Parental Hunger and Alienation in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Abstract

The 20th century African Americans, especially the black females, who had neglectful parents, aftereffects of past slavery, were unable to show any kind of belonging to the contemporary American society. They found their souls and minds fettered in the dark dungeon of alienation which means a sense of detachment from the people around as well as from their inner selves. This sense of alienation created in them the feelings of irreparable loss and everlasting despair which is being discussed in this study of Toni Morrison’s fiction. It is an attempt to have deep journey into the alienated and disturbed worlds of the characters that are in constant quest for parental love in Toni Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye (1970). It displays the tragic plight of alienated, motherless/fatherless characters by presenting an irreparable loss in their lives because of parental hunger.