The Bluest Eye

From the very beginning of Pecola’s life, her mother ingrains in her the idea that she is ugly—a concept that Mrs. Breedlove herself is viewed as due to her missing front tooth and her skin color. After her birth, she refers to Pecola as being “a right smart baby” but “a cross between a puppy and a dying man. But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (Morrison 126). Mrs. Breedlove acknowledges that Pecola is a smart girl, but doesn’t view it as an impressive quality. Instead, she focuses on the fact that her daughter is unattractive. As Spies mentions, “even by her own mother, Pecola has been denied the slightest notion of being valuable or worthy of love” (Spies 15). By denying value and love to her daughter, Mrs. Breedlove is instilling in Pecola the same self-hatred that Cholly and society has instilled in herself. Mrs. Breedlove’s unhappiness is unquestionably the reason for Pecola’s own dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

Toni Morrison is America’s most prominent contemporary authors, that published her first breathtaking novel “The Bluest Eye” in 1970’s, right after the peak of the African-American movement in the late 1960’s. The mass popular movement was indeed a poignant reminder of the passing of time. As the novel has gained increasing attention from literary critics around the world, it has set the very definition of black standard beauty and its conformity to white standards. Morrison gives the audience an insight of how Pecola Breedlove, a passive and impressionable 11- year old, views her own standard of beauty amongst the cruelty of the white society. For Pecola, there are two things in this world; beauty and ugliness. Beauty is varied through different

This jumps out at me because it accentuates the correlation between her upbringing and the way she views herself now. For example, Pecola has no access to such teachings as Geraldine, indicating that this now may make her more inferior to her due to her lack of social mannerisms. Because of this, Pecola views herself as

Pecola was a product of a loveless marriage and suffered because of that. Her father was a violent drunk and her mother tries to emulate white celebrities. One night she even witnesses their lifeless marriage. “Into her eyes came the picture of Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove in bed. He making sounds as though he were in pain, as though something had him by the throat and wouldn't let go. Terrible as his noises were, they were not nearly as bad as the no noise at all from her mother. It was as though she was not even there. Maybe that was love. Choking sounds and silence.” It is clear throughout the book that Pecola is character that never experienced love, which of course explains the lack she has for herself. It gets to a point that Pecola believes with blue eyes, her parents would begin to love her. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. Her teeth were good, and at least her nose was not big and flat like some of those who were thought so cute. If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they’d say, “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.” This quote shows how Pecola feels that being white and “beautiful” would help her home situation along with how her guardians

She feels that her skin is ugly and too dark. Based on the color of her skin she feels less than in the eyes of others. Pecola believes she can gain the love and acceptance she wants by having blue eyes like Shirley Temple. Pecola sense of self-worth and her self-image are extremely damaged from the abuse she receives on a constant basis.

At this time black people weren’t treated with respect and were constantly discriminated against in all types of ways. Pecola grew up in a rough environment with her dad abusing her mother constantly and constantly getting in fights “Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove fought each other with a darkly brutal formalism”(Morrison 43). Pecola decided to surround herself with people that can help her like the Macteer’s. In addition Pecola believed she was ugly and reason for this was because she didn’t have blue eyes like the Shirley Temple doll that everyone adored. Pecola never tried to persevere through the tough times and make people believe that she isn’t ugly but had just settled to believing that she was granted blue eyes and just felt sorry for herself “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty.

Initially, as I read this quote, I began to sympathize with Pecola and the plight she faces as an African American female. This is the first time in the novel we are exposed to the desire Pecola vehemently prays for daily, this desire being blue eyes. The reason I sympathized for the girl beyond the fact that attaining blue eyes for her would be impossible, is because she blames her blue-lacking eye color, or her ugliness as she classifies it as, as a way to justify everything that has gone wrong in her life. Take, for instance, Cholly, her dad, and her mother, Mrs. Breedlove’s fights. Even though their fights arise from the problems they have between themselves, Pecola continues to believe that her ugliness has struck her with not only undesirable

Pecola is constantly labeled as inferior due to her ugliness and copes with her sorrow by conforming to society’s label. Throughout the novel, Pecola’s fascination with white girls is heavily expressed. It is first shown very early on when Pecola admires the Shirley Temple cup. Claudia narrates, “She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face” (19).

There are many themes that seem to run throughout this story. Each theme and conflict seems to always involve the character of Pecola Breedlove. There is the theme of finding an identity. There is also the theme of Pecola as a victim. Of all the characters in the story we can definitely sympathize with Pecola because of the many harsh circumstances she has had to go through in her lifetime. Perhaps her rape was the most tragic and dramatic experience Pecola had experiences, but nonetheless she continued her life. She eliminates her sense of ugliness, which lingers in the beginning of the story, and when she sees that she has blue eyes now she changes her perspective on life. She believes that these eyes have been given

When she examines their ugliness, Claudia states that one “could not find the source” and that “it came from conviction, their conviction… They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance” (Morrison 39). The Breedlove family is born and raised in a society that constantly defines and reinforces dark skin as ugly. They believe in this conception as they don’t know any different and therefore perceive themselves as ugly and undeserving due to their background and skin color, even though, and like Claudia mentions, there is not a specific reason as to why their features are unappealing. Due to her self-loathing, Mrs. Breedlove prefers to spend all her time as a servant for the Fishers instead of taking care of her own daughter. In this white household, she is able to imagine herself living as a white woman with a white daughter living in a nice house. Like her mother, Pecola also despises her own identity and appearance. She desperately longs for blue eyes, as

Pecola’s view of love is strongly shaped by the critical eye through which both her family

Pecola strived for beauty throughout the whole book, she knew that people though she was an ugly child. So she thought if she had blue eyes , things would be different and she would be recognized and become beautiful. Pecola, being a child, did not know that her wish was just not possible. But she was a kid and didn’t know any better. She figured that if she had blue eyes like Maurine Pie, she would be popular and beautiful. Pecola asked Soaphead Church for blue eyes, and he told he would. Although Pecola never really got blue eyes, she thought she did and it was enough to fulfill her needs.

Pecola evaluated herself ugly, and wanted to have a pair of blue eyes so that every problem could be solved. Pecola was an African-American and lived in a family with problems. Her father ran away because of crime, her brother left because of their fighting parents, and was discriminated simply because she has dark-skin. Pecola is a passive person. She is almost destroyed because of her violent father, Cholly Breedlove, who raped her own daughter after drinking. Because of this, Pecola kept thinking about her goal- to reach the standard of beauty. However, she was never satisfied with it. Pecola believed once she become beautiful, fighting between her parents would no longer happen, her brother would come back, and her father would no long be a rapist. No problem would exist anymore.

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, depicts characters desperately seeking to attain love through a predetermined standard of beauty established and substantiated by society. Morrison intertwines the histories of several characters portraying the delusions of the ‘perfect’ family and what motivates their quest for love and beauty. Ultimately, this pursuit for love and beauty has overwhelming effects on their relationships and their identity.

Pecola’s atmosphere in where she lives is full of mistreat. There comes a primary point in the novel where Pecola moves to stabilize in the Macteers’s house. Her parents commit an act of abandonment and “go solve their differences in themselves”. It’s important to know that Pecola is a girl who wishes to have the privileges as other girls of her age bracket. Not only is she deserted from her parents but also isolated from the children at her school. She is constantly bullied and this is also a major and vital factor into why the central theme is related to other world related events. Another unexpected event that occurred to Pecola was Cholly raping and maltreating her physically. Her consolation of all her conflict in her early childhood and in her life is her picturing herself having blue