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Book Defense: The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

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Book Defense: The Bluest Eye “Quiet as it is kept there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941. We thought, at the time, that it was because Pecola was having her father’s baby that the marigolds did not grow” (Morrison 3). This is the story of Pecola Breedlove, who each night prayed for blue eyes. This miracle would make her family different and people would look at her differently after all; they were ugly people (Morrison 39) and only a prayer would help them. Throughout the novel The Bluest Eye author Toni Morrison tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who struggles with abuse from her family and the community in which she lives in. She is blamed for her own rape and pregnancy and want her kicked out of the school that she attends because they do not want the other students to learn about her pregnancy, or for them to know about rape or incest as that is how Pecola became pregnant by her father, Cholly Breedlove. …show more content…

Pecola is now seen searching the garbage and walking up and down, up and down her head jerking to the beat of a drum so distant that she could only hear (Morrison 204). Her baby came too soon and died and now Pecola had grown to convince herself that she had blue eyes and that is the reason no one talks to her, because they are jealous of her blue eyes. Even then after she convinces herself that she has blue eyes, she is heartbroken to even think that someone out there has bluer eyes than she

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Claudia, as narrator a final time, describes the recent phenomenon of Pecola 's insanity and suggests that Cholly (who has since died) may have shown Pecola the only love he could by raping her. Claudia lastly laments on her belief that the whole community, herself included, have used Pecola as a sort of scapegoat to make themselves feel prettier and happier.

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She miscarries and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Pecola retreats into a fantasy world where she is a bird and can fly away from all the pain she has endured, and she is unable to escape the delusion. Another little girl named Claudia blames herself and her sister’s fear of interacting with Pecola as the reason for Pecola’s mental break, but it wasn’t them; it was the adults that surrounded

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revealing to the reader Cholly’s internal conflict. Unknowing how to show love to Pecola, Cholly rapes her, assuming that is the way a father is affectionate

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Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes place in Ohio in the 1940s. The novel is written from the perspective of African Americans and how they view themselves. Focusing on identity, Morrison uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, dictation, and symbolism to help stress her point of view on identity. In the novel the author argues that society influences an individual 's perception on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove.

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In the book The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl, prays every day for beauty. Breedlove is taunted by many people due

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A hidden view of Mrs. Breedlove calling her baby ugly reflects right back to her. Pecola is an image of her mother and when she sees the ugly baby it further confirms all of Mrs. Breedlove’s hatred. She turns to other people’s lives to try and get over herself. She begins to care more about other families instead of her own. She treats her own

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281 Words | 2 Pages

The Bluest Eye is a story about a girl named Pecola and her life story in a society where she is at the bottom of a scale. The story explains how she got impregnated by her father called the seed. Also how her baby never grew and ended up dying and also what she went through as a child never being able to reach the beauty standards of society. The story exceeds certain points of views from Pecola 's friends, family, and her own. Pecola reaches a certain point in society where she wants to be seen as beautiful and have a better life than she has, so she wishes she could have blue eyes so she can be beautiful.

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She grew up with parents that fought often and a protestant white community that was not accepting of her. For these reasons and others Pecola develops an inferiority complex and longs to have blue eyes and white skin to be beautiful and accepted like the other girls. For indefinite reasons Pecola’s drunk

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Pecola and her mother, Pauline, see themselves as ugly because they hold themselves to beauty standards in which light-skinned people are the ideal. Pecola and her mother have a brutal home life due to the drunken violence of Cholly Breedlove, and the constant pressure of beauty standards only adds to their misfortune. Morrison explains this pressure by asserting that “[i]t was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they

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Pecola the protagonist of the novel longs for the bluest eyes ultimately ends up her life with mental issues. Born as a black girl she admires white beauty and blue eyes which is rejected plainly for the blacks. It is very hard for the blacks to lead their life as a children as well as an adult. As a child blacks face many humiliations and hatred. It is even difficult and different in the case of black girls where the girls are raped and treated very badly.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Pecola is challenged by the idea that her mother prefers her work life, that they have an outdated house, and that she does not look like the Shirley Temple doll with blue eyes. Morrison went into great detail when describing the elegance and beauty that was present in the Fisher home, to demonstrate that those who do not fit into the ideal American life often feel shame. The Breedlove family lived a very simple life, and in no way did they fit into what society believed to be correct. Mrs. Breedlove was the only member of the family that truly understood what the American Dream looked like. The work that she did for the Fishers lead her to envy the American Dream.

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All these ill treatment towards Pecola shows the abuse people receive in society. The theme of abuse is crucial because it can portray levels

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It is the mother’s vulnerability to the racial standards of beauty that is transmitted to the daughter and ultimately leads to her victimization. In fact, the reason of Pauline’s vulnerability to the racially prejudiced notions of beauty lies in her relationship with her own mother. The relationship between Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, and her mother, Pauline Breedlove, is ironically characterized by lack of love, and emotional attachment, indifference, frustration and cruelty. Set in a small town in Ohio, during the Depression, The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven year old Pecola Breedlove, who, victimized by the racist society, yearns for blue eyes, which, she believes, will make her worthy of love, happiness and acceptance in the

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Morrison 's first novel, The Bluest Eye, examines the tragic effects of imposing white, middle-class American ideals of beauty on the developing female identity of a young African American girl during the early 1940s. Inspired by a conversation Morrison once had with an elementary school classmate who wished for blue eyes, the novel poignantly shows the psychological devastation of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who searches for love and acceptance in a world that denies and devalues people of her own race. As her mental state slowly unravels, Pecola hopelessly longs to possess the conventional American standards of feminine beauty—namely, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes—as presented to her by the popular icons and traditions of white culture. Written as a fragmented narrative from multiple perspectives and with significant typographical deviations, The Bluest Eye juxtaposes passages from the Dick-and-Jane grammar school primer with memories and stories of Pecola 's life alternately told in retrospect by one of Pecola 's now-grown childhood friends and by an omniscient narrator. Published in the midst of the Black Arts movement that flourished during the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Bluest Eye has attracted

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845 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout her life she encountered difficult obstacles due to her race and she made parallels to it in her novels. Morrison had many themes and strands based on racism, that contributed to her success and elevated her status to an influential African American writer. One major theme Morrison uses consistently across her books is how the past events of characters affect their daily life and consciousness. In The Bluest Eye, the main protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, has parents whose present life was the way it was

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