The crisis of identity in Toni Morrison's The Bluets Eye and Nella Larsen's Passing

How do the black characters build their identities in Nella Larsen's Passing and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye? The practice of racism has always left negative impacts on the colored and black people in white societies leading them either to self-loath or detesting the white culture. This study is an attempt to provide an answer for the above question and explores what motivates the black characters in the formation of their identities. The thesis will be conducted under the light of double consciousness theory put forward by W.E.B. Du Bois and it also looks at how this double consciousness plays a role in constructing the black characters' racial identities. In this study, I argue that black characters, Clare and Irene in Passing and Pecola in The Bluest Eye, make attempts to establish their identities under the influence of the dominant white culture and reject their black ones, thus they hold double identities. This twoness creates hurdles to their lives because beside their original identity, they should strive to build another one so as to be recognized in the white society. Holding double consciousness, the black characters look at themselves through the lens of the white people. On the contrary, the plight of racism makes Brian in Passing and Claudia in The Bluest Eye reject and create a sort of abhorrence towards the white culture. In contrast to Irene, Clare and Pecola, they are inclined to and endeavor to preserve their black identities and black community values, meanwhile they refute everything belonging to the dominant social white culture. The dominant culture causes the black characters of both novels to suffer and struggle to identify themselves. The holders of double consciousness in both novels are terribly in need of recognition in the white society, which does not recognize them unless they obtain the standards set up by the white dominant culture. The black community in both novels is in a terrible situation, and the black characters are expected to act and work in favor of the white society interests, which look at the black characters as secondary people. In Passing, Irene cannot find security and pleasure in the black community; therefore she feels comfortable and insists on living in New York, furthermore Clare concludes that she is incompetent of escaping her arduous life as a black servant, who is expected to only work hard, as a result she disguises herself as a white woman. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola is rejected in both her community and white society due to her blackness, and this results in her striving to beautify herself by attempting to attain two blue eyes, one of the white standards of beauty. Keywords: Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, Double Consciousness, Racial Identity Construction, Passing, The Bluest Eye.