Claudia

Something that immediately struck me as I re-read the first few pages of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison was Claudia's amazing level of awareness of the world around her. She uses this awareness to quickly form her own beliefs and she adheres to them strongly. One such belief is that to those older than her and her sister, she is nothing more than a child who makes mistakes and a burden. Contrary to what these adults might think, Claudia is not such a simple child. She happens to be an intelligent, though at times naive person who has her own unique opinions. For example, at only nine years old she has a very strong opposition to the ideals that others place in the beautiful dolls she absolutely despises. As she states in the story, "I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to the find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me... all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl-child treasured" (Morrison 20). Claudia is observant, and even though she has much to understand about the world, she has a certain wisdom about her that makes her quite an interesting character.