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.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is about an eleven year old girl, Pecola,

who is abused by almost everyone in her life. Every day she encounters

racism, not just from the white people, but also from the African American

people. In her eyes, her skin is too dark, and the color of her skin

makes her inferior to everyone else. The color of her skin makes her

think that she is ugly. She feels that she can overcome this if she can

get blue eyes. Pecola thinks that if she can be like the blue eyed Shirley

Temple, everyone will love her. Pecola wishes to have blue eyes because

she feels they will make her loved and accepted by the people in her

life.



Pecola is abused almost by everyone in her life. One day, she goes to

Geraldine's house. Geraldine is a middle-class African American woman.

Junior, Geraldine's son, harasses Pecola by throwing his cat around and

eventually kills it. When Geraldine walks in, she says, "Get out. You

nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house"(93). Geraldine thinks

that her son does not kill the cat. She trust him more than Pecola. Pecola

thinks that Geraldine called her "nasty" because of her appearance,

dark skin. Also, calling an eleven year old girl a "bitch" is like killing

committee a crime. A little girl does not really know what that word

means, but she know it's horrible. Being called a "black beach", by

an African American person hurts even more than being called by a white

person because they are the same race. They go through the same types

of things because of their skin color. They are suppose to support each

other. This makes Pecola feel more ashamed of herself and want to change

her appearance to be accepted and trusted by Geraldine's .



Her family treated her the same way. Pecola's dad raped her. Mrs. Breedlove,

her mother, did not pay attention to her. One day, Pecola decides to

visit her mom at work. Mrs. Breedlove was a nanny for this white girl.

Pecola accidentally knocks over a blueberry pie. Mrs. Breedlove says,

" Crazy fool... my floor, mess... look what you... work...get on out. Hush, baby,

hush. Come her. Oh, lord, look at your dress. Don't cry no more"(109).

After Pecola drops the pie, she burns her hands. Geraldine does not care

about her daughters hands. She cares about the floor that she will have

to clean. But, she hears this little white girl with blue eye and blonde

hair cry, so she gets upset. The most important thing for a little girl

is to feel like her mom loves and cares about her. Pecola thinks that

her mom does not love her because she does not have blonde hair and blue

eye.



Pecola is treated the same way in school by not only white kids her age,

but by African American kids, as well. She is always made fun of and

teased about her appearance. The narrator says, "she also knew that when

one of the girls at school wanted to be particularly insulting to a boy,

or wanted to get immediate response from a boy, she could say 'Bobby

loves Pecola Breedlove'. It has occurred to Pecola some time ago that

if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights-if

those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she would

be different. If she looked beautiful maybe Cholly would be different,

and Mrs. Breedlove too"(46). This quote sums up what Pecola has been

going through. She is constantly used as an insult to people. Which is

horrible because Pecola must feel like she is worse than everyone else.

Also, she is talking about how she thinks that if her eyes were different

her life would be different too. She thinks that Cholly and her mother

would treat her differently. This is very unfair because Pecola's parents

are not supposed to treat her by according to her appearance.



Pecola is constantly abused by everyone in her life. Growing up in a

society that values blue eyes and blonde hair, she thinks that she is

mistreated and abused by everyone because she does not have those things.

Growing up, she is always called bad things like, "nasty black bitch".

Her mom does not pay at much attention to her. She cares more about the

little with white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Girls use her

name when they want to insult boys. Pecola wishes to have blue eyes because

she feels they will make her loved and accepted by the people in her

life. Everyone is told not to judge people by their appearance, but I

think Pecola is abused and mistreated because of her appearance. Everyone

in her life mistreating her, makes her believe that it was her fault.

That is why she thinks that if she will have blue eyes this will all

change.

Racism in The Bluest Eye

Morrison's Message

I agree with Chickie's comments about Claudia's new perspectives at the end of the novel. She sees how it was not just Pecola or even Pecola's immediate family who destroyed her; the entire community was to blame. I see the final pages of the novel as a challenge to readers presented by the author. Morrison encourages people to rise above the racism and discrimination that are inherent to society because, as the novel illustrates, it destroys so many young souls. In the afterword, Morrison discusses how The Bluest Eye was inspired by the story of a girl she knew in her childhood. A little girls she went to elementary school with commented to her that she wished she had blue eyes. Later in her life, Morrison saw this girl's reasons for wanting them: "Implicit in her desire was racial self-loathing. And twenty years later I was still wondering about how one learns that" (Morrison 210). She was haunted by the girl she know in grade school and wrote the novel to show how significantly the unconscious prejudices of society can impact the lives of those who are hurt by it. Pecola's story is a cry to society to nurture all of its youth rather than just those who are "pretty."

One quote on page 46 of "The Bluest Eye" particularly sparked my curiosity: "It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held pictures, and knew the sights-- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different." To me, this once again reinforces and emphasizes the state of her mind as a young child. While Mrs. Breedlove and Cholly fight violently and predictably, Pecola is stuck trying to find a way to endure the pain. Somehow, she believes that if she herself had blue eyes, she wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Those girls with pretty eyes don't suffer; they lead completely blissful lives in their own perfect world. Essentially, Toni Morrison emphasizes that Pecola isn't beautiful, only because she herself doesn't believe she is beautiful. Beauty comes from within.

Claudia's New Perspective

In the last few pages, Claudia is caught in her own consciousness. She feels confused and unsure of her actions. As she sees Pecola running around seeming to be unstable, she is given a chance to step back and observe herself and the others of the town. By this she notices that Pecola is made out to be the laugh of the town, a mockery of sorts. Everyone in town looks to compare themselves to Pecola especially because it makes them feel more beautiful. Before she even realizes that she is doing it, Claudia too compares herself to Pecola purely to boast her self-esteem. In observing Pecola, Claudia learns about herself as well as the society in which she lives. To them as well as Claudia, Pecola is a tool; she is a means to an end and the end is feeling better about whom they are and their appearance. Through this realization Claudia finds a new kind of love; a new love that goes beyond physical appearance and farther than skin deep. Love is what you make it to be, it is never fully understood or capable of being controlled. However, Claudia has a choice in how she shows and sees love as well as what kind of love she wants in her life. "Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe” (Morrison 206). Claudia realizes Pecola's baby did not nice because the flowers she planted weren’t rooted firmly enough, but farther the ground in which they were nurtured was not fertile enough. Pecola and her baby were affected by the love they were surrounded by. Just like the town did not supply the support it should have to Pecola and her baby, the flower was never given a chance to grow because it was denied what it needed to thrive.

Pecola's Best Friend

In the last chapter of The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, Pecola holds a conversation with her imaginary friend. At this point in time, Pecola has completely lost her mind and can no longer function in society. She does not interact with other people as the horrors of her past have taken over her life. Pecola invents her imaginary friend to fulfill several purposes: to be her companion, to comfort her, and to be completely subjective to Pecola’s will. As Pecola has lost her ability to connect with the outside world, she conjures her imaginary friend to prevent loneliness. Pecola tells her friend, “You are my very best friend. Why didn’t I know you before?” (Morrison 196). Her imaginary friend replies with “You didn’t need me before…I mean…you were so unhappy before. I guess you didn’t notice me before” (Morrison 196). The imaginary friend comes from the sanest part of Pecola’s mind and almost acts as Pecola’s voice of sanity. It appears as if the imaginary friend is aware that Pecola is insane but tries to conceal this fact from the girl. More evidence of this thought is when the imaginary friend states, “Oh God. You are crazy” (Morrison 194), and when Pecola objects, takes back what she said with, “I didn’t mean it that way” (Morrison 194). The imaginary friend also brings up Pecola’s rape experience in conversation multiple times. The conscious Pecola tries to silence her imaginary friend whenever this occurs, which indicates that Pecola perhaps wishes to discuss her experience subconsciously but is too horrified to actually speak about it. Pecola’s imaginary friend acts as Pecola’s sanity: fleeting and invisible to the outside world.