Dick and Jane storybooks were used in schools from the 1930’s till the 1970’s. They showed children one way of society, which was a society of Caucasian families living the American dream. The issue with children being taught to read out of these books was they were being taught a social norm that was unreachable for many young kids and their families.

                                                 

            The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, is an example of the detrimental effects on people, mainly African Americans, who tried to force themselves into the social mold that the Dick and Jane storybooks created. The opening passage of The Bluest Eye, is an excerpt from a Dick and Jane reading that says, “ here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.”  This house is the American dream. It is the perfect suburb, “pretty” house that all Americans strive to have. Once you get the pretty house in the suburbs you have reached the American dream, which means you have made it into the perfect American mold. 

But if you don’t have the perfect house like Pecola and her family whose house is described as, “ the Breedloves lived their, they slipped in and out of the box of peeling gray making no stir in the neighborhood, no wave in the mayors office”(pg 34), then you are automatically at the bottom of society. Pecola and her family are African American and poor, which completely pushed them outside of the social norms that were shown through the Dick in Jane storybooks.

            Not only did the Dick and Jane storybooks create a mold for the right homes but also created the mold for the perfect looking family.

                                                            

 Everyone in the picture is blond and light skinned. They are the poster family for western standards of beauty.  Many young African American girls wished for blue eyes or blond hair because they wanted to be seen as beautiful. Being beautiful gave leverage in society because it meant you belonged in the social mold. Even though Maureen was African American, she still had lighter skin and was considered beautiful. “  She enchanted the entire school. Black boys didn’t trip her in the halls; white boys didn’t stone her”(63). Maureen was close to fitting into the mold that society created, therefore giving her power. Unlike Pecola, who was said to be ugly therefore making her unseen in society. Pecola desperately wished for blue eyes so she could look like Shirley Temple, because then she would look the way society said she should look. Kids were taught what was beautiful and exceptable in society from a young age through things like Dick and Jane story books or the Shirley Temple movies.

"Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses; some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses. So then why [do] all the girls have to buy pink stuff and the boys have to buy the different color stuff?"

In today’s society there are still social norms and molds that society forces people to fit into. They are not necessarily about looks and race but now more about gender roles. From infancy girls are expected to wear pink and boys wear blue. Boys are told to play with racecars and soldiers whereas girls are told to play with Barbie’s and poly pockets.  Lego’s are the one toy that has always been known as gender-neutral. So, now that Lego has come out with gender specific branches of the toy, a new controversy has been created. Lego created the homemaker branch, which was advertised with pictures of girls playing with the Lego’s.

 Just the advertisements alone made it girl only because little boys did not want to buy Lego’s with pictures of girls playing on the box.  Lego also came up with the Scala Jewerly set, this was only in production for a short time, but was promoting gender separation because these Lego’s were based on style. The Lego scandal shows how social norms and molds have not gone away. Girls are still being pushed into one mold and boys into another. Society is still putting people at the bottom of society when they don’t fit into the molds that even the simplest things like Lego’s help create.

             

            Is there a way to completely eliminate social norms and molds? Toni Morrison uses the Bluest Eye to answer that question. The happiest people in the novel are the prostitutes because they don’t try to fit into the social molds and they don’t let those molds shape their lives. They liked what they did and they were not ashamed of it, “ They were whores in whores clothing…with Pecola they were as free as they were with each other”(57). Even though they were whores, which only has bad connotations, they were free. They were the only free characters in this novel. They never tried to fit into the mold or let the mold change them. So, Toni Morrison is saying the only way to eliminate all social norms is to not conform yourself to them but to fight against them, like the prostitutes.