From discussions in class and through my own observation from reading the first section of The Bluest Eye, I can gather that the writings of author Toni Morrison are not ones to take lightly. Her novels get to the basis of problems, and are intended to be difficult. Mostly because the issues that she faces are indeed difficult to both have lived, and difficult to comprehend and fully learn about. The Bluest Eye tackles many issues that a young black girl faces in association with her body and the rest of society.
The themes that greatly stuck out to me in the first section of the book, Autumn, are the things that Pecola, the main protagonist, deals with on a daily basis. These ideas of hate in connection to beauty, and ugliness are throughout the entire first section. We travel with her to view both her internal struggles, and her conflicts and issues with the rest of the world…and the rest of the world with her.
The connections between hate, beauty, and ugliness tie in with each other almost eerily. The way in which Morrison writes with a third person view, is almost passive in the way Pecola deals with her surroundings and herself, but also different ideas Pecola has about herself.
Throughout the first section of the book we are exposed to the abuse that Pecola sees within her family. The idea of a place in which people are “supposed” to love each other, is the exact opposite for her. This could cause for her later interactions with the world to be obscured and cause her to misunderstand and accept feelings of hate for feelings of love. The ugliness and hatred that surrounds Pecola causes her to have complexes about herself.
Pecola is described in the book as ugly. She sees herself as ugly, and those around her have given her no opinion otherwise. She is exposed to the idea of beauty around her as being white, blonde haired and blue eyed; none of which she is. She feels that the idea of her ugliness is the reason of the ugliness and hatred around her. Morrison writes in the idea of Pecola “if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different…maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too” (Morrison 46).
The unfortunate circumstances of hatred and ugliness that surround Pecola detriment her sense of the world, as well as her sense of self. She puts upon herself the idea that if she looked different, if she was the idea of beauty that is so broadly advertised and accepted around her, then the terrible world she lives in would be different. She is exposed to blonde haired, blue eyed, white girls in advertising, candy, and the dolls in which she is supposed to cherish, when she herself is not.
These themes are extremely difficult to read, and hard to comprehend, but I feel that it is an essential way of comprehending different perspectives and experiences of the oppressed and misunderstood body. I think the way Toni Morrison writes this book is effective in seeing another perspective of how the human body is depicted.
Pecola was very into the white, blue-eyed, blond haired beauty. For example, her love of the Shirley Temple glass and how she drank 3 quarts of milk by herself because she really loved drinking out of that glass and seeing Shirley's smiling face. This glass, perhaps, may have caused her to feel down on herself because it was the typical idea of beauty. She, unlike Claudia, looked up to Shirley and found her beautiful and put her own looks into the category of ugly.
ReplyDeleteHowever, not everyone found themselves ugly or looked up to this white, blue-eyed, blond haired image.
It almost seems as if Pecola believes that if she can get blue eyes, that is, if she can become beautiful, all the ugliness and horrible conditions she is surrounded by will also vanish.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of Dana's comment that not everyone aspired to be blue-eyed and blond, I'd say that this might have be because Pecola's life, in comparison to other black children, like Claudia for instance, was not as awful as hers. Morrison here might be trying to suggest that just as Pecola could not affect change into her circumstances to make her life better she also could not change her appearance to create a better life. It seems that Pecola, only eleven years old, was doomed to live a "ugly" childhood filled with hatred, pain, suffering, and sorrow.
What's really captivating is reading your blog after I have finished the book (Spoiler alert in case someone hasn't finished): and knowing that Pecola finally gets her blue eyes and she is "beautiful" within those eyes. In "going mad" as Claudia calls it, Pecola sees the world behind those blues eyes: her perception of the world outside of herself is completely diminished and she is finally able to ignore the emotional abuse she has been subjected to and in which she internalized. It is only after Pecola believes she has beautiful eyes (she still has the rest of her "ugly" features) that Cholly leaves and people stop abusing her and picking on her. Thought it's obviously a sad ending (and indeed a really difficult book to read in general) it's perhaps comforting (I haven't quite yet figured out if I think it is or not) to think that Pecola finally has everything she ever wanted. I would say I also feel somewhat vindicated for Pecola in the fact that because she has been driven mad, people (like Claudia who comments on this) finally have to face the consequences of their abuses. However, I'm not so sure that people at the end of the book (with the exception of Claudia, who seems to feel somewhat guilty) really see that it was their pressures upon Pecola, and her inability to process the hatred directed towards her, that took such a large toll on her. It seems to me that Pecola's ability to believe in her blue eyes and beauty are what serve to show the people around her their hatred and prejudices as their own ugliness.
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