The Bluest Eye: How Society Took Pecola’s Innocence Essay

In the course of The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove has shown signs of low self esteem. She would always be the one to compare herself to something she admires to be beautiful. Perhaps, sometimes problems surround her get a little too much, she has not yet realized the fog will clear up. For example in the autumn chapter, a quote has said “Thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see: the eyes of other people.” There is no such thing as a “Pecola’s point of view”. She lives off of people's judgements and believe physical appearance is all there is to a person. Her desire to be beautiful is not having attractive long black hair and golden skin color, but blonde hair with a white pigmentation. Which causes her to dream and want even more.

Besides the inherent self-confident issue, the outside voice from community is also affecting Pecola’s view. For example, in the “accident” when Pecola went into Junior’s house, Junior killed the cat and impute to Pecola. His mother, Geraldine, saw Pecola was holding the dead cat. Without any thought and didn’t even ask for the truth, Geraldine simply called Pecola a “nastylittle black bitch.” This event, again, reinforces Pecola’s view of what beauty means.

Pauline Breedlove, Pecola's mother, experiences racism within the black community when she moves to Lorain, Ohio. Being a dark-skinned black woman from the south, she does not understand why "northern colored folk was different... [and why they were] no better than whites for meanness" (117). She recognizes the hierarchy, or the "difference between colored people and niggers" within the black community, especially from the light-skinned women she encounters (87). One of these light-skinned black women is Geraldine, Junior's mother, who believes "colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud" (87). She even tells her son

After she meets Pecola, her concerns go to Pecola. She explains about each and every incident that occurs to Pecola and the reasons behind leading to those incidents. According to Claudia, the narrator of the story, not just Pecola but it was the Breedlove family members who treated themselves the uglier rather than the society. Only the difference is that they make a different mindset deal with it. The narrator vividly mentions by saying, “Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction/And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it” (Morrison 39). This explains more of what they were dealing with. It is impossible to make them believe that they aren’t relentlessly and aggressively ugly (38). Being young, vulnerable and more importantly, female, Pecola is the one who gets abused frequently and endures the damage in greater

     Although there are many different characters in this novel that are affected by the great advertisement of the beauty of a female in society, Pecola is the one to end up being insane due to the images- the image that she couldn’t possibly attain. Pecola grew up believing that she was born into an ugly family, making her ugly also. The ugliness wasn’t just from the window signs and newspapers, it was from her family and her neighbors. Therefore, she seeks the next best thing in her life, to have those blue eyes of a white girl, thinking

Because of racism and her own personal background, Pauline neglects her family and allows Pecola to be victimized. One reason that Pauline turns out the way she does is that she always felt inadequate. Growing up Pauline blamed her foot for her constant source of humiliation. “The easiest thing to do would be to build a case out of her foot.” “That is what she herself did” (Morrison 110). In addition, once she moved to Ohio she had to contend with regional and social class barriers to norms of beauty that she had never imagined. For example, she couldn't keep up with latest fashion and this takes a big toll on her spirit.

From the day Pecola is introduced to us in the novel, she has been a target for others to dump their “waste” onto her. On page 163, Claudia states, “We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness…”(Morrison

The meaning of beauty is abused emotionally because the characters consider whiteness beautiful. It is associated with beauty and cleanliness. Blue eyes mean beauty, “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes...were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different”(Morrison 46). Pecola dislikes herself because she doesn't have blue eyes. She wants people to view her differently and wants to view the world differently. Another instance of emotional abuse is when Pecola is framed for killing a cat . Junior frames Pecola for killing the cat because he feels that Geraldine his mother pays more attention to the cat rather than him, so he likes the cat to suffer .Geraldine says to Pecola, “Nasty little black bitch ”(Morrison 92). Pecola and Junior want people to love them but does not believe they do because of their actions and words towards them, which causes them to develop depression. Pecola's mother Mrs.Breedlove fails as a parent because she doesn’t believe in her daughter about being raped. “Regained consciousness, she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt, trying to connect the pain between her legs with face of her mother looming over her ”(Morrison 163). Mrs. Breedlove fails to believe her daughter because she has gone through same circumstances of trauma as her. Someone one’s appearance, is taken

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

Pecola Breedlove is strong in some sort of way because she's been through a lot. She has no friends because of how ugly she is and she's been raped by her father. She was abused on many levels, sexually and emotionally. What was considered beautiful not only to Pecola, but almost

Pecola Breedlove is a young black girl who is constantly defined by her race and how society perceives her. Even members of her own race discriminate against Pecola because her skin is darker than theirs. This is seen when “A group of boys [were] circling and holding at bay a victim, Pecola Breedlove... It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its own teeth” (54). This encounter allows the reader to notice how hard it is for Pecola to not be defined by the color of her skin.

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

The hissing of schoolboys direct at Pecola, clearly illustrate the fact, “it was their contempt for their own blackness that give the first insult its teeth” (65). The impression that the color of ours skin somehow make us slighter in refine by both black and white. This self-hatred possess an undercurrent of anger and injustice. The life lead by Pecola as well transition as others like her is a part of life that many women are experiencing world wild.

Prettier people are more praised than average people. This makes the ordinary people constantly doubt themselves and lower their self-confidence. Pecola’s character can be categorize as one of those average people, or as she refers to herself, one of the “ugly people.” Morrison creates her character with an abusive past, displaying multiple injustices through her. For example, the abuse that she suffers from society was due to her self-belief that she was ugly, so instead of defending herself, she puts up with the social abuse. The author portrays the idea of being accepted by society through whatever means will only destroy oneself in the end, as stated on page 158, “The damage done was total.”

Growing up in a vicious environment, Pecola’s childhood never became a fruitful one. A typical childhood memory is wherein men would usually bully her for her skin colour and the texture of her hair. Even though Pecola’s childhood wasn’t that good there was never an incident that she fought back.