Abstract:
Society puts a lot of pressure on its members, much of which the members of
society do not even consciously realize is being placed upon them. There is
simultaneously pressure to conform to the things society deems acceptable and pressure
to express one’s “true self” within the ways that society finds it all right for people to be
different. These two pressures can be especially difficult to reconcile in cases where
society either does not accept a particular sort of self-expression as valid or when it is
impossible for a person to make the sort of changes that would be necessary to fully
conform. In this thesis, I will look at the pressure that society can put on individuals’
self-image, particularly as it affects Black Americans. To accomplish this, I will analyze
sections of Carl Elliott’s Better than Well, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Patricia
Hill Collins’ Black Sexual Politics.
