Morrison’s method of telling the horrible climax of the story was interesting. She chose to narrate the rape from Cholly’s perspective, which makes it somewhat less nauseating to the reader than if Pecola or the third person narrator was explaining the event. Because it is shown in a detached way, and from Cholly’s viewpoint, it is much less graphic and horrifying. “Guilt and impotence rose in a bilious duet. What could he do for her-ever? What give her? What say to her?”(161) His emotions, which were clouded at the time by how drunk he was, make for a far less cruel depiction that if Pecola’s emotional state was visited during the event. While the reader of course sympathizes with Pecola, and is disturbed by Cholly’s act, Morrison does not make it too hard for the reader. Morrison was trying to raise awareness about the desolation which young African American girls felt during that time in history, as she states in the afterward: “I focused, therefore on how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take route inside the most delicate member of society-In trying to dramatize the devastation that even casual racial contempt can cause, I chose a unique situation” (210).What I liked was that she brings this point home completely in her novel, but does not go too far in describing the horror of the rape. She reveals more about human suffering, and human experience, in drawing back this aspect, and as Maddie pointed out, we see the root of Cholly’s misguided issues in the flash back.

Elihue Whitcomb

I find it amazing how Tony Morrison manages to add yet another character to the story so close to its end and develop his character so fully in doing so. Elihue Micah Whitcomb is a man who is corrupt in many ways. He plays the part of a false psychic and a man of God, not to mention his "affections" towards little girls. But in a way, his character seems oddly redeemable. The reason being that he was the only person throughout the whole story who looked at Pecola for the first time and instantly felt the need to help this little girl. He admits to himself that she is ugly, but that makes the need to get rid of her problem more urgent. Another cruel twist is added to the story when he makes Pecola give the dog a poisoned piece of meet in order to kill it. But afterward, he promises her that God will reward her with her wish for blue eyes. Also, I find it amazing that this man can feel so justified in everything he does. The letter with God at the end suggests no fear of the higher power; he tells God that he is better than Him because of his willingness to help others who, he feels, God has already abandoned. The books states:

"I,I have caused a miracle. I gave her the eyes. I gave her the blue, blue, two blue eyes. Cobalt blue. A streak of it right out of your own blue heaven. No one else will see her blue eyes. But she will. And she will live happily ever after. I, I have found it meet and right to do. Now you are jealous. You are jealous of me."

Morrison adds another level of depth to the story and forces you to ask yourself what you think is right and wrong in a situation like this.

Pecola's need for love is apparent throughout the novel. However, the other characters refuse to love her because of their own faults, but blame it on Pecola's flaws. The final pages of the novel provide the realization that Pecola served to make other characters feel better by being the flawwed, imperfect, faulted character. The other characters looked down upon Pecola, using her to boost their self esteem. The reason that Pecola was shown as ugly was that she did not feel beautiful. The idea that being white was the only way to be beautiful discouraged Pecola to the point where she pleaded for blue eyes from Soaphead. Pecola's low self esteem and unrealstic idea of beauty hindered her quality of life, but allowed the rest of the characters to feel better about their own lives.

Perceptions

When Pecola’s parents fight, she wishes to be invisible. She simply does not want to be anywhere near any sort of malice. Pecola believes that because she has ugly eyes, she can only see ugly things. As the story progresses, Pecola believes that because her eyes are ugly, people can only see her as ugly and worthless. An excellent example is found on page 48. The general store clerk feels that Pecola is not worthy of his respect or even acknowledgement since not only is she a young girl, but Pecola is a young, ugly, black girl.

“Slowly… he looks at her. Somewhere between retina and object, between vision and view, his eyes draw back, hesitate, and hover. At some fixed point in time and space he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see.”

Pecola wants blue eyes so that she can be pretty and be recognized by the world as an actual human being. She could just have easily wished for lighter skin. Gaining lighter skin is just as impossible, and in those times being white generally means being beautiful. But Pecola not only wanted to be seen differently, but she wanted to see the world differently. Pecola believed that if she had eyes like a white girl, then she would be treated like a white girl and see the world from a white girl’s perspective. She would not have to be subjected to her parent’s abusive behaviors, degraded, or want for pretty materialistic things. In order to gain her new perspective, Pecola must lose her current perspective on the world. At the end of the novel, Pecola does gain a new perspective; however, she loses the essence that is Pecola. By changing her view on life, Pecola loses herself and her connection with reality.

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.

I liked Morrison's use of flashbacks from the lives of Pecola's parents, particularly Cholly. It's particularly interesting because throughout the whole novel up to that point, the reader (or I at least) had viewed Cholly as some awful, odious drunkard who did such inexcusably horrible and sick things, i.e. impregnated his own 11-year-old daughter. Yet, this chapter presents a different image: that of young, insecure, ashamed Cholly who is humiliated and degraded by white police officers while he is having sex for the first time, and rejected by his father, after having embarked on a journey to find him. The first humiliating instance, and then the pitiful anticlimax, change the reader's attitude toward Cholly. For me, it was a mix of pity and compassion, when earlier on in the novel I couldn't imagine feeling anything but disgust for him. I liked this chapter because it gave me a perspective on why Cholly is the way he is. The traumatic event associated with "muscadine and flashlight on his behind" gave him a hatred toward women-- he developed a profound hatred for Darlene because it was easier to hate "the one who had created the situation and bore witness to his failure, his impotence" (151) then the white men, because the latter hatred would destroy him. (This is similar to Claudia's inability to hate white girls-- her hatred was translated into love and adoration) This disgust and hatred toward women, especially those helpless and pitiful, is evident, in a way, when he rapes Pecola. Similarly, the influence of his lonely childhood and lack of stable family, or family at all, is described: "Had he not been alone in the world since he was thirteen, knowing only a dying old woman who felt responsible for him, but whose age, sex, and interests were so remote from his own, he might have felt a stable connection between himself and the children." That is not to say that his actions-- beating his wife, setting the house on fire, raping his daughter, and being a horrible father and husband in general-- are justified by his childhood experiences, but just that it's evident that events and aspects of his life have contributed to his disfunctional, warped conception of family and duty.