In his essay “When Home Fails to Nurture the Self: Tragedy of Being Homeless at Home”, Leester Thomas argues that, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is split into four sections; the first section Thomas titles “Outdoors: The Meaning of Such Wretchedness” (53), which is followed by “The First Eviction: Rejection of Self by Mainstream Society” (53), “ The Second Eviction: Rejection of Self by the Black Community” (54) and lastly, “The Final Eviction Notice: Rejection of self by the biological family” (55). I agree with Thomas’ analysis of The Bluest Eye and Morrison herself, along with the more direct analysis of Pecola herself, I will argue that much like the conditions for marigolds to grow, the conditions that Pecola was immersed in didn’t allow for her to grow, and ultimately lead to her destruction.
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac “Marigolds thrive in full sunshine”, the Marigolds, much like Pecola needed to be built up in an environment that gives them the nutrients they need. As we see throughout the novel, Pecola is not in a healthy environment, as Thomas explains she’s left on the outside: “To be outside is to be without a home—without a birthplace; without cultural/racial identity; without family bonding; and finally without self-esteem and, consequently, self-realization” (53) This only serves as to build the foundation, or soil for which Pecola must grow. Thomas writes;
There is nothing to be gained when one’s potential for wholesome
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Summary Claudia MacTeer is an adult, telling us about certain events that took place in the fall of 1941. She was a child back then, around nine years old, but she still remembered how the marigolds didn’t bloom that fall, and she and her sister thought it was probably because of their friend, Pecola, was having her father’s baby. She then tells us that Pecola’s father, Cholly Breedlove and the baby are dead. Then there’s the first season, a flashback, in Autumn in 1940, a year before the fall when
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