The Bluest Eye draws attention to a very serious problem in our society which is people having excuses to stay in poverty. Many of the problems that Toni Morrison focuses on are more existent now than ever. Millions of children are born into poverty every year. Many kids drop out of school because they need to create family income. Perhaps the greatest similarity between The Bluest Eye and the world today is the impact that society can have on people's self-esteem. Someone who read the book 30 years ago would have a better appreciation if they read it today.
             Toni Morrison shows that poor people can be lazy because they know that they are not expected to succeed. At the very beginning of a chapter entirely about Mrs. Breedlove, the narrator says, "The easiest thing to do would be to build a case out of her foot. That is what she herself did." This explains a lot about Mrs. Breedlove's personality and allows for speculation of how her life will end up. She lives in poverty just like millions of other black women. However, instead of trying to improve her life, she does the easy thing and uses her abnormal foot to hold her back. Pecola is similar to her mother in this way. While Mrs. Breedlove thinks that a flat foot is her reason for failing, Pecola has the idea that blue eyes would make her beautiful and successful.
             A person's chance of succeeding has a lot to do with their parents' success in life. Pecola and her brother Sammy do not have the same opportunities as Frieda and Claudia. Everyone in town looks at Cholly as the drunken fool who burned his house down. The author explains the relationship between Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove early on in the novel. "If Cholly had stopped drinking, she would have never forgiven Jesus. She needed Cholly's sins desperately." Mrs. Breedlove stays with Cholly because he can serve as the center of her frustration and the reaso...