Bluest Eye Essay, Research Paper
Robert B. Lewis V
March 1, 2001
English 102
Lloyd-Crawford
A Quest for Personal Identity
Post World War I, many new chances were given to the turning and spread outing group of African Americans life in the North. Almost 500,00 African Americans moved to the northern provinces between 1910 and 1920. This was the beginning of a go oning migration northerly. More than 1,500,000 inkinesss went north in the 1930 & # 8217 ; s and 2,500,00 in the 1940 & # 8217 ; s. Life in the North was really difficult for African Americans. Race public violences, limited lodging ensuing in slum lodging, and restricted occupation chances were merely a few of the many adversities that the African American people had to confront at this clip. Families frequently had to divide, societal bureaus were overcrowded with people that all needed aid, offense rates increased and many other ensuing jobs ensued. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes topographic point during this clip period.
A chief subject in this novel is the pursuit for single individuality and the influences of the household and community in that quest. This subject is present throughout the novel and evident in many of the characters. Pecola Breedlove is the chief character, and on the quest for individuality, every bit good as a symbol of the quest of many of the Black northern fledglings of that clip.
The Breedlove household is a group of people under the same roof, a household by name merely. Cholly ( the male parent ) is a invariably rummy and opprobrious adult male. His opprobrious mode is evident towards his married woman Pauline physically and towards his girl Pecola sexually. Pauline is a & # 8220 ; mammy & # 8221 ; to a white household and continues to prefer them over her biological household. Pecola is a small black miss with low ego regard. The universe has led her to believe that she is ugly and that the prototype of & # 8220 ; beautiful & # 8221 ; requires bluish eyes. Therefore every dark she prays that she will wake up with bluish eyes.
Brought up as a hapless unwanted miss, Pecola Breedlove desires the credence and love of society. The image of & # 8220 ; Shirley Temple beauty & # 8221 ; surrounds her. In her head, if she was to be beautiful, people would eventually love and accept her. The thought that bluish eyes are a necessity for beauty has been imprinted on Pecola her whole life. & # 8220 ; If I looked different, beautiful, possibly Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove excessively. Possibly they would state, `Why expression at reasonably eyed Pecola. We mustn & # 8217 ; t do bad things in forepart of those pretty bluish eyes & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( Morrison 46 ) . Many people have helped form this ideal of beauty on her. Mr. Yacowbski as a symbol for the remainder of society & # 8217 ; s norm, treats her as if she were unseeable. & # 8220 ; He does non see her, because for him there is nil to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant shopkeeper & # 8230 ; see a small black miss? & # 8221 ; ( Morrison 48 ) . Her schoolmates besides have an consequence on her. They seem to believe that because she is non beautiful, she is non deserving anything except as the focal point of their jeer. & # 8220 ; Black vitamin E minute. Black vitamin E minute. Yadaddsleepsnekked. Black vitamin E minute black vitamin E minute ya dadd slumbers nekked. Black vitamin E mo & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( Morrison 65 ) . Shouted by her schoolmates on such a regular footing, this contempt seemed non to perforate any longer. As if it were non bad plenty being ridiculed by kids her ain age, grownups besides had to mock her. Geraldine, a coloured adult female, who refused to digest & # 8220 ; niggas & # 8221 ; , happened to walk in while Pecola was in her house. & # 8220 ; Get out, & # 8217 ; she said her voice quiet. `You awful small black bitc
h. Get out of my house’” ( Morrison 92 ) . By holding an grownup point out to her that she truly was a “nasty” small miss, it seems all the more true. Pecola was ne’er able to acquire off from this sort of ridicule.
At place she was put through the same thing, if non worse because her household members were the 1s who were supposed to love her. Her female parent was non able conceal her obvious fondness towards a white miss over her. One twenty-four hours as Pecola was sing her female parent at the place where she is working, Pecola by chance knocked over a blueberry pie. Obviously burned by the hot pastry, her female parent wholly ignored Pecola & # 8217 ; s feelings of hurting and alternatively tended to the comforting of her white & # 8220 ; girl & # 8221 ; . & # 8220 ; `Crazy foo & # 8230 ; my floor, muss & # 8230 ; look what you & # 8230 ; acquire on out & # 8230 ; brainsick & # 8230 ; brainsick & # 8230 ; my floor, my floor & # 8230 ; . & # 8217 ; Her words were hotter and darker than the smoke berries. The small white miss in pink started to shout. Mrs. Breedlove turned to her. `Hush, babe, stillness. Don & # 8217 ; t shout no more & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( Morrison 109 ) . Her female parent viewed Pecola as an obstruction that had the potency to acquire in the manner of her white charge & # 8217 ; s felicity and accordingly her felicity. Her female parent refused to demo any love to Pecola because it might interfere with more of import things. For a small miss, the love of her female parent is the most of import love she can have. Without that, how can she believe that she is deserving anything at all?
Finally the colza by her male parent is the last grounds Pecola needs to believe wholly that she is an ugly unlovable miss. While in most instances a male parent figure is one who small misss look to for counsel and blessing, Cholly is the exact antonym. He hurts Pecola in a physical manner that in one effort measures up to the old ages of hurtful jeer. He took off from her the one thing that was absolutely and wholly hers. After the colza, Pecola was ne’er even remotely the same.
She was so sad to see. Grown people looked off ; kids, those who were non frightened by her, laughed outright. The harm done was entire. She spent her yearss, walking up and down her caput jolt to the round of a drummer so distant merely she could hear. Elbows set, custodies on shoulders, she flailed her weaponries like a bird in an ageless, monstrously ineffectual attempt to wing. In short, after the colza, Pecola went insane. Pecola & # 8217 ; s hunt for individuality was defined by her everlasting desire to be loved. Her intent in life was to be beautiful and as a consequence of that to be loved. Her household and community made it impossible for her to of all time be sensibly content.
Pecola Breedlove yearned for bluish eyes. At the terminal of the book she believes that she has those bluish eyes. She believes that people treat her good story because they are covetous of her bluish eyes and she has learned to merrily accept that. Pecola yearned for the credence and love of society seen through her eyes. No affair if that credence and love were truly at that place, she thought it was and hence was able to last. & # 8220 ; I Soaphead Church, I have caused a miracle. I gave her the eyes. I gave her the blue, bluish, two bluish eyes & # 8230 ; No 1 else will see her bluish eyes. But she will. And she will populate merrily of all time after & # 8221 ; ( Morrison 182 ) . Pecola found herself merely by traveling insane. Although Pecola is non accepted by society for grounds she does non understand, she puts her exclusion from society into footings she can grok. Society influences her individuality. They mold her into what she becomes by non giving her the counsel and blessing she needs.
31b
