Racism Through a Child’s Eyes : A Postcolonial and Didactic Analysis of The Bluest Eye and To Kill a Mockingbird

Abstract:

In this essay, I will analyse two main characters in The Bluest Eye and To Kill a Mockingbird based on their perspective on race. My main focus is on the use of a child’s point of view as a narrative technique. This essay also looks at how To Kill a Mockingbird and The Bluest Eye can be used to discuss racial issues in schools linked to national objectives for upper secondary education. The analysis will focus on how children’s points of view are used in conjunction with the themes of race and Otherness in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Bluest Eye. I will use previous research on related issues to add different perspectives and ideas to my discussion.

By using a close reading method and by employing a postcolonial theoretical perspective, I have come to the conclusion that the innocent perspective of Claudia and Scout as narrators is employed as a means of social and political critique against racial segregation in the America of the 1930s and 1940s. I come to the conclusion that teachers’ attitudes are important in transmitting equality values to students and that these books would work well in teaching situations which discuss racial stereotyping or similar issues.