In today’s society, we have fallen under the curse that allows us to project our own problems and insecurities onto those who aren’t strong enough to have faith in themselves. We tend to use these people to cleanse ourselves from our own precarious self-images. The life of Pecola Breedlove is an example of this. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, twelve-year-old Pecola’s weakness reflects her maltreatment in society. This is noticeable by exposing the societal standards of beauty,and how they detrimentally affected Pecola.
One example of Pecola’s frailty is through the societal standards of beauty stating that beauty is determined by caucasian traits. This is apparent in the conversation between Frieda and Pecola about “ how cu-ute Shirley Temple was.” With Shirley Temple being a girl that has these
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. Claudia allows the readers to realize that Pecola was actually strong in the sense of being the backbone to the community’s self confidence. Ultimately,it is evidence because it proves she couldn’t believe that she was worthy of any respect from others. Claudia’s narration “ All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us.” makes this visible because it gives the reader an overview of how cruelly society actually treated Pecola. They used her weakness to strengthen themselves. They made her feel even uglier than she was to make themselves feel more beautiful. Moreover, Claudia's narration allows the reader to comprehend that Pecola was very beautiful and just wasn’t strong enough to believe she was. In light of this, Pecola’s weakness is enhanced because Claudia is able to see through the paradigm of this standard of beauty and open the reader’s eyes past this standard. It brings them to the realization that if Pecola had the same strength to see past societies standards she would also be considered as