Innocence In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

I was a little confused by the last chapter. Who was Pecola talking to? It was sad for me to see Pecola obsess over believing she had been given blue eyes. In the last chapter the sentence, “A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment”, showed the relationship between beauty and skin color and how destructive beauty can be. I feel like because of what had happened to Pecola she was so desperate to be beautiful and happy, that she believed she actually had blue eyes. She thought her blue eyes were the reason that people avoided her, when it was really because of what had happened between her and Cholly. Overall, I found the book

Pecola obsesses over all things white because the town makes fun of her blackness. Pecola is alone due to her lack of beauty. In one scene Pecola is laughed at called “e mo” and other names as other black children make fun of her blackness. Morrisons uses collective voice to show the racial segregation at the time was not only white people, but it was the different shades of black. Something that someone cannot control. The boy bullying Pecola “had extemporized a verse made up of two insults about matters over which the victim had no control: the color of her skin”(Morrison, check page#). Pecola, only a young girl begins to become outcasted from society especially after

Morrison portrays Pecola as an ugly, little, rejected, black girl '' who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes'' (Morriison,174), for she is mistreated by her society and even her family. Even though wishing for blue eyes might seem awkward and meaningless, it actually makes sense when one looks at Pecola's circumstances.

“…the pan tilted under Pecola’s fingers and fell to the floor…she cried out and began hopping about just as Mrs. Breedlove entered with a tightly packed laundry bag. In one gallop she was on Pecola, and with the back of her hand knocked her to the floor…Mrs. Breedlove yanked her up by the arm, slapped her again, and in a voice thin with anger, abused Pecola directly and Frieda and me by implication” (Morrison, p. 109). Claudia and Frieda could defend Pecola when she was being bullied by the boys at school. They could stand up for her against Maureen who was antagonizing her however they are too young and helpless to stand up for against her

Her brother use the option of running away from the horrific domestic violence scenes that their mother and father participate in. Pecola doesn’t have this choice because of her age. So instead she begins to believe that she can only change what she sees by changing herself. Moments like this are when she is lying in her bed after her parents have their fight and she begins to imagine that her body is disappearing fully until she is, figuratively, only left with her eyes which in her opinion is the source of her ugliness. There are moments when she succeeds in separating connection between what she sees and how people see her.

The novel expresses through Pecola’s misfortunes that inward beauty is not as beneficial in society as outward beauty is. Due to her own struggles, Pecola became so obsessed and fixated on becoming a prettier, more desired individual. She grew up becoming more and more emotionally drained by the members of her community who would use her for their source of beauty. She became so obsessed with wanting to be desired that she literally became consumed by her thoughts. In order to back up the claims of her obsession, Pecola would eat candy and would literally visualize herself as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pretty, wanted individual.

This desire to leave the problems and issues in life also appealed to Pecola. She would visit the three prostitutes when she felt the need to get away from her family. This was her form of escape initially; they never judged her for her skin color and accepted her the way she was. As the novel evolved, and Pecola experienced many devastating incidents, she started dreaming about blue eyes. The approval of three women was not good enough, she wanted to fit in with the rest of society because she needed an escape so great it could consume her.

In The Bluest Eye, Morrison reflects Pecola Breedlove’s innocence through her naivety and acquiescence towards her mother’s commands. Pecola’s personal adversities such as her turbulent household and ostracisation from society attribute to her gradual loss of innocence and resulting consequences. Pecola grows accustomed to the hardships that she faces, as shown when she expresses that ‘there surged in her searing stomach the desire to heave, but as always, she knew she would not.’ The utilisation of sibilance emphasises the pain and uneasiness Pecola faces as a young child, when exposed to severe issues. Pecola loses her youthfulness and joy, instead transforming into a depressed and fearful child.

Pecola believes if her eyes were to turn into, “big blue pretty eyes” (Morrison 46), the people would not do bad things in front of her. she also believes if her eyes were pretty, that she too would be beautiful or different as Morrison writes on page 46. And so, she continues to pray every night for blue eyes, having done so for a year. In that sense, she has not given up hope.

For Pecola having blue eyes is something she would die for. She believes that if she had blue eyes her life would have turned out differently, her parents would have loved her, her classmates wouldn’t make fun of her, and someone would tell her she was beautiful. Because of Pecola’s low self-esteem as a poor black child she does not believe in her own beauty. She spends her life praying for a miracle that

The character most affected by racism is Pecola Breedlove. Pecola Breedlove’s character is defined by several different types of racism. It is present in her family, especially

The two sisters don’t completely understand Pecola’s situation. The sisters take on a burden to solve an issue they have no control over. Claudia eventually realizes it’s not her fault; it’s the Earth’s fault. The earth is an “unyielding”, immoral, corrupt place; it is not as nice of a place as they thought. Pecola’s pregnancy is a product of the dark behavior her father; her insanity is the product of the hostile and unjust environment around her. Caludia realizes that there are problems in the world she can do nothing about; these problems are out of her

The Bluest Eye is a harsh warning about the old consciousness of black folks' attempts to emulate the slave master that takes place during the Great Depression in 1941 . Pecola's request is not for more money or a better house or even for more sensible parents; her want for blue eyes. The self-hatred that is at the core of Pecola's character affects, in

Instead they start to insult her and break down her self-confidence. And that what happened with Pecola in THE BLUEST EYES. Her family didn't feel happy with her, and always says that she is ugly; what makes her believe that she is extremely ugly, but she doesn't know why. She always looks at the mirror and asks herself why they say that she is ugly. In addition to the family, Pecola’s friends, classmates and teachers also think that she is an ugly girl, just because of her skin

Pecola has a desire to have blue eyes to change both how others see her and what she is forced to see .