Looking At The Bluest Eyes
The Bluest Eyes text shows how whiteness is superior and accepted white beauty standards deform the lives of black women and girls. The Bluest Eyes takes place during the Great Depression. Toni Morrison wanted to show how much damage adopted racism can do to the most vulnerable member of a family or community. In the Bluest Eyes this novel concludes Intra-racial Racism and Internalized Racism. Racism causes people not to be comfortable with whom they are but no matter what you desire you should always love yourself as you are and for whom you are.In this story Pecola Breedlove is the main character, a girl who has been mistreated, beaten, raped and has been called ugly her whole life.
She longed for blue eyes; she thought with her having blue eye somebody would love her.Her parents Cholly and Pauline Breedlove always fought in front of her, which disturbed Pecola. Pauline also believed that white beauty and possessions are the way to happiness. Pecola parents both had difficult lives; Pauline, her mother has a lame foot and has always felt lonely. Cholly, her father, was abandoned by his parents and raised by his great aunt.The Bluest Eyes text shows how African American critism had affected Pecola Breedlove.
Pecola is 11 year old black girl, who was raped by her father twice and was impregnated by him once. As a little girl she endured a lot, she grew up believing that she is ugly and that having blue eyes would make her beautiful. Pecola's father Cholly Breedlove burned down their house, because he was a drunk. In the Bluest Eyes the text "put outside" means you had nowhere else to go, meaning you literally was outside. Around the Great Depression a lot of African Americans were being put outside, some were taken in by boarders, some were left outside.The MacTeers are boarders who take in Pecola and also a man named Henry Washington.
The MacTeers have two little girls Frieda who is ten, Claudia who is 9 and the MacTeers are very protective of their daughters. Clauida and Freida plant a marigold symbolizing if the flower lives the baby will but the flower never blooms and Pecola had a miscarriage. Claudia and Frieda take up Pecola when being taunted by a bunch of boys, because her ugliness and her blackness. A little wealthy black girl named Maureen Pearl moves to town. She befriends Pecola but Claudia and Frieda don't like her that much, because she thinks she is above them.Pecola moves back home and the fighting with her parents still continues.
Pecola's brother Sammy comes home and runs away very often after him and Pauline jump on his father. Pecola lies in the bed like she does not hear anything. Cholly returns home and rapes Pecola again while she is washing dishes. Pauline finds her unconscious on the floor, when Pecola tells her what happened she beats her.Frieda was touched on her breast by Mr.
Henry, who was staying with them. Frieda and Claudia were already curious about having sex but Frieda sexual curiosity was forced upon her. Frieda parents waited for Henry to come home jumped on him and shot at him.
Frieda thought she was ruined; she didn't want to end up like the whores China, Poland and especially Miss Maria. Claudia was curious about if Frieda liked it. The girls went to ask Pecola what to do at Lake Shore Park, where she was with her mother.The Breedlove's life was perfect when they first meet the got married and moved to Lorain, Ohio where there were more jobs.
Pauline and Cholly start arguing about money, that's when Cholly started drinking. Pauline leaves her job because of Cholly, she later found out she was pregnant and they were back happy again. The happiness does not stay there for long the fussing and the fighting is back.Pauline thought moving life would be better, she thought it was going to be easy. She always thought her foot kept her from doing a lot of things, which caused her to be lonely. When she meets Cholly she thought he was the love of her life, but later on in the relationship she realized she was wrong.
Cholly suffers from sexual humiliation, abandonment, and racism. So, later on in the novel it didn't surprise me that Cholly did the unthinkable, raping his own daughter.Pecola has an imaginary friend; she develops this from the rape of Cholly. Pecola has loses her mind behind Cholly act; she now lives in a fantasy world. She also believes that she has blue eyes and walks around waving her arms as if she was flying. Claudia and Frieda feel sorry for pecola, because if the marigolds would have grown Pecola baby would have lived.
Pecola baby was prematurely stillborn. Pauline and Pecola move to the edge of town, away from all the people judging Pecola."All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us" meaning that Pecola's sadness and ugliness made the community feel happy and beautiful.
Through, all Pecola's suffering finally, she got something she longed for blue, but in return she lost her mind. Claudia and Frieda felt like failures to see Pecola like this.To me Pecola had to endure all this hardship to get blue eyes and in return for blue eyes she lost her mind. Racism affects people lives every day, making them wish they are somebody they are not.
We should all love each other for who we are, because everybody is made different.
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