The Bluest Eye
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison tells the story of a black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who wishes for her eyes to turn blue so that she can look like all the light-skinned, blond and blue-eyed girls that are so beautiful. In the novel Morrison explores the ideas of where Pecola gets this notion of being ugly, and secondly, what the influences are of thinking this way. One question that is raised throughout the novel is whether Pecola is responsible for her victimization. To begin with, there are many reasons, that Morrison shows us, as to why Pecola thinks she is so ugly. From the moment she is born her mother tells her how ugly she is. Instead of comforting her child and telling her that she is beautiful the way she is, right from the start she incessantly tells her that she is ugly. She shows her no warmth or love as a mother should do and the only thing she presents her with is negativity. The fact that Pecola doesn't even refer to her as "mother" and instead calls her "Mrs. Breedlove" shows the distance between the two. Then, there is also the same case with her father, Cholly. He is basically drunk all the time and doesn't pay any attention to her or give her the father figure that she needs. At
Maybe she feels better about herself and the way she looks and that is why she does not feel like she needs to have blue eyes and blond hair. She looks around her and sees other people, and that shows her everything that she is missing. In a way, she cannot be responsible for thinking that she is ugly if it is the only thing people tell her, especially her own family. This probably has the most severe result because her parents are the first people she saw when coming into the world and are the most influential people in her childhood. If that is all she encounters, then what else is she supposed to think? It seems very rare for a young girl to come up with a completely different idea that what she has been exposed to all her life. When the girls are talking about Shirley Temple, she is the only one to disagree and say that she hates Shirley and doesn't join them in their conversation about how much they adore her. Pecola idolizes her and wants to look like her, and even further, wants to be her. Therefore, when all she gets from them is negative remarks and the idea that she is ugly and not wanted, it sticks with her and has the worst effect on the way she thinks later on in her life. Culture has a radical effect on the way people think about beauty, and that includes Pecola because that is what others consider to be beautiful. the end of the novel is the one time he gives her some attention, yet in a very horrible way, when he rapes her. Perhaps this is an attempt to show his love for her, yet it is a horrible and disgusting way to do so. After seeing all the roots of Pecola's sense of ugliness, one important question to ask is whether or not she is responsible for her victimization. It just doesn't make sense to say that with all her background and everything that she experiences day in and day out that she is responsible for thinking the way that she does. In talking about this, it leads to another explanation as to where Pecola derives this idea of ugliness. On the other hand, there is also another character in the novel, Claudia, who grows up in the same culture, yet thinks differently about beauty.
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