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One of the themes that is illustrated in contemporary American literature is white superiority and the mistreatment of non-white races in America as they strive to achieve their own American Dream. Each of these authors wanted to showcase how racism is still alive in America. It may not be nearly as noticeable, but parallels line themselves up without a doubt. First, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun shows how white America denied blacks the chance to live their dreams only because they are black. Second, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye shows how white America kept black spirit and pride down by imposing their image of beauty upon them. Lastly, the recent novel The Tortilla Curtain, by T. C. Boyle, demonstrates the inequality that is clearly present in modern America due to race. Each of these novels showcases a faction of racial prejudice in American culture. Even today, we can see the racial prejudice that is shown in Hansberry’s play.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the characters strive to attain their own separate dreams in a dominant white society that does not want them. The family is black, and history & the setting - sometime after WWII - tells us that they lack the same respect and rights as the dominant culture. Walter Younger wishes to be a rich man, to provide for his family, to be in control, and to be able to afford the things in life that his family wants, and not only what they needs. His sister wants to become a doctor, a role typically considered not fit for a woman, and was already difficult enough to obtain as a black male. To obtain their dreams of success, each one’s vision of the true American Dream (to be whatever you want to be), they need to have money and equal rights to obtain it. Even when they want to move into another neighborhood, they have issues. A man from that neighborhood’s local watch group association asks them in a politically correct manner to not move in and to take this white neighborhood’s money as they attempt to buy back the house from the Younger family. Lindner, the man from the watch group, says, “The overwhelming majority of our people out there feel that people get along better… when they share a common background” (77). He claims “that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it”, but “the people of Clybourne Park believ[e]… that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities” (77). These people act like hypocrites. They act welcoming, and sugarcoat their true feelings, saying that it is for their “best interest” if the Younger family does not move in. However, the only interests they are working on are their own racial interests. This, alone, shows the mistreatment of non-whites that are trying to obtain their American dream. The members of Clybourne Park feel that blacks are of a lesser culture, and interacting with them will rub their lesser culture off on them. Typically, neighbors interact with each other. Knowing this, they wish to stop them before they start. Diversity is threatening to the people in this neighborhood, and they must stamp out the threat before it moves in and ruins what they have worked hard to establish. To discriminate against a new family because of the color of their skin is mistreating them; prejudice wasn’t uncommon in the past, and for the modern reader, it still isn’t.
The contemporary reader can find in this book the mistreatment of blacks to be relevant to modern society because modern society still has a prejudiced fear against blacks. In a documentary entitled “Black in America”, it stated that being black and getting a job was equivalent to a white convict’s chances. To be black and have a mark on the record made it near impossible. By comparing this knowledge and this novel, it is easy to see that the mistreatment of blacks has hardly diminished. Although one of the men shown in the documentary said that he had been stopped by the cops when he moved to his new neighborhood that was predominantly white, much like the Younger family had been temporarily stopped by Lindner in A Raisin in the Sun, there are more enforced laws against discrimination. He had worked hard to bring his family up, and yet someone had become afraid because of the common white fear that all black men are dangerous.
That isn’t to say that racial discrimination is completely gone and happens only rarely. Hansberry thought it was important to show the white superiority and mistreatment of minorities because her play would open up minds and allow them to see that it is far from gone. By exposing the truth and mistreatment of blacks, she was hoping that people would take a simple step forward in changing their views. As stated earlier, a black man was suspect when walking around their neighborhood. He did not look like a member of a gang or anything “less” than middle class. In the past? There is no doubt that it was far more common for a man of a different race to have been stopped when walking around his new neighborhood. Yet, by showing people how much blacks deserved to achieve their dreams, however much it put them into areas dominated by whites, Morrison wanted to show that they were just like whites in their desire to aspire towards being something more. She wanted that to change their opinions. She wanted to show a little moment of American society and to have it remain immortalized in her play. In regards to the American culture, she wanted to show people the hypocrisy that lies within. People supported equal rights in theory, but people were only truly their equals if they matched in physical attributes as well as mental prowess. To have anything off was the immediate basis for discrimination, and made this country one of hypocrites, not of achievers.
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye shows the effect of a white supremacist culture and the derision of non-white races based off of the dominant white society’s idea of beauty. They forced young girls everywhere to aspire to be of the white skin, blond hair, blue eye perfection, something impossible for those who weren’t naturally any of those things She wanted to point out that people were destroying childhood and young people’s dreams of turning into who they want to be by forcing them to believe certain ideas through subliminal means. Children are impressionable, and young girls, during both of these time periods and now, want to play with beautiful dolls. Through these dolls, the dominant society projected its idea of beauty and perfection. It is subliminal messaging at its best. On page 20, Morrison writes, “All the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl treasured.” One of the characters in the story, Claudia, doesn’t understand what in this lineup of features makes the doll beautiful, and so she destroys it. But beauty was defined by Americans as being nothing more than light skinned, light hair, and blue eyes. Out of all the skin-based races in the world, the description of the doll sounds closest to white America. And though progress was being made during the gap of writing and setting, this did not change the need for this novel.
Morrison wrote this novel so that Americans would not forget about their racist backgrounds, and to make a comment on the American populace’s enforcement of what is considered “beautiful”. It was a blond hair, blue eyed white girl that was the ideal picture of beauty, both in the past and at the time of the novel’s publication. Even now, this ideal can be seen in shows like “America’s Next Top Model”, in which a majority of the final contestants during one season were blond. Only one of them was of dark hair. It seems that this idea of beauty that is projected to young audiences, teenage women, and young girls has yet to change. To be anything less than beautiful is to be less than what society wants. To be less than what society wants is to be put down and degraded by not meeting its expectations. To not meet expectations results in feelings of failure. And to feel failure is to feel less superior to others, even if both people are identical in every way. America is not the place of equal opportunity that we would like to believe. Morrison understood this, and wrote a novel to get the American population to stop inflicting the young with inferiority complexes over not just beauty, but of acceptance of the physical self and one’s race. This blatant racism on behalf of society’s accepted idea of beauty that took place in the story’s timeframe, while subtle by the time the novel was published, could not go unaccounted for. It is shameful that modern America had yet to erase its subtle racism after the novel was first written.
T. C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain showcases present-day American racism at its worst. Boyle tells two different stories that are interconnected, and presents to his audience two different lifestyles in America. First, we have Delaney, who is described on the back of the book as leading “an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community” and as “a sensitive nature writer”. The gated community has little to no diversity in it. He never mentions or points out anyone who has a different race than Delaney, and if there is anyone, odds are that person is removed from their original race. Delaney lives a comfy and protected life, away from the hassle of Los Angeles. He is protected from the reality of the world, and yet still working to change it through his writing. Cándido’s story is the second one we hear about. He leads a horrible life, and strives to achieve a better lifestyle and the bare basics of the traditional American dream: a home, a job, running water, and a bed. But he is of the lowest class when in America. He lives like a bum, and just coming by clean enough food, water, and a living place is a difficult task. The juxtaposition of these two lives, and how they play off of each others’ actions, allows Boyle to lead his audience into seeing how deeply rooted in the American unconscious racism is, even more so when it comes to immigration. what life is truly like for these two different races. The unfairness with which a hard worker, one who works even harder than Delaney, has to deal with in order to obtain even a little bit of his dream is depressing. A depressing fact is that Cándido is one of approximately 10 million or so illegal immigrants (Patterson, 177). Despite the large number, this makes him nothing more than a minority. Illegal minorities are often denied chances to improve their life, no matter how much they want to. If Cándido was a legal citizen, he would be mistaken as an illegal immigrant due to the geography and notoriety of the Mexican Border. That would hardly change anything, other than he would be allowed access to his God-Given rights. Despite this detour of thought, Cándido lives in conditions worse than people normally expect, not by choice but by circumstance. And, yet, the dominant white society is unable to understand and accept this. They instead choose to treat him like crap, pardon this writer’s use of French. Proof of this can be seen when Delaney runs into Cándido. He is unable to understand Cándido, he treats him poorly, and he refuses to help him. He believes that Cándido is nothing more than a bum, only because he looks like it. He does not give him a ride to the doctors, he does not put him into his car, nor does he call an ambulance. Instead, he gives him twenty dollars and hopes that he will be off, on his way. Is this giving Cándido his God-given rights? Is this treating him like his equal, despite his race or residency status? No. All this amounts to is discrimination based on race. Discrimination based on race is what we call racism. Ergo, the novel shows how deep-seated racism is in American culture.
Each of these works showcase different aspects of how Americans mistreat non-whites. Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun shows how things have yet to be changed among, despite the half-century passage of time. Morrison’s The Bluest Eye shows how Americans depress non-whites by imposing on them a different view of beauty, thus making people feel uncomfortable in their own skin. Lastly, Boyle’s novel shows us how racism is still alive today. All three of these pieces show us how deep-seated this racism is. Without any of these pieces, which have been written in a span of about half a century, it would be difficult to show today how much racism we have left alive.
Works Cited
Black in America. CNN. 2008. DVD.
Boyle, T. C. The Tortilla Curtain. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun with Connections. San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, n.d.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage International, 2007.
Nash, Gary B., et al. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. Concise 6th Edition. San Francisco: Peason Education, Inc., 2008.
Patterson, Thomas E. We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics. 9th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.