Pecola's Obsession with Blue Eyes

Pecola's obsession with blue eyes is evident from the start of the novel. When she first arrives at MacTeer's house, they notice that she will do absolutely anything to drink out of this Shirley Temple cup, wishing to somehow gain Shirley Temple's beauty by drinking out of that cup. Claudia, Pecola's foil, on the other hand, does not understand the fascination with light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes and hates Shirley Temple. Throughout the novel Pecola's own desire to have blue eyes becomes increasingly obvious when the Breedlove family is introduced. When Pauline and Sammy attack Cholly, Pecola wishes to disappear and squeezes her eyes shut, slowly feeling her body disappearing. Unfortunately for her, she does not disappear, "Almost done, almost. Only her tight, tight eyes were left. They were always left" (45). To her, the fact that she can never get her eyes to disappear is a complete disappointment, especially since she does not see the point in disappearing the rest of her body, but not her eyes because "they were everything" (45). She feels that if she has blue eyes her life will completely change and that everytone will see her in a different light.

Much, much later in the story she still wishes to have blue eyes, especially after Cholly has raped her, so she goes to Soaphead Church to have him grant her wish. Soaphead tells her that she will have blue eyes if she feeds rotten meat to his dog and the dog reacts to it. The dog dies after consuming the meat and Soaphead prays that Pecola, while he knows will not actually get blue eyes, will believe that she has them. Pecola does truly believe that she has blue eyes, and her obsession with them blinds her from seeing the truth. She thinks that everyone will not look her in the eyes because her eyes are more blue than theirs, but in reality, they cannot look at her because she was raped by her own father. She steadfastly believes and says, "Just because I got blue eyes, bluer than theirs, they're prejudiced" (197). She also looks to her new friend to reassure her that her eyes are "bluer" than everyone else's.

What I found extremely interesting about the fact that Pecola eventually gets "blue eyes" is that with these eyes she becomes blind and almost ignorant to the people around her, especially their reactions to her. She believes that everyone is shunning her, not talking to her, not making eye contact with her, and not complimenting her eyes, because they are jealous of her blue eyes, that are more blue than everyone else's. What I found interesting about it was the irony of the situation. Many blind people have blue eyes, and Pecola, when she gets blue eyes, becomes blind. While she is not literally blind, she is blind to everything I have already mentioned, as well as to the fact that she does not actually have blue eyes, and that her life is not actually that much improved with them.