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The Character Of Cholly In The Bluest Eye

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Evil Acts: An essay about the character Cholly from the novel “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. It is very easy for someone to say that you can choose who you want to be. Even though that might be the case for some, it is not always that simple. In this essay I will argue that the antagonist Cholly is a product of his surroundings and experiences. I will point to certain events in his life that might have caused him to believe he had the right to commit the altogether evil act of raping his own daughter. There is no escaping that rape is unimaginably evil, the most degrading and horrible thing a person can do and more so to their own child. However, it is hard to accept that some people are simply born evil. The more likely reason is that people are a mirror image of the society they live in. The experiences they have accumulated along the way, and the people who raised them. In this essay I will argue that Cholly is no exception. …show more content…

And Cholly grew up knowing both of those terms to well. These things led up to Cholly´s realization, which was that he had no rules. He could do whatever he wanted. If he himself was completely unwanted, if no one found his love interesting or could not accept him, there was no reason for caring. Why conform to all of these rules, why live a life of oppression, kneeling down to please the white man, his boss or his wife? He became an outlaw, an animal. He killed and raped and drank. Submitted to every impulse and to all of his desires. In the book we learn the disturbing string of emotions that goes thru him as he is about to rape his daughter. He wonders what he could ever do for her, how he could ever please her or what he could teach her about the world. That is also something that links back to his childhood. He seems to understand what characteristics he is lacking, and what he cannot provide his daughter with. He seems to have this conflict going on inside of him, “He wanted to brake her neck, but tenderly”.

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