Quest For Identity: A Psychological Study of Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Citation

Mahindra, R. (2026). Quest For Identity: A Psychological Study of Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. International Journal of Research, 13(4), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.26643/ijr/edupub/10

Riddhi Mahindra

riddhimahindra3@gmail.com

Amity School of Languages, Lucknow

  1. Abstract

This research paper examines Quest for identity in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. The study focuses on how social expectations and norms affect the psyche of both the protagonist leading to identity crisis. Both the protagonist though of different age group face same kind of conflict which cause them suffering. The paper analyzes how these psychological impacts influence their sense of self and how they respond to these struggles on their own way. By applying theories like Feminist Theory, Psychological Development Theory and Trauma Theory it showcases how identity can be formed and damaged by patriarchal influence. Ultimately, the research highlights how patriarchal norms lead to psychological impacts and the struggle for identity in women’s life and how it’s a never ending process for a woman to find her identity in this patriarchal world.

Keywords: Patriarchy, Identity, Psychological impacts, women.

  • Introduction

The struggle of understanding and defining oneself has always been the central concerns in literature, especially in women’s lives. A person’s identity is formed not just by his own personal experiences but also by the society in which they live. This is often influenced by patriarchy for women, which expect them to be submissive, obedient and depend and expects men to dominate and be powerful. As Bell Hooks explains, Patriarchy is a system that assumes males are naturally dominant and superior, and women are considered weak and inferior. These beliefs slowly shape how women view themselves and the worth.

Moreover, Identity is not fixed it develops overtime by society, family. When a woman faces rejection, discrimination repeatedly by the society it affects herself worth and self identity.

The study explores how the protagonist of The Bluest Eye and Surfacing faces identity struggles and how patriarchy affects their psyche. The protagonist of The Bluest Eye is a black girl who faces internalize racism and believes in fake beauty standards, which makes her feel ugly and makes her believe that to be accepted and loved by the society she needs to have Blue eyes. On the other hand, In Surfacing an adult woman struggles with guilt of aborting her baby, trauma and memories of her past. Her journey is about attempting to reclaim her sense of self. However, both the text shows of Quest for Identity is a continuous process and how it’s influenced by various factors and how women face psychological issues due to patriarchy.

  • About The Authors

For understanding in depth about the protagonist of both the novels and their struggle. It’s important to know about the authors in brief, both the authors have explored the themes of identity, gender and memory. The writer’s historical context and personal context significantly influence the works they have written.

Toni Morrison was an Afro-American writer her writings focuses on the struggles and inner lives of Black women, their struggles because of internalized racism and social rejection. Morrison beautifully captures family relationships, beauty standards shaping the person’s self. In The Bluest Eye she represents a tragic life of a young black girl Pocola, who believes that she should change her appearance to be accepted by the society. Morrison reveals how prejudices damages the child’s developing identity.

Moreover, Margaret Atwood a well known Canadian writer shows a beautiful portrayal of women’s psychological depth and how a women’s role is defined by the society and how women feel pressured because of the expectations. The technique used by the writer was Stream of Consciousness to show how complex women’s mind can get because of trauma and guilt. In Surfacing the unnamed narrator goes on the journey to find her father and this acts as a catalyst, in finding herself and surfacing her own struggles. Through this she showcases how women’s sense of self can be fragmented Margaret Atwood’s writing style is reflective, allowing the readers to explore the journey for characters self discovery.

  • Analysis of Surfacing

It is a story of a Canadian adult who goes in search for his father with her friends and her boyfriend, but soon the old wounds start to come to surface because of her isolation which makes her neglect her city life and stays in isolated island and behaves like an animal. The protagonist of the novel is unnamed narrator which shows that she has no identity and shows that the struggles she has gone through can happen to anyone it is not specific to any one person but it can happen to anyone and the patriarchal society do not care about the age of the girl and can make her suffer psychologically. There are millions of girls that suffer because of patriarchy and lose themselves because of the patriarchal norms and expectations that society has with them and need to suppress their desires to fit in the society. In the novel, the narrator was going in search for her father, but this journey acted as a catalyst to help her find herself.

Initially, when she reaches the island her saying that “I like them, I trust them …but right now I wish they weren’t here” (Atwood, 7) .This marks as a start of her journey of healing herself from trauma and redefining her identity. While being with her friends and talking to Anna narrator remembers her childhood and agrees that her childhood was good, she never saw war and bombs but her life was peaceful only on the surface level, because she refused to see what’s happening. This also reflects that since childhood she had the tendency to refuse to look any deeper and fake that everything is good. This peace came only by ignoring reality this in future makes her unable to confront her trauma and she hides it. Narrator feels nostalgic while being in the island she says, “I’m in the village walking through it” (Atwood, 12) she wants to feel the same warmth that she felt in her childhood. She expects peace and comfort. She also longs for her father as she says, “He will be sitting in the cabin waiting for us” ( Atwood ,13)  this reflects her eagerness to meet her father as this is symbolic to meeting her younger self that was buried deep inside her because of her city life. As the time passes and she lives in the remote island her memories and trauma starts to resurface. She starts to get memories of her aborted child and her former husband that imposed her decisions on the narrator. This shows that she couldn’t make her own decisions for her own life and she even says “I never identified it as mine” (Atwood, 20) reflects that she couldn’t even think the baby as her own, she “felt like an incubator” (Atwood, 20)  reflects perfect example of identity crisis due to patriarchy. As the memories keeps on coming onto surface she feels like she is incomplete after the divorce, this reflects that her identity was tied to her marriage. She says “A divorce is like an amputation, you survive but there’s less of you” ( Atwood,26) this highlights the psychological impact that her marriage and the divorce as done to her and she is trying to survive all this silently. She has become emotionally distant and no longer thinks of his boyfriend as her partner, but as an object as she says “ I sum him up, diving him into categories” (Atwood, 26) shows the impact of divorce and reflects the urban mindset where people think practically rather than emotionally. Not only narrator but her friend Anna also faces similar kind of issues because of patriarchy, where her husband thinks of her as an object and Anna cannot be her true self with her husband, as Anna says “He doesn’t know I wear it” (Atwood, 27) shows the expectations society has from a woman to be beautiful and sexually appealing as she further says “ He doesn’t like to see me without it” ( Atwood , 27).

Furthermore, the narrator talks about the prejudices that the society has with a woman, she thinks that her former husband didn’t do any physical violence but it was about mental violence and pressure that he put on the narrator and the expectations that the husband has with her about motherhood, she says, “ he didn’t do anything to me, he wanted a child that’s normal” ( Atwood,30) shows that she was feeling burdened because of her own desire and the expectations the society had ,these were the wounds that still weren’t healed. She didn’t even tell anyone about her earlier pregnancy which reveals the avoidance about the trauma. She reveals that “It was taken away from me, A section of my own life” (Atwood,31)  it reveals that she didn’t had any autonomy on her body and she couldn’t be assertive about her own desires. She tries to resist all these by silence but now as she is in a remote island she couldn’t skip her self- reflective period. It was evident that she was fed up by her own former husband as he dominates her and because of all these past trauma she was scared of love and marriage. It indicates that how wild a patriarchal society can go and how in this world woman are told to behave in a certain manner and not on the basis of her desire. She sees marriage as an institutional structure and she says “I do not want to go through that again” (Atwood, 61) shows the psychological impact the past has caused her and also in the city she could hide these wounds but now in the island she couldn’t hide these as they will surface, she feels she has become emotionally distant and doesn’t feel like giving second chance to love and marriage. Her former husband had treated her like an object to fulfil her desires and to show dominance and he had played with the psyche of the narrator, she is like a puppet in the hands of him and he moves her just like he wants. The strongest female objectivity occurs when David, openly comments on the body of the narrator by saying “It turns me on, when she bends over” (Atwood,62) he is sexually harassing the narrator without even thinking, which shows that society just thinks of girl’s body and shows the power he asserts and the comment reflects that she is seen merely as an object not as a person and Joe responding as “You can have it” (Atwood, 62) shows misogynistic behaviour, rather than protecting her he comments on her girlfriend. This shows male gaze and narrator and not even Anna could not speak in opposition. Narrator’s body became a site for male pleasure not identity. Similar kind of incident again takes place with narrator when David says, what’re you doing in my bed? You a customer or something” (Atwood, 63) again depicts the sexual objectification done by David, making her feel uncomfortable and she leaves the room immediately. Narrator also is closed off with Joe, she thinks of him merely as an object, “as a sack or a large turnip” (64) shows that she refuses to think of him as a partner but a object lying beside her, shows the lack of mutual connection. Here, narrator is mirroring patriarchal behaviour as now she is objectifying men. Further, text also reveals the emotional numbness that the narrator has within herself by saying “ I didn’t feel much of anything” (Atwood ,75). Even the imagery of vase and jam jar, shows that she is in isolation, instead of breaking she has frozen. This suggests the prolonged emotional numbness and emotional trauma that has made her lose her ability to feel anything. She is empty from inside and is also detached from herself, this shows her complex mental health because of the society and the trauma she has went through. “The voice wasn’t mine” (Atwood, 76) shows the fragmented identity.

Additionally, Anna also had to go through a lot of issues because of David, she panics about forgetting her makeup, she says, “he’ll kill me” (Atwood, 87) this shows that David wants Anna to look young and sexually appealing all the time and she could not be her true self with her own husband and her saying this shows the anxiety and psychological pressure, this indicates the internalized patriarchy. Violence and control against women have been explicit in the novel, David pressuring Anna to undress herself for his film ‘Random Samples’ and reducing her to body parts, she was tormented physically and on the other hand, narrator is traumatized internally because of patriarchy. As the days where passing by narrator’s memory of her aborted baby started to come to surface, “ The dark oval trailing limbs” (Atwood , 102) this reflects the reflection of the baby and the guilt, and the deep buried memory attached to it, this all made her anxious. She collapses when she finally gets the news about her father, initially it was not evident but she starts losing her psychological balance , she started to behave like an animal as she says, “I guide him into me, it’s the right season” (Atwood ,117) which reflects that she has primarily thinking and behaving like an animal. Soon, while having intercourse with Joe she could sense “lost child surfacing within me” (Atwood, 117) shows that now she has started to see her child internally. She rejects institutional control and she wants to give birth alone, just like animals do, this scene marks as a psychological rupture and seeks redemption. Her realisation, “I tried for all those years to be civilized ….but I’m done pretending” (122) her refusal to be ‘civilized’ shows liberation from control, she now completely withdraws from the society and even refuses to go back to the city, which indicates the freedom she demands. She starts living like a primitive being, she do not live with any restrictions, she removes all of them that bounded her, she clears all the memories of the past she clears everything , cuts all the items of the house like blankets, beds, tents. “I abolish them…space” (128) shows that she is healing , she finally removes the burdens that ever haunted her or tied her and didn’t allowed her to live a life on her own terms. She finally sheds her former identity that was imposed on her by the society. “Leaving my false body floated on the surface” (128) by this she emerges clean and this acts as a rebirth. She is trying to purify herself, reflecting as a final stage of her internal split. She is now behaving like an animal by living alone in the island, she is having her animal instinct, and she feels the part of the nature now. She says, “I wonder if they have set traps” (Atwood, 134). The turn comes when she realized that she is the part of the nature, she here is no longer a daughter, a lover, a woman. She has dissolved her individual identity; here the boundary between the self and the nature collapses. She realises that her father is also the part of the nature, this marks as a realization that she could loss herself by staying at the island for long.

Therefore, the novel shows that how a daughter comes to search for her father but this journey acts a as catalyst to find her own self, it also talks about patriarchy and male dominance that woman had to face. Through her healing she understands that she could no longer live alone in the island but also understands that she will now not allow anyone to show oppression over her, now she will no longer will be the victim of these things now. Through isolation, she comes across all the wounds that were hidden so that she could heal that properly.

  • Analysis of The Bluest Eye

It is a story of a young Afro-American girl, Pecola who is not from a well do to family and she had to face a lot of racism and she was the victim of internalized racism, she had the desire to get blue eyes so that people start to accept and love her. Toni Morrison in the novel shows the psyche of the girl, how she views the society and how these beauty standards and racism has affected her internally. The writer also accounts these standards and questions the trauma caused by the society to the Africans. Through all these experiences she tries to search for her identity but ends up losing her mental stability.

In the text its evident how Toni Morrison depicts that how the identity of a young 8 years old is too fragile and how self-esteem plays a major role in shaping the psyche of a person especially children. Pecola’s life is a study of how parents, environment and society can destroy the self worth of an individual and how the society do not bare the 8 years old girl from experiencing all these and how society do not care about the girls like Pecola. How early neglect in a child in a child creates trauma and low self- esteem. The saying that “the death of self esteem can occur quickly, easily in children” (Morrison, xi) this quote foreshadows the inner collapse of her identity. The Psychological theory of developmentby Erik Erikson talks about how identity develops through eight stages across the lifespan. In the novel, Pecola lacks nurturing, so she develops mistrust and low self- esteem, this is the stage of trust VS mistrust and Pecola in the novel because of the lack of nurturing develops insecurity. Morrison uses third person omniscient narrator in the novel, which helps us to observe and interpret without any biasness and in an objective manner, she criticises the society through the lens of narrator, she says “who told her? Who made her feel that is better…. she was” (Morrison, xi)  this is the harsh comment that Morrison raises when the society imposes beauty ideals on such an innocent girl, who doesn’t even understand what she is going through because of the society. She through this also highlights that for these things the whole society is responsible not just a single person. The child believing that she is worthless according to the society and beauty also means fair skin and blue eyes,this destroys her and gives her inferiority complex. These questions help the readers question the society which tells girls or a person how they should be in the society, even though the people themselves are imperfect but makes perfect beauty standard, that it has been through generations, this is all so ironical this all indicates oppression and how the child absorbs these prejudices and accepts herself and her body as a flaw. In the start of the novel, the narrator Mc Teer, tells that in the autumn season it was, “Quiet as it’s kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of that year” (Morrison, 3) marigold reflects hope, nurturing, marigold also reflect emotional bareness in Pecola’s life, it means that the life or hope cannot flourish if there’s no supportive environment, the hostile environment never lets the child had peace and love that it requires, it talks about that Africans had to face a lot of oppression and racism which leads to generational trauma, so, Pecola’s family were all unhealed which lead to self worth issues in Pecola and also environment plays biggest role in making Pecola the way she is. Cholly Breedlove could not love because of her trauma (Morrison) which shapes the life of her, because the validation is absent from their family. As the child models the emotional behaviour of its parents. They were double marginalized which shows how society plays a biggest role in shaping the psyche of an individual. Identity and internalized racism is the problem that Pecola faces she did not get love and is also bullied by her own classmates, by this she gets an idea that if she gets blue eyes she will be different “ It had occurred to Pecola sometime ago that if her eyes were different….. be different” ( Morrison, 3) she thinks that her entire identity is physical beauty. She seeks a socially constructed identity instead of embracing her own beauty, this shows body image Dysmorphia, which is influenced due to external factors. This shows that she has totally indulged herself by accepting the beauty standards of the society and did not accept her true body, she was not able to accept her true self, this reflects how identity is socially constructed and how one cannot develop a self image if they are constantly being devalued by the society. The narrator observes how important self love is for forming stable identity. She understands this for herself and for Pecola too, Pecola could not understand how to love herself because of which this cause her destruction as it was not her fault she was born in a dysfunctional family where none of them know how to nourish themselves, this indicates generational trauma which has been carried forward, her parents were also abandoned by their family so they also don’t know what love and nourishment feels like. Pecola will always face issues and will never understand what accepting oneself means. Morrison strongly indicates that positive environment helps develop positive identity and Pecola’s environment lacks it, which leads to her collapse, psychologically; love is the only centre for forming a resilient sense of self. She could not survive in the world of prejudices; fake beauty standards and her rape which made her loose her. Pecola being a young girl just had a desire to be accepted and to be loved which was not possible in the society were the girls like Pecola was being oppressed. She just wanted to be like children who were loved, shows the desire and how her self-worth was externally validated and how societal idea of love and care destroyed her sense of self and even her dream to be accepted by everyone. Pecola had to go to a lot of hardships despite her age, “the damage done was total” (Morrison, 204) which shows the harsh reality and how society do not even help girls like Pecola and even when she loses psychologically, she thinks that she had got blue eyes, but that was merely her imagination, which shows how much desire was of her to get blue eyes. The story is a critic of how beauty standards, internalized racism work in the society and how girls like Pecola suffer due to her family conditions and because of society. How she suffers to find her real self but all she got was losing her real self to fit in the society. Morrison underscores the importance of love, acceptance and nurturing for healthy identity formation. It is a study of how social injustice and neglect can shape the self and how Pecola’s inability to love herself leads to her fragmentation of identity and her collapse psychologically shows the importance of self love and healing.

  • Theoretical analysis in the novels
  • Psychological Development Theory- Is a theory by Erik Erikson, which tells how a person’s identity and personality are shaped through eight stages throughout the lifespan and each psychological conflict should be resolved, otherwise it can lead to low self esteem or fragmented sense of self. In The Bluest Eye Pecola is constantly told that she is ugly and is worthless, she grows up in an abusive family, it is Identity Vs Role Confusion according to Eriksonit is the stage where, formation of self is made with the response of societal influence. The societal pressures that she had to face the idolized beauty standards and because of which she feels herself as ugly. Even her parents could not provide the love, she experiences abuse. The identity confusion begins as she thinks that if she were ‘beautiful’ she would have been accepted by the society. She seeks external validation and cannot accept her own identity.  Unlike Pecola, the protagonist of Surfacing also feels identity crisis and she is juggling between the past memories and the present, she feels distant from both society and herself. She does not have a stable sense of identity. She is fragmented between social riles and authentic self. This is what Erikson calls role confusion. Even she represses her abortion trauma, she avoids to confront her true self, she even lacks emotional attachment. Her statement which says “I need to have a name, but I have forgotten it” (Atwood, 134) shows that the narrator takes a moment for redefining herself.
  • Feminist Theory- This theory shows how patriarchy shapes the lives of women and tells them their roles for living in a society. In both the novels, feminist theory is prominent as in The Bluest Eye, Pecola was also told about the standards, she was being oppressed as a girl and she was being told how she needs to be, how she internalizes these standards she is also being victim of violence, Pecola had no autonomy “The damage done was total” (Morrison, 204) shows how she was shattered. She never got agency of her body.  On the other hand, Surfacing also did not have any autonomy of her body, she was being forced for abortion, she was being objectified by the males. She feels that marriage have some expectations with women. But unlike Pecola, she confronts and refuses to be a victim of patriarchy any further. She decides to stand against patriarchy and no further to be the victim and to understand herself and to regain her true self.
  • Trauma Theory- It tells how experiences affect memory, Identity and psychological stability. It talks about hoe trauma leads to psychological breakdown and disrupts identity formation. Cathy Caruth says that, trauma cannot be fully experienced when it happens, it comes in fragments causing disturbance in the psyche of an individual. In The Bluest Eye as Pecola was constantly told that she was ugly and also she becomes victim of internalized racism and because of which her identity collapses. As trauma theory says that when suffering is too intense that creates alternate realities in  the mind of the individual, Pecola losing her is because of trauma. Unlike, Pecola narrator experiences emotional manipulation, abortion trauma. She buries her memory of abortion initially. Her trauma resurfaces when she isolates herself in an island and she refuses to be a victim, which eventually leads to reconstruction of her identity.  Therefore, all these theories help analyse the psychological journey of both the protagonist, while Erik’s theory gives psychological foundation, Feminist theory gives the highlights of how patriarchy plays a major role in women’s life and Trauma theory explains how it helps with reconstructing the self and how it fragments the self. Together, these theories explain how identity is either destroyed or can be constructed with psychological pressures.
  • Different Ages, But Shared Psychological Struggles

Although separated by age, but both the protagonist of the novel face similar issues. This shows that the society do not care of what age, caste, creed you belong to, It has same rigid laws for all and even the kind of trauma’s that women face is also somewhat similar. Their journey’s show that crisis and trauma do not limit because of age it can emerge whenever social oppression or unresolved trauma exists. Like, in The Bluest Eye and in Surfacing  both the protagonist experience identity conflicts and psychological fragmentation because of the society. These things demonstrate that conflicts like these can come at any stage. Pecola’s identity crisis began when she was in her childhood, when she was not accepted by the society not even got love from her parents. Instead of developing confidence and self worth, she had to face racism and inferiority. She believes that beauty can only make her accepted in the society. She believes that if she gets blue eyes then she can be accepted by the society and can make her feel beautiful. Her sense of self was being constructed by others. She repeatedly being told about being ugly and then sexually being abused by her own father. Pecola develops cumulative trauma, she lacks strength and support to resist these harsh forces. She creates an imaginary reality in which she thinks of having blue eyes, her conflicts remains unresolved this shows that her complete identity was shaken.

In the contrary, the narrator of Surfacing she faces identity conflict in her adulthood, she suffers too from repression, trauma and psychological deception. She also constructs false narratives about the past, she was all numb emotionally and she also refuses to marry and love. Like Pecola, she also struggles with bodily autonomy and the expectations society has from women, however, unlike Pecola she reaches a moment of self realisation in the moment when she was in isolation and she also refuses to be a victim. This becomes the turning point for her, where she finally rejects the oppression done on her by the society and she comes to the point where she understands that she no longer wants to be the victim of patriarchy. Thus, despite the age difference both the protagonist suffer similar kind of conflicts like trauma, alienation and societal pressure. Pecola, as she was young so she lost herself because of these expectations, but the narrator of Surfacing moves towards healing herself, even if done partially. These stories define that identity crisis and expectations of society is not confined to a particular age of a person.

  • Conclusion

This paper has explored the trauma, identity crisis a woman goes through living within the patriarchal structure, through the novel of The Bluest Eye and Surfacing. it shows how society have prejudices for women and also it shows how both the protagonist suffer due to societal pressure and trauma. Pecola’s tragedy reveals how deeply a child can internalise racism and how it make her lose her mental balance and trauma was so much it made her make her fake world, in which she had her eyes blue. This all happened just because she was not valued and loved in her family. Validation was absent in her family. In the contrary, the unnamed narrator in Surfacing shows the possibility of getting her identity reconstructed and stops being the victim of patriarchy. Her return to her hometown for finding her father acts as a catalyst for finding herself. The isolation helped her reclaim her identity.

Trauma and body autonomy are two important themes which can be seen in both the novels. How both the women do not had body autonomy and this shows how damage caused by patriarchy begins early and not every character succeeds to reclaim their identity. However, the quest for identity showcases that self is deeply connected by love and freedom. Thus the journey of selfhood is both social and psychological, shaped by the struggles but also by the possibility of transformation.  

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