The Bluest Eye :: essays research papers

The Bluest Eye is a brilliantly written novel revealing the fictional trauma of an eleven-year-old black missy named Pecola Breedlove. This story takes place in the town of Lorain, Ohio during the 1940s. It is told from the perspective of a young girl named Claudia MacTeer. She and her sister, Frieda, become witness to the terrible plights Pecola is unintentionally put done. Pecola chooses to hide from her change life behind her clouded dream of possessing the ever so cherished bluest of eyes. The Breedloves constant bickering and ever growing poverty contributes to the unrestrained downfall of this little girl. Pecolas misery is obtained through the touch of her fathers hand and the voice of her communitys struggle with racial separation, anger, and ignorance. Her innocence is harshly ripped from her grasp as her father rapes her limp existence. The communitys anger with its own insecurities is taken out on this poor, ugly, black, non-ideal, young girl. She shields herself fro m this herb of grace behind her obsessive plea for blue eyes. But her eyes do not replace the pain of carrying her fleeing fathers baby. Nor do they protect her from the incensed eyes of her neighbors. Though this book discuses negative and disturbing situations, it teaches a very positive lesson. The theme of The Bluest Eye is that of depending on outside influences to become aware of superstars own beauty and to fabricate ones own self image can be extremely damaging. I feel that Toni Morrison showed this through each of her characters especially the obvious, Pecola Breedlove. One incident, for example, is when Claudia, Frieda, Pecola, and Maureen Peal, a well-loved beauty of Lorain, are walking home from school. As the girls saunter down the street, they begin to bicker. The conversation ends with Maureen stomping away and establishing the fact that she is indeed cute. Claudia then thinks to herself, If she was cute--and if anything could be believed, she was--then we were no t. And what did that mean? We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser. Dolls we could destroy, but we could not destroy the honey voices of parents and aunts, the obedience in the eyes of our peers, the slick light in the eyes of our teachers when they encouraged the Maureen Peals of the world. What was the secret? What did we lack? Why was it important? And so what?. . . And all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred.