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Nehemie Pierre
Professor John Glenn
AML2600
June 13th 2013
Theory Exercise 2

In the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison we can see Frantz Fanon's Cultural
Imposition theory coming into play in several parts of the book. Frantz Fanon was born to a middle
class family; he began his writing in France where he was on scholarship to study psychiatry and
medicine. Anyway let's get to the definition of Cultural Imposition which is the tendency of a
person or group to impose their values and patterns of behavior onto other persons. This can be found
in Fanons sociological study Black Skin, White Masks. This book talks about the authors own
experience as a black intellect among a white world.
In this novel an example can be found on page 19 through 21 where Claudia has been given
dolls for Christmas. But not just any doll a blond hair blue eyed dolls that were considered beautiful by
everybody including her parents who become upset when she mutilates the doll. Her parents even
respond with I-never-had-a-baby-doll-in-my-whole-life-and-used-to-cry-my-eyes-out-for-them. They
basically want her to put the same amount of value they had as a child on the doll but she's unwilling.
They also thought she wanted these dolls for Christmas but they never took the time to actually ask her
what she wanted. A simple example would be on page 62 where little Maureen Peal is introduced. She
is a rich light skin black girl who is praised by everybody. The teachers treated her like a commodity.
The boys never picked on her and didn't even want to fight dirty in front of her. The white and black
girls treated her with respect and fear. No one seemed to want to hate her or upset her. Even Frieda
cared a bit about her opinion. The only one who disagreed was Claudia who consistently plotted ways

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to make Maureen miserable. She was the only opposing soul.
Another example can be found on pages 38 and 39 in how the Breedlove family perceives
themselves as ugly. By today's society's standards I believe they would be considered beautiful with
their smooth unblemished dark skin, high cheekbones and full lips but according to where they live
the darker the skin tone, the uglier you are, no matter the features or hair. The whole family ate up the
words of the people. When the neighborhood people call them ugly they just nod their head, look down
to the ground, and agree with their actions and mannerisms in a way that says yes, you are right.
They simply accepted the stigma people placed on them instead of fighting and rejecting it. Another
example would be 87 where Jr.'s mother does so much to keep her child away from Nigger children.
She tells him he's only allowed to play with the Colored people because they were neat and quiet
compared to Niggers who were dirty and loud. His mother Geraldine cut his hair and dressed him up
in finer clothing, she even piled lotion on him to keep him from being ashy in the winter time because
only Nigger children were ashy.. But the child himself would have loved to play with jack knifes,
play in mud, and just hang out and talk about guy stuff. But due to his mother's values and her vision of
how she wanted her son to be. He wasn't allowed to be himself, he wasn't allowed to experience or
grow up mentally correct. He likes to torture cats and bully black girls. This theory helps me to see that
African literature and culture is affected by everything and anything. It's like a sponge.