part of payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic

Maryland. After they reach an agreement through hard transaction, Florens is allowed to be owned by another white man as her next master. Sold equal with the price of three hogsheads of tobacco or measured with various currencies, Florens body is not more than a good which can be owned by anyone. The idea of the masters to own Florens body is because she is black person who is still young and female. Black woman slave has not only to do with work, but much of it is also concerned with bearing, nourishing, and rearing children of slaveholders which is needed for the continual replenishment of their slaves force. The more many slaves that slaveholders have, the more powerful their position in the society is, especially in the plantation business. Having traded and owned by one plantation hand to another one, they arrive at their destinations that as black women, Minha Mae and Florens are inspected, branded, and priced. They do not have power, except the masters dictation over themselves. The oppressions individually, culturally, and at the institutional level toward Florens and Minha Mae as black women, make them becoming objects for commodity. They are owned just for getting advantages. No one provides protection for them, so that they are easily able to be attacked by everyone from any side. Therefore black women are mostly threatened to be trafficking victims. 2.2 The Social Impacts of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in The Bluest Eye He picked at me. Picked at you? You mean like Soaphead Church? Sort of. He showed his privates at you? Noooo. He touched me. Where? Here and here. She pointed to the tiny breasts that, like two fallen acorns, scattered a few faded rose leaves on her dress (p. 79). Black girls as well as black women are suffering from individual, institutional and even cultural racism and gender oppression. Their positions in the society are weak and ignored. That makes them become a pleasant object for violence. The mature-black girl, Frieda, experiences sexual initiation from her roomer Henry Washington. He touches Friedas private area, her breasts. Although it is only an attempt, but this attempt is classified as the impolite and humiliate action for a black woman like Frieda. It is because the attempt related to the sexual action. She is initiated into sexual experience when she is fondled by him. The molestation shows disrespectful of a man to a black woman.

The incident between Frieda and Harry Washington negatively affects black woman in the area of sexuality by doing a negative attitude and behavior. Being black, woman, and poor like her becomes a pleasant target for a man because she doesnt have power in society. When something happens to a black woman, no one in the society will care of her. The negligence individually, institutionally and even culturally from the wide society bring her in an abusive environment. Following the disintegration the falling away of sexual desire, he was conscious of her wet, soapy hands on his wrist, the fingers clenching, but whether her grip was from a hopeless but stubborn struggle to be free, or from some other emotion, he could not tell. Removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina. She appeared to have fainted. Cholly stood up and could see only her grayish panties, so sad and limp around her ankles. Again the hatred would not let him pick her up, the tenderness forced him to cover her (p. 128-129). Pecolas experience of sexual abuse is more painful than Frieda. If Frieda only experiences sexual molestation, Pecola experiences a repetitious sexual violence from her own father, Cholly, who is impulsive in following his desire. Having abandoned by his parents and then humiliated by the two armed white men while he was having sex are humiliating and hurtful. His first sexual encounter by armed whites constitutes a trauma, reveals the extent and depth of his psychic wound. He himself experiences sexual abuse. With mixed motives of tenderness and hatred that are fueled by guilt, he rapes her. As a black, he realizes that he and his family are the individuals who painfully alienated by their community. The society places them in the lowest social level because they are powerless, hopeless and suffer. Their existence is ignored. No one pays attention if something happens to them. So that he has braveness to release his sexual disintegration to her because no one will care what they do and everything occurs to them. For a black man like Cholly, he has to face a discrimination of the white man and white women. For Frieda and Pecola, they have double burdens because they are not only black but they are also women. They are not only discriminated by the society, the white men and white women, but they also have to face violence and sexual abuse from the black men themselves. Having discriminated individually, institutionally and culturally by the society makes the black women like Frieda and Pecola have no chance in life. Besides, they become a tender target for the black men themselves. Their existences are completely neglected. These discriminations distort peoples assumption that black women are available for abuse.

3. The Psychological Impacts of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives in A Mercy and The Bluest Eye After the exposure for some social abuses, black women as victims may fall into psychological disorder. The marginal group of black women who are targeted by social abuses over time succumb to the disorder affecting the mind, especially as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation. Abuse creates emotional pain and mental anguish in those targets. 3.1 In A Mercy Florens: Low-self esteem On my knees I reach for you. Crawl to you. You step back saying get away from me. I have shock. Are you meaning I am nothing to you? (p. 141). Florens realizes that there is no room for her in the society. Nobody wants her except to be exploited for gaining advantages. Looking for love, protection and opportunity is impossible to be done. Living in the white society forces her to a fate of the acceptance of the rules applied by the dominant group. The rules implementation is exceptionally beneficial to the white people in achieving their goals. That condition gives huge opportunity for them to act arbitrarily. As the result, oppression occurs within her life as the manifestation of the whites power. The oppression towards her existence is expanded from individual to institutional level until cultural level. Her voice is hushed for any reasons. The reinforcement of whites power is realized by dominating her life through trafficking. The authority over her belongs to the slaveholders. She is sold and priced as if she is a good. Given to the businessman, Jacob Vark, to cover the hard debt of DOrtega, her former master, Florens moves from one hand to the other hands without her willingness and agreement. Her body is the real object for commodity. Besides, she also has to cope with violence and sexual abuse. The treatments which Florens receives reflects that black woman like her never possesses her pride. Feeling rejected by society, she looks for a love and protection from the black man whose status is freedman. Leaving far from her mistress place to meet the freedman, she wishes so much to be able to marry him and go away from the mistress place and take off her slave status. She wants to be free from becoming an object to be explored for the whites advantages which brings disrespect from the society over her. Being oppressed and exploited for slave commodity seems to lose dignity. Considered that the man she loves from the same race and he treats her very gently when he visited her masters house makes Florens come into a decision to run away with

him. She thinks he also loves her as she does, so that he will agree with her idea. But Florens forgets of the man status as a freedman who is free and never enslaved. As a male he is dominant in leadership positions and power structure, so that he will not easily agree with Florens idea. The freedman thinks that he has pride, position and prestige in the society. Distinguished with the indentured servants who most of them are unskillful labors, he is a man with high skill of smithy. Revealed to be the African blacksmith who is never enslaved, he fashions the iron gates with kissing cobras for Vaarks new house. That is why he underestimates Florens for she is only a woman with no skill and an object of commodity in slavery. He is not reluctant to do verbal and even physical abuse to her in reflecting his rejection to Florens and her offer. Feeling that he is the only one hope for her future, she ignores her pride for kneeling and crawling to him. Begging for his acceptance which is done by Florens through kneeling and crawling does not melt the blacksmiths heart. He steps back to avoid her and asks her to get away from him. Florens actions in kneeling and crawling to him are kinds of a pawn toward her pride. What she does invites more disrespect from the blacksmith. It shows that she does not have appraisal over herself. She does not take for granted that she is an interesting and valuable person. She despises herself and considers herself to be unvaluable and unworthy of being black woman. That strengthens the blacksmiths opinion that black woman and slave like Florens is inferior and nothing for him. Rejections over Florens as black woman come from the white people and also the black men themselves. Depression Strangest was Florens. The docile creature they knew had turned feral. When they saw her stomping down the road two days after the smithy had visited Mistress sickbed and gone, they were slow to recognize her as a living person (p. 146). The low self-esteem guides her into a depression. The life events she experiences precipitate the changing of low self-esteem for becoming depression. It can be seen from peoples opinion to her. They see her changed, from docile creature turns into feral. She becomes strange with the changes. Her arrival from visiting the African blacksmith brings many changes to her. The significant effect is related to her psychological condition. Actually, Florens is a tough young woman with strong willingness. From trying to be literate through studying with Reverend Father until leaving her mistress place to meet the African blacksmith for a wish to get married and go somewhere so that she can takes off her slave status. The society never gives an opportunity for her. Racism and gender oppression are directed to her as black woman. As the result, she receives social impacts like being the target

of sex abuse and an object for slave trafficking. These treatments from the society oppress her life. As she grows up, she realizes that brutal treatments she receives through racism and gender oppression reflect the rejection and separation of society toward her. The impacts of these oppressions emphasize the inferiority of her. Her visiting to the African blacksmith brings her into self awareness related to her status as the black woman. The blacksmiths rejection ensures her that she is absolutely nothing and ignored by the society and the black man himself. Besides giving a verbal abuse, he is also bold in giving physical abuse instead. Because he is the only one hope for Florens, she allows herself to kneel and crawl to the blacksmith. She becomes a person with a low self-esteem in which it turns into a depression when the blacksmith forces her to go home to her mistress. It means she has to live with the condition in which she has to endure suffering of racism and gender oppression as the beginning. Florens feels so hopeless and helpless because the African blacksmith who becomes her last support to release herself from racism and gender oppression rejects her. She turns into unfriendly with her surroundings. She acts so strange after knowing the reality. Being silent and easy to be emotional indicates the depression toward her experiences of failure to be a part of society and the blacksmiths life. 3.2 The Psychological Impacts of the Fusion of Racism and Gender Oppression in Black Womens Lives In The Bluest Eye Low self-esteem They danced a macabre ballet around the victim, whom, for their own sake, they were prepared to sacrifice to the flaming pit. Black e mo Black e mo Ya daddy sleeps nekked. Stch tat a stch tat a stch ta ta ta ta ta Pecola edged around the circle crying. She had dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands. (p.55). The refusal of society over Pecola through racism and gender oppression at the individual and institutional level, and cultural level instead brings into a condition in which everyone in her school has a braveness to direct his hatred. Pecola get herself pushed in a corner with the oppressions applied in the society, not to mention the sexual abuse she received as the social impact of racism and gender oppression. The sexual abuse she experienced comes from her father himself. That makes her becomes the tender target to be teased. Society blames her and her family as ugly people who contaminate the whites values

as the standard ones in the society. The bad behaviors of her family are believed as the reflection of the behaviors of uncivilized people. Then, it becomes an object for Pecolas friends to humiliate her who considered being powerless because she is inferior based on race and gender perspective. All kinds of oppressions which cause sexual abuse as a social impact distort her psychological condition. On the other hands, peoples judgments and her friends mockery aggravate her mentally. She cannot stand with her friends mockery which insults her and her family, especially her fathers behavior. Besides, they also make fun of her blackness. Her fathers behavior which always sleeps naked in front of her becomes a good object for her friends to mock her. Their taunt is about her familys bad behavior which belongs to the lowmorality of black people. It seems that her familys blackness has close relationship with something bad and ugly. Being surrounded and ridiculed by her friends at school make her shocked. Pecola is very passive and not able to defend with the situation. It is because she does not give appraisal of her own worth. That makes her self-confidence easy to be destroyed. The dissatisfaction over herself as a black girl influences her mentally. Pecolas actions which edge around, cry, drop the notebook, and cover her eyes with hand reflect her passiveness. She tends to believe what her friends say. Their friends action in mocking her is a kind of a lack social support which tends to bring her into feeling rejected. Pecola exceedingly despise herself and consider herself to be unworthy of being loved and respected. It shows the lowesteem of her. It may be experienced as part of a general pattern of racist hostility. Children who are racially bullied in school may also experience a wider feeling of isolation in their local environment and community. This is particularly the case with young people who are in groups which are often negatively portrayed in the media such as migrant workers or asylum seekers. Depression Pecola shouted, I never saw my daddy naked. Never. You did too, Maureen snapped. Bay Boy said so. I did not. You did. I did not. Did. Your own daddy, too! Pecola tucked her head in a funny, sad, helpless movement. A kind of hunching of the shoulders, pulling in of the neck, as though she wanted to cover her ears (p. 60).

Pecola feels really depressed when Maureen Peal, the girl she admires so much participates in mocking her. Maureen is the light-skinned, wealthy mulato who accepts everyone elses assumption that she is superior and is capable of both generosity and cruelty. Besides admiring Maureens condition, she is also envy to her. The condition of Maureen Peal is the condition in which Pecola wants so much. Being accepted by the society and admired by others with the condition like Maureen are Pecolas dreams to be able to survive in the white and cruel society. She cannot accept her own condition which is always taken in the inferior position and a victim of racism and gender oppression in individual, institutional and cultural level. Her existence is repressed from all side, so that she has no opportunity to see something positive in her as black woman. The frequency of affronts over her from all people influences her psychological condition. Having low self esteem makes her fall into depression because she has no selfconfidence which can give power to defend herself from the worse condition. Insulted by Maureen Peal, Pecola feels agitated. It can be seen from Pecolas braveness in shouting to Maureen and replying her accusation emotionally whereas Pecola is a passive and quiet person. She eventually feels agitated and irritable when Maureen bullies her. She distinctly answers Maureens accusations. Her boldness in answering Maureens accusation is purposed to cover her weakness, but it just runs for a while. The low self esteem dominates her mental condition. In the other hands, deep in her heart she confesses that what Mauren and her other friends say is true. That makes her fall into depression which brings her into sadness and helplessness. Self-Hatred Soaphead Church told her to come in. What can I do for you, my child? She stood there, her hands folded across her stomach, a little protruding pot of tummy. Maybe. Maybe you can do it for me. Do what for you? I cant go to school no more. And I thought maybe you could help me. Help you how? Tell me. Dont be frightened. My eyes. What about your eyes? I want them blue. Soaphead pursed his lips, and let his tongue stroke a gold inlay. He thought it was at once the most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received. Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty (p. 137). All pressures Pecola receives shock her psychological condition, from experiencing low self-esteem until getting depressed. Now low self-esteem and depression guide her into

self-hatred. Having no appraisal over her own worth makes her easy to be dissatisfied of being black in the middle of the white society. That condition destroys her self-confidence. Living without strong self-confidence, Pecola is not able to survive in the brutal whitesuperiority because the superior whites direct a lot of pressures through racism and gender oppression individually, institutionally, and culturally. Being rejected by the society and abused sexually as the social impact of racism and gender oppression, Pecola turns into a depression. Drowning within a deep sadness and feeling helpless of the arbitrary oppressions from the society which cause sexual abuse raise an extreme dislike over herself. Being angry and loathsome to be born as a black woman that results inferiority complex, Pecola wants the condition changed. Her blackness and sexual abuse as the social impact of racism and gender oppression from the society makes her embarrassed and ashamed. She is obsessed to be the beautiful girl by having the blue eyes because she believes this mark of conventional that the blue eyes will change the way she is seen and therefore the way she sees the world. Her desire to possess the blue eyes is realized by visiting Soaphead Church - the reader, adviser, and interpreter of dreams- and asking him for a help of heaving the blue eyes. She secretly thinks that may be if she were prettier if she had blue eyes, then the condition would be changed. She would see herself as beautiful, instead of ugly little girl she is disgusted with when she looks into the mirror. Therefore, people would see differently, including her father, classmates and teachers and she would even see herself differently. Her attempt in covering those things that are culturally identified with African heritage in her by changing her eyes and hating her blackness is related to the racial hatred. Being unable to meet the whites standards produces a self-hatred which indirectly turns into racial hatred because she denies the characteristics of her own race. Through her interactions with white people and popular culture around her, the concept of her own inferiority and the inferiority of her race in general is reinforced in her everyday life. So that, when she cannot meet everything which is called as white standards, she feels ashamed and tries to withdraw her existence from surroundings. Alienation And the years folded up like pocket handkerchiefs. Sammy left town long ago; Cholly died in the workhouse; Mrs. Breedlove still does housework. And Pecola is somewhere in that little brown house she and her mother moved to on the edge of towns, where you can see her even now, once in a while. The birdlike gestures are worn away to a mere picking and plucking her way between the tire rims and the sunflowers, between Coke bottles and milkweed, among all the waste and the beauty of the world which is what she herself was (p. 159).

The extreme wish of Pecola for the blue eyes is impossible to be realized because nobody can change what God has given. Being dissatisfied with her condition and hating her blackness are reasons to withdraw her existence from the surroundings because she feels ashamed for not being able to live with the whites standards. Besides she also has to face the societys rejection toward her who feels beautiful of her ugliness, feels comparatively lucky of her suffering, and has opportunity for speaking of her silence. That is why Pecola never feels a sense of community or solidarity. Everyone in the society rejects her racial identity. Finally she and her mother decide to withdraw their existence by moving to the edge of this haunted town to be disappeared. Feeling so lonely and isolated, Pecola sets out alone to find happiness through developing her fantasy. You are the only one who tells me how pretty they are. Yes. You are a real friend. Im sorry about picking on you before. I mean, saying you were jealous and all. Thats all right. No. Really. You are my very best friend. Why didnt I know you before? You didnt need me before. Didnt need you? I mean you were so unhappy before. I guess you didnt notice me before. I guess youre right. And I was so lonely for friends. And you were right here. Right before my eyes (p. 152). Her father, her mother, and her brother, Sammy go their own way to find happiness, the society rejects her existence and her close friend Claudia and Frieda, the only one friends who always accompany her make a distance with her. They live separately from people and also each member of her family. From her conversation above can be seen that she is completely alone and alienated. In her isolation and loneliness, Pecola lives in her fantasy as if she has blue eyes which make her beautiful and loved by everyone. Thereby, she will attain a sense of community, confidence and identity. She loses her mind and finds beauty and happiness through her madness. Living with illusion is a hopeless desire, but it can be one of her attempts to survive in her aimless existence.