The Bluest Eye and Dove Beauty Campaign

Everyone is faced with the challenge of living up to a created, idealized perception of beauty. Society has fabricated this perception and enforces it every day through ads in magazines, movies, ect. The goal of the Dove Beauty Campaign is to increase awareness that "our perception of beauty is distorted" and to encourage people to find beauty in themselves and boost their self-confidence.

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison critiques society for teaching racial self-loathing to African Americans through the media and advertising. Likewise, the Dove Beauty Campaign advocates for women to recognize that the models we see everywhere are fake and should not determine what we define as beautiful since their beauty is oversimplified and in this case, a product of very effective photoshopping:

During the photoshopping scene in this video, the model's neck is elongated, and her eyes and lips are enlarged. People have agreed that these features are the most important features on the human face, and the more prominent they are, the more beautiful that person is. Similarly, Claudia recognizes that "shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs-all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured" (20). During the time period in which The Bluest Eye was written, society was especially keen on white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Claudia can't understand this phenomenon, and dismembers the white dolls she receives for Christmas "to see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty" (20). Once Claudia pulls apart the dolls, however, there is nothing left but "a mere metal roundness" (20). Hence, there is nothing that makes white people more beautiful than black people; it is merely society determining what is beautiful or not. Society, the "mysterious all-knowing master," has determined that being poor and black is synonymous with being ugly. The Breedlove family has no choice but to believe society, since "they had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance" (39). The boys who taunt Pecola for being black do so out of "contempt for their own blackness" (65). Society has "smoothly cultivated [their] ignorance" of their own unique beauty. They are described as having "learned self-hatred" and their hopelessness is "designed" (65). Morrison indirectly states that society has planned blacks' hatred of themselves, by bombarding them constantly with images of whiteness as more superior in regards to physical appearance. 

Toni Morrison begins her novel with an excerpt from a Dick and Jane storybook, one of the many books used for teaching children how to read. However, the subtext of storybooks like these teach children what is "good," "normal" and "beautiful." A child reading Dick and Jane would learn at a very early age that to be beautiful is to be like Jane, who is white, has blond hair and blue eyes. What is "normal" and "good" is a functional family with time and money on their hands to play cards and bake cookies with their children on rainy days. Morrison criticizes the Dick and Jane storybooks, advocating that real life is more complicated than what is presented in these fairytale books, and not every family or person fits into a precise mold of "good" or "beautiful" according to societal standards. 

                                           

Throughout her novel, Morrison selects sentences from the Dick and Jane excerpt and places them above the chapters corresponding to the individual characters of the Breedlove family, providing a sharp contrast between real life and the over-simplified, idealized life of the family portrayed in Dick and Jane storybooks. For instance, above the chapter about Pauline Breedlove, the excerpt is:

SEEMOTHERISVERYNICEMOTHERWILLYOUPLAYWITHJANEMOTHERLAUGHSLAUGHMOTHERLA (110). 

However, Pauline certainly does not play with her own daughter Pecola. Instead, she rebuffs Pecola after Pecola accidentally drops a pie on the ground in favor for the little Fisher girl Pauline works for. But in this chapter Morrison also provides us with a detailed background of Pauline's life, not to excuse her behavior towards her daughter, but to make her actions more understandable given what her life has been like. Morrison argues that not every mother can be like the mother in Dick and Jane, but we cannot simply label them as bad mothers because a) a "perfect" mother like the ones in storybooks don't exist and b) we don't know everyone's full history. Pauline's dislike for herself and Pecola's blackness is not due to some biological defect; it is a societal construction. Pauline has learned through the movies to equate "physical beauty with virtue," therefore collecting her "self-contempt by the heap" (122). Thus, her self-hatred for her herself and her race extends towards her daughter and her husband, which is why she neglects her family in favor for the Fisher family.

Fiasco for Gatsby: the Darker Side of Rags to Riches Tales

From the inception of the United States of America, a belief has held sway that has given hope to those who would normally be bereft of it: this belief is that, no matter where one comes from, it is possible to rise to the top of the pack and attain success and happiness. Often, in modern times, success stories embodying this aspect of the American Dream are termed "rags to riches" tales. The term is originally derived from author Horatio Alger Jr., a 19th c. American author. A large bulk of his oeuvre was directed towards lower class working men; contained there within were hopeful assertions that, through "honesty, thrift," and "industry" these man had the potential to rise up and attain affluence. While positive aspects can be noted within the above thesis, a plethora of criticism has risen up against the so called "Horatio Alger myth." While much of the censure falls within the bounds of racial bias (i.e. it being acceptable, during Alger's era, to assert that whites were better than blacks when it came to maintaining wealth), a few accurate critiques can be found with a bit of searching. Chief amongst these truthful critiques is mention that there exists a certain discrepancy between the ideals of the American Dream, regarding especially here rags to riches successes, and the realities of gaining, and subsequently dealing with, money in America. No matter the era, no matter the person, certain questions arise amongst all those who rise up: who am now compared to who I was then? How will my money change me? And perhaps, most importantly: will my relationships with others change?

For James Gatz, wealth was always an ideal; unlike others, to whom ideals might be unachievable goals, James, from birth, knew that he was destined to be rich. Born to a "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people," James found that he had "never really accepted them as his parents at all"; this made it easier for him to adopt the name Jay Gatsby at the soonest possible opportunity (98). Wasalu Muhammad Jaco also came from humble origins and, similar to Gatsby, sought from the beginning a higher purpose than the aimless life he might have been confined to in the slums of Chicago. Though he never actively distanced himself from his parents, Wasalu too took on a new name to help achieve success: after joining Kanye West on the track "Touch the Sky," Wasalu's rapper name, Lupe Fiasco, rocketed into fame. In these regards at least the two remain similar.

However, after achieving these new personas, both set off on somewhat different paths in life: while Gatsby sought, at all costs, to achieve success, Fiasco dedicated himself to a career of his own, where his words and his actions would remain true to his humble roots irrespective of potential monetary gain: in many ways these career choices began to manifest themselves in the love lives of these two respective entrepreneurs; whereas Gatsby, upon entering the home of Daisy (the supposed 'true love' of his life), might remark that "he had never been in such a beautiful house before," and that it had "an air of breathless intensity," Fiasco would demonstrate remarkably fewer financial concerns when his girlfriend was about; for example, right as he was leaving for a concert in the song "Paris, Tokyo," Fiasco "heard Murder," the lamentations of his oft ignored girlfriend, and "dropped [his] bags in a flash...to dry [her] tears." However, despite their differences, both Gatsby and Fiasco eventually began to succumb to that which they both, at different points in their lives, they decried: the tendency to value money over love.

Lupe Fiasco, returning home to his then-girlfriend

For Gatsby, a certain perversion existed for all of his infatuation with Daisy; some, such as Nick, might have taken note of Daisy's exceptional voice for it's ethereal ability to give to all those who partook in it a glimpse of a "promise," a window into a world where "she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour" (9). Gatsby, on the other hand, bluntly asserted that "her voice is full of money" (120). Gatsby, whilst pursuing the riches, forgot that rags too had some benefits, chief amongst them a hearty, healthy connection to others and a willingness to understand them beyond their superficial stations in society. Gatsby's rise brought about his inevitable fall, because in the end, neither he nor Daisy truly loved each other. Perhaps, after walking the grand halls and splendid parlors of Daisy's home for the first time, Gatsby, in his mind, connected irrevocably his 'love' for Daisy with his love for money. It's interesting to note how proudly, after achieving all of his successes, he displayed his home for Daisy, demanding the concession that it "looks well," not unlike a preening peacock might proffer its feathers for a potential mate (89).

For Fiasco too morals, morals which he had strove for so long to maintain, were superseded by a lust for bigger cars, bigger houses, and more money. As Fiasco premiered his albums Food & Liquor and The Cool, it became obvious to listeners that, more than most, Lupe sought to speak poetically more than anything else through his lyrics: be it in the song "Kick, Push," in which he discusses young love in the context of underground skateboarding, or in the grimmer "Put You On Game," a harsh critique of gun violence across the globe, lyrics remained honest evaluations of society more than meaningless and catchy drivel. In the song "Paris, Tokyo" such powerful and honest lyrics were used as a way to confess his love to his then-girlfriend. Fiasco, in the song, loves his girlfriend so much that he confesses "I even keep your picture in my pass-purt" to her, and later he promises that he'd be willing to "revoke [his] membership" to a group of friends who travel internationally if only she were to ask. Such dedication, sadly, was fated to end eventually in the context of young wealthy rappers. Soon after his Lasers album was released (it is important to note that this album, more than any of Fiasco's prior works, was harshly criticized for its synthetic beats, dumbed-down lyrics, and obvious attempts to cash in on pop music's popularity) Fiasco, notorious for refusing to talk explicitly about his love life in public, was photographed in public with a succession of different women, none of whom were the same girlfriend he had had when he wrote "Paris, Tokyo."

In conclusion then, how can we judge Lupe Fiasco and Jay Gatsby? Of the two, indubitably Gatsby fell harder from the great heights he had climbed to; despite all his so called love and popularity, only 3 people attended Gatsby's funeral, and Daisy, in the end, didn't deign to make an appearance. Perhaps Owl-eyes was correct when, at Gatsby's funeral, he muttered, "The poor son-of-a-bitch" (175). Both Gatsby and Fiasco rose too quickly for their own good, and on the way up they confused whether or not they wanted love and money with whether they loved to want money. Unlike Gatsby however, Fiasco still has time to turn around his descent into money-driven obsession; his next album, a follow-up to his first album entitled Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album, is to premier this summer, and so far early signs indicate that it is going to be a return to Fiasco's earlier works and styles. Whether or not it lives up to its promise, the album will certainly appear, and another album after that; one can only hope that, on his way to getting steadily richer and richer, Lupe Fiasco can look back at the mistakes Jay Gatsby made and try to avoid his predecessor's pitfalls. He might not however, and Fiasco, much like Gatsby, might eventually find that money isn't enough to sustain his happiness forever. Either way, the rags to riches tales will certainly go on.

Frank Abagnale and Jay Gatsby

Gatsby and Abagnale are both expert con artists. To the general public con artists are incredibly appealing because they are able to get away with things a normal man could not. People came to Gatsby's parties not because they were interested in him as a person, but the fact that his wealth is mysterious and unknown. When Frank Abagnale talks to the large crowd in the videos shown below he tells his life story as a con artist. The audience is laughing at his stories of coning people and are fully engaged in what he is saying. The audience is listening so intensely because they are fascinated by the crimes committed and how easily he was able to complete them.

The idea of self invention compels both Abagnale and Gatsby to change their identities. Abagnale change

d his identity in order to adapt to his surroundings. He changed his name, his location and his possessions in oder to fit his current fake position. Gatsby knew when he was young and working for the man on the yacht that he wanted to be rich when he was older. He was willing to go through any means to do so. Illegal measures were taken, like Abagnale, in order to achieve Gatsby's goal. In the process he changed his name to fit his new role as a rich man.

Frank Abagnale and Jay Gatsby had very similar lives. Both lied and faked their appearance to fir in with the community surrounding them. Gatsby and Abagnale were both able to make very large amounts of money by means of illegal acts. Frank was able to manipulate his appear

ance many different times in order to trick them into thinking that he was successful. Gatsby's wealth is a mystery throughout the story and he tries so hard to be like one of the people in East Egg. For example, "the thin beard of raw ivy" suggests that Gatsby is attempting to fit in with the East Egg (5). Gatsby throws elaborate and exciting parties because he believes that is what a rich person would do. He want to fit in so badly that he actually stands out among the rich. Unlike Gatsby, Frank Abagnale knows that if he pursues one fake role for too long he will be caught. Frank constantly changes his identity and location, and by doing so he is able to fit in. Gatsby does not worry that the question of his wealth might cause suspicion, because all Gatsby wants is Daisy. Since Gatsby is only portraying this role in order to please another he does not see the flaws in his disguise. Both Gatsby and Abagnale rejected their family at an early age to become wealthy. When Gatsby gets pulled over for speeding, he simply shows the cop a card and is able to keep driving. Similarly Abagnale made himself fake identification cards so that he would be able to pass as an co-pilot of Pan Am. Other people just let him go through because he simply looked the part.

Frank Abagnale Wiki

Catch Me If You Can Wiki

Frank W. Abagnale in these videos describes his life and how he managed to trick everyone.

Spectroscopic gayety of West Egg and Las Vegas

The Great Gatsby: The OG Hunger Games

In The Hunger Games, the continent of Panem consists of 12 districts that are all ruled by the Capitol. The Capitol represents the upper class that Jay Gatsby strives to be a part of in The Great Gatsby. The denizens of Panem who occupy the Capitol are the wealthiest in the continent, and are very ostentatious when showing their wealth.

The most common acts that Capitol citizens do are dye their skin different colors, and wear things such as whiskers, talons, and wigs. People who do not live in the capitol don’t do anything to their bodies, so it is easy to distinguish between district citizens and Capitol citizens.

“He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (Fitzgerald 92).

While giving Daisy a tour of his house, Gatsby shows her every single one of his shirts. Gatsby has every kind of shirt that an upper class man at the time should have and more. The fact that Daisy, a member of the “old money” class, begins to cry at the sight of the shirts because she has “never seen such beautiful shirts” proves that Gatsby has immense wealth. Just like how the people of Panem change their appearance to prove that they live a rich, carefree life, Gatsby owns dozens of different types of shirts to prove that he has succeeded in reaching the upper class. Capitol citizens also stay awake for most of the night, eat a plethora of food despite all the districts that are starving, and even drink a liquid that causes them to vomit so they can eat more. The first thing that Nick Carraway notices about Gatsby is that he throws parties very often. These parties tend to last all night, and Nick observes that crates of fruits are brought to Gatsby’s house every Friday, and caterers come every two weeks with fine food for the parties. Conspicuous consumption of food is present in Gatsby’s life and the Capitol lifestyle. Finally, the upper class people of Panem speak with their own unique accent. Gatsby adopts the phrase “old sport” and uses it frequently when he speaks to further prove that he is a member of the elite.

Members of the 12 districts of Panem, however, represent the working class. Each district produces it’s own product that is sent to the Capitol. Despite producing the goods, the districts only receive a small portion of what is created and as a result are in much worse health.

"This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight” (Fitzgerald 23).

In The Great Gatsby, the description of the valley of the ashes represents the area as a dark, lifeless, industrial region. The description contrasts sharply with Daisy and Jordan when Nick first meets them, who while laying on a couch look as though they are floating in the air. The valley of the ashes is similar to the 12 districts because people in the valley obviously have to work (“fantastic farm”), and the use of the words “ashes”, “powdery”, and “impenetrable cloud” suggests a sort of suffering or hard place to survive. The people in the valley of the ashes are the working class. There are no bright colors like Gatsby’s shirts, and instead of a description of color there is simply a description of the dimness and haziness of the valley. This is synonymous to the how the citizens of the districts they do not dye their hair or skin like the Capitol inhabitants do.

The annual Hunger Games that occurs in Panem represents the struggle of social mobility. Jay Gatsby leaves home, changes his name, and starts a new life in order to move up in the social hierarchy. Gatsby becomes fascinated by Daisy due to the fact that “many men had already loved Daisy” (Fitzgerald 149). The fact that people had tried and failed to hold on to Daisy, a girl who epitomizes the upper class, challenged and excited Gatsby. The Hunger Games makes the battle to move up in society literal. People from each district are chosen to fight each other to the death, and the last person standing is rewarded with immense, Capitol-level wealth. Gatsby dies while trying to obtain Daisy, the last piece to his aristocratic puzzle, much like how many people die in the Hunger Games while trying to reach the upper class.

The Yachts

"The Yachts" in Relation to The Great Gatsby

The Upper Class always wins while the Lower Class Struggles Against the Current

The people living on East Egg and West Egg represent 2 social classes in The Great Gatsby. Although both locations are wealthy and exquisite, affluent people with inherited money are denizen of East Egg, whereas, newly rich people who worked for their money live on West Egg. East Eggers act in a haughty manner that displays their superiority to the rest of the world, often boasting over which Ivy League schools they attended and so on. However, they display their wealth in a way that they are not trying to prove anything to anyone, unlike the West Eggers. Because most of the people who live on West Egg were not born into supremacy, they, in essence, want to prove to people that they are wealthy, and often try to pass as something that they are not. F. Scott Fitzgerald argues that this futile drive to be the wealthiest is ultimately detrimental to a person. Similarly, William Carlos Williams expresses the same belief throughout his poem, "The Yachts":

contend in a sea which the land partly encloses

shielding them from the too-heavy blows

of an ungoverned ocean which when it chooses

tortures the biggest hulls, the best man knows

to pit against its beatings, and sinks them pitilessly.

Mothlike in mists, scintillant in the minute

brilliance of cloudless days, with broad bellying sails

they glide to the wind tossing green water

from their sharp prows while over them the crew crawls

ant-like, solicitously grooming them, releasing,

making fast as they turn, lean far over and having

caught the wind again, side by side, head for the mark.

In a well guarded arena of open water surrounded by

lesser and greater craft which, sycophant, lumbering

and flittering follow them, they appear youthful, rare

as the light of a happy eye, live with the grace

of all that in the mind is feckless, free and

naturally to be desired. Now the sea which holds them

is moody, lapping their glossy sides, as if feeling

for some slightest flaw but fails completely.

Today no race. Then the wind comes again. The yachts

move, jockeying for a start, the signal is set and they

are off. Now the waves strike at them but they are too

well made, they slip through, though they take in canvas.

Arms with hands grasping seek to clutch at the prows.

Bodies thrown recklessly in the way are cut aside.

It is a sea of faces about them in agony, in despair

until the horror of the race dawns staggering the mind;

the whole sea become an entanglement of watery bodies

lost to the world bearing what they cannot hold. Broken,

beaten, desolate, reaching from the dead to be taken up

they cry out, failing, failing! their cries rising

in waves still as the skillful yachts pass over.

The Yacht

The biggest hull

These 2 different classes are portrayed in “The Yachts.” Williams compares the “scintillant” and “skillful” yachts to the “sycophant” and “lumbering” lesser and greater crafts in a way that suggests that the yachts are superior and will always win. When looking at this poem deeper, it is clear that Williams is metaphorically comparing boats to social classes in American society. The yachts, representing the wealthy upper class, seem to never let the lesser and greater hulls, representing the lower class, have a chance. When the race is described between the 2 boats in the poem, a ghastly defeat by the yachts is also described, leaving the lower classes “beaten, desolate, and reaching from the dead to be taken up.”

Daisy Buchanan

The Yachts that Williams describes are similar to Daisy in the novel. Daisy views herself and East Egg as superior to the rest of the world, and after she goes to one of Gatsby's parties, she "was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented 'place'...appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand" (107). The cavalier attitude that Daisy has effects how she views others that are different than her. Even though the people living on West Egg are still wealthy, she finds it abhorrent that anyone could make it in society by starting with "nothing," and cannot even relate to their provincial minds. Similarly, in the poem, Williams suggests that the highest class in society will always have an easier time that anyone below them, because the ocean "chooses" when it gets to weaken the "biggest hulls."

Gatsby after he is shot by Wilson

The lower class addressed in the poem can be related to characters such as Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby. Although Gatsby is a wealthy man, the fact that he started from nothing is unappealing to the East Eggers, thus making him seem as if he is trying to 'pass' as something that he is not. In the eyes of the East Eggers, this is just as bad as being categorized as the lower class. Gatsby's constant striving to pass as a person of high importance is seen when he falls in love with the rich lifestyle, or merely, the idea of a rich lifestyle. He loves the dream of having such elegance and wealth, and does anything he can to learn how to be like the upper class. Nick says, "To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world" (100). Williams shares this same flawless desire when he describes the yachts in his poem with such high regards. Even though the sea rubs the sides of the yacht "as of feeling for some slightest flaw, it fails completely."

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle Wilson also represents a lower class citizen trying to raise her status in society as well. Myrtle is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, and does this as a means by which she can get higher in society and, like Gatsby, try to pass as something that she is not. When Myrtle is accidentally run over by Daisy, she is instantly dead, and her mouth is described as "wide open and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long" (137). Myrtle sees something beautiful in the idea of changing social classes and that is why she strives so hard to and makes it her dream to ultimately change classes herself. The "vitality" and life that she procured is now no longer there, and Myrtle is lifeless, just like the greater hulls in "The Yachts." The lesser boats are left "in waves still as the skillful yachts pass over," Just as Myrtle is left dead in the middle of the road while Daisy drives over her.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (180).

This last line in the book suggests that just like boats, people in society try to go against the current or the natural flow of the way that something should be- thus resulting similarly to how it does in The Great Gatsby and "The Yachts"- detrimentally.