The Bluest Eye Character Analysis

The protagonist of The Bluest Eye is a young African American girl named Pecola Breedlove. She is introduced by Claudia, a young African-American girl with who Pecola builds a friendship, as a “girl who had no place to go” (16). Pecola struggles to accept her appearance and believes that the source of all the problems she encounters is her dark skin tone. In the book, Pecola chooses to hide “behind [her ugliness]” and be “concealed, veiled, eclipsed-peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask” (39). She hid behind a mask in order to protect herself from the insults and discrimination she received from society. In the contrary, her family used their ugliness to their favor. Eventually,

Out of pity Soaphead Church lies to her telling her that she will have her wish. When it is time to have her baby, Pecola’s baby ends up dying causing her insanity, which is her belief that she has blue eyes. Pecola is the victim of almost everyone in the book. Her classmates bully her because of her dark skin color, her mother beats her up, and she is subject to Maureen’s nasty comments and Junior’s torments. Maureen and Junior hold power over Pecola. Maureen is a half-white girl which allows her to insult Pecola, who is viewed as lesser than Maureen. Junior is also seen as above Pecola since he was brought up by a family who was richer than Pecola 's. His economic status allows him to humiliate and torment Pecola. Pecola is a credible character since people at times can become the victim of discrimination and abuse by those around them and not try to defend

The MacTeer home took Pecola in because of her family 's violence. However, she was there temporarily because the county was only waiting “until the family was reunited” (16), also Cholly had tried to burn the house down, and then she would be placed back in her home. There, Pecola got to experience what a normal family was like since her home is filled with violence and hatred. The MacTeer home illustrated motherly love and family union, which Pecola didn’t have. Mrs. MacTeer expressed real concern and love for her daughters. When Pecola got her period, contrary to how Pauline would react, Mrs. MacTeer helped Pecola and had a calm and reassuring attitude. The Breedlove home was extremely different. Morrison states, “The only living thing in the Breedloves’ house was the coal stove...its fire being ‘out,’ ‘banked,’ or ‘up’...in spite that the family fed it and knew all the details of its regimen...The fire seemed to live, go down, or die according to its own schema. In the morning, however, it always saw fit to die” (37). The fire represents the hatred and violence in the Breedlove family. Cholly and Pauline’s fights will make the fire go up as it represented the violence and hatred for each other. At the morning the fire will always die because Cholly and Pauline were more calm and less interested in fighting with each other. The Breedlove home represented the source of all of Pecola’s