The Power Of Pecola's The Bluest Eye

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.

“The Bluest Eye” is taking place around 1940 in Lorain, Ohio. During the year of 1940, discrimination, especially toward African Americans, was still a serious problem. People believe that whiteness is the standard of beauty. The main character, Pecola, who was a nine-years-old African-American, was influenced by how people view beauty. Pecola suffered and felt that she is inferior to others. Pecola believed that having a pair of blue eyes would made people think she is pretty, and would be the key resolving all the problems.

Pecola who has just witness one of her parent’s numerous fight, finds that the only solution to her suffering is to have blue eyes, not only would she appear beautiful, but she would see beautiful things and not bad and painful scenes like her parents fighting; She believes that if

She thought that if she had blue eyes, the blue eyes of the accepted white ideal, she would be beautiful and therefore loved. The acquisition of the blue eyes she so fiercely covets signifies Pecola's step into madness. It was a safe place, where she could have her blue eyes, and where she could be accepted.

In the novel, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison uses literary devices such as analogy and allusion, in addition to breaking syntax to illustrate how the characters in her story will experience a death of innocence as the novel progresses. The first paragraph alludes to old Dick and Jane books, as Pecola Breedlove has a negative view on her own family and wishes to be part of this white family shown. However, the syntax eventually breaks down, which signifies how her illusions of the perfect family disappears. Later on, Claudia MacTeer tells a story about how she and her sister Frieda planted seeds in the gardens to make sure that Pecola’s baby was safe in the second paragraph. This fails however, as they realize that kind words and deeds were useless

A Search For A Self Finding a self-identity is often a sign of maturing and growing up. This becomes the main issue in novel The Bluest Eyes. Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, and Pauline Breedlove are the characters that search for their identity through others that has influenced them and by the lifestyles that they have. First, Pecola Breedlove struggles to get accepted into society dued to the beauty factor that the normal people have. Cholly Breedlove, her father, is a drunk who has problems that he takes out of Pecola sexually and Pauline physically. Pauline is Cholly’s wife that is never there for her daughters.

The plot in The Bluest Eye is the tragedy of Pecola Breedlove, an African-American girl whose fondest wish is to miraculously awaken one day with blue eyes, thinking that perhaps it will make her mother attentive and her father loving:

Morrison’s use of two different narrators through the story also goes hand-in-hand with the novel’s contents. Throughout The Bluest Eye, Morrison uses an older Claudia MacTeer and a third-person omniscient narrator effectively in telling parts of the story. Claudia’s narration of the events provides a limited view of the story, as she can only relay what she knows and experienced. This can be seen through simple dialogue between Claudia and Frieda on page 101, where the girls discuss how a person can be “ruined” based on information fed to them by their mother. This makes Claudia’s narration somewhat unreliable, but her point of view still allows the reader to interpret more about the content and character presented. This is vital to the story, as she inserts her own opinions and reflections on the heavy topics

Colloquial and Vernacular Language in Literature Vernacular and colloquial language allows an author to develop each character and setting through the personal description of a character. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, both colloquial and vernacular language were used by creating viewpoints of different characters and the racist or southern dialects. In The Bluest Eye Morrison developed the novel’s characters through the main narration and thoughts of Claudia MacTeer and Pecola Breedlove. Morrisons used the contrasting adolescent lives of Claudia and Pecola to allow the reader to view the difference in how they lived in a similar setting with different situations affecting their verbal responses

Pecola, one of the three main characters of The Bluest Eye, also faces deep rooted family problems ranging from her abusive mother and father to the impregnation by her father, a scene all too familiar as in The Color Purple. The common act seen between these two characters is fighting elongated abuse. Each character knows about abuse all too well from outside members of their life to some of their closest family members.

Pecola's society sets blue eyes as the best way to fit in, ¨ 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¨ (pg.40). Pecola wants blue eyes, because in her society blue eyes are considered beautiful. Pecola's society makes it so that people think that you can only be happy and have everything you want if you have blue eyes, so thats why pecola yearns for blue eyes so much. Pecola, wants to be accepted by society that she actually go to the point where she asks for blue eyes and actually believes that she has them, " I guess you're right, and i was so lonely for friends. and you were right here before my eyes.

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

The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison that reveals many lessons and conflicts between young and adult characters of color. The setting takes place during the 1940s in Lorain, Ohio. The dominant speaker of this book is a nine year old girl named Claudia MacTeer who gets to know many of her neighbors. As a result of this, Claudia learns numerous lessons from her experience with the citizens of Lorain. Besides Claudia, The Bluest Eye is also told through many characters for readers to understand the connection between each of the adults and children. Many parents in the novel like Geraldine and Pauline Breedlove clearly show readers how adults change their own children. Furthermore, other adult characters like Cholly Breedlove

The Bluest Eye initially depicts female friendship as confined to the proximity of family and cultural programming. For example, during Claudia and Frieda’s afternoon with Maureen, the sister’s defend Pecola from Maureen’s ridicule. This stems from the fact that Pecula is within a similar cultural program as the sisters and that she has been living with them. Similarly, Maureen is of a middleclass background and of no connection to Claudia and Frieda’s family, so she is resented both prior and after their time with Maureen.

The social standards of beauty and the idea of the American Dream in The Bluest Eye leads Mrs. Breedlove to feelings of shame, that she later passes on to Pecola. The Breedloves are surrounded by the idea of perfection, and their absence of it makes them misfits. Mrs. Breedlove works for a white family, the fishers. She enjoys the luxury of her work life and inevitably favors her work over her family. This leads to Pecola struggle to find her identity, in a time where perception is everything. Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother perferis her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the shirley temple doll with blue eyes.