How to Cite:
Dr. S. Maha, "The Cost of Freedom: Intersectionality and Socioeconomic Inequality in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye" International Journal of Humanities Science Innovations and Management Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-8, 2025.

Abstract:
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is a powerful study of race, gender, and class that uncovers the deep-seated inequities underlying individual and group selves. This paper addresses how intersectionality—the crossroads of systems of oppression along the lines of race, gender, and economic status—shows up in the novel, most notably in the life of Pecola Breedlove and other Black individuals. This essay examines the complicated interaction of intersectionality and economic inequality in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, examining how both impact the characters’ identities and experiences, particularly Pecola Breedlove. The essay examines how race, gender, and class interact to create new types of oppression that have significant impacts on the psychological well-being of the characters as well as their sense of self-worth. Pecola’s desire for blue eyes is a potent metaphor for her internalized racism and the hegemony of social beauty standards that reify whiteness, which exacts the high cost of freedom in a world that devalues her very existence. Through an analysis of the systemic barriers facing Black women in a racially stratified world, this study brings to the fore the complexities of identity formation against deep-seated social inequalities.

Keywords: Intersectionality, Psychological Trauma, Identity Formation, Race, Gender, Class.

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