The Bluest Eye
A good book is one that you cannot quit thinking about. For days after you finish it you will catch yourself daydreaming about it. That is what The Bluest Eye did to me. I can't say that I liked the novel, because I didn't. It left me with an empty horrified feeling in the pit of my stomach; a realization of how harsh the world can be. I believe that this was Toni Morrison's goal for this book. She didn't want me to feel all warm and cozy when I finished. She didn't want me to 'like' The Bluest Eye; She wanted me to learn from it. I learned about a child's understanding, how people can react differently to a harsh environment, the importance of white symbols in a black girls life, and what could possess adults to do horrible things to helpless children. In short, I learned about the world. Claudia narrated most of the book, though the story is mainly about Pecola. Claudia and her sister, Fridea, are, in all visible ways, exactly like Pecola. They are poor, black girls in a world where only white is beautiful and good. The difference is that Claudia and Fridea could still love themselves and Pecola felt that she was worthless because of her black features. It makes sense that Claudia was chosen to tell the story so that she cou
Pecola's parents did not show her love. Her mother, Pauline, hated blackness and she couldn't bring herself to love her black, ugly, daughter. Pecola wasn't even allowed to call her Mother. She called her Mrs. Breedlove, just like everyone else. Pauline retreats to a fantasy 'movie theater' world where she is able to escape her 'black' world. Pauline is an extremely lonely person who has never fit in anywhere. She is the ninth of eleven children and she is the only one who was never given a nickname. She also has a crippled foot that makes her feel like an outcast. Though Morrison never says that the way she treated Pecola was excusable, she does help the reader to understand why she acted the way that she did. At first their relationship is great, but inevitably the anger from their pasts reveals itself and they become violent towards each other. Samuel, Pecola's brother continuously runs away and Pecola prays every night for blue eyes to fix everything. Pecola doesn't pray for blue eyes just because she wants to be pretty. She wants them so that she can be happy. She believes that if she had this symbol of whiteness, blue eyes, her family would become the perfect 'Dick and Jane' family. Literary Series-Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, 1993. ld be outside of the main story, but still close enough to give us a first person account. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Plume: 1970 Napieralski, Edmund A. "Morrison's The Bluest Eye." Explicator, Fall94, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p59, 4p
Some common words found in the essay are:
Claudia Fridea, Claudia Fridea's, Samuel Pecola's, Aunt Jimmy, Bluest Eye, Mary JaneSmiling, Dick Jane, Toni Morrison, Cholly Pecola's, Pearl Enemy, bluest eye, mary jane, blue eyes, claudia fridea, toni morrison, world claudia, dick jane, black girls, perfect white, pecola simply,
Approximate Word count = 1271
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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