In Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel “The Bluest Eye,” many theme, motifs and symbols are prevalent throughout. However, sex seems to the most prevalent and it is evident the effect it has had on many characters, most significantly Cholly Breedlove. Sex in The Bluest Eye is awkward, humiliating, shameful, violent, and illegal – sometimes all at once. Toni Morrison examines the effects of sex on people in her novel through the rape of Pecola by her father, Cholly. The incestuous rape is hard to comprehend, especially to the Judeo-Christian reader. Is the rape a product of Cholly’s past? Is it his disgust and hatred for women? The deeper meaning behind the sexual desires in Cholly’s life can be found in his upbringing, his struggle with expressing his affection for others and his …show more content…
Since Cholly was abandoned by both of his parents at birth, he did not grow up in an environment that caters to a successful upbringing. His father left town when he found out he impregnated Cholly’s mother, who then abandoned him in the trash just a few days after his birth. Cholly was left in the care of his Aunt Jimmy, an elderly lady. Although Aunt Jimmy really cared for him, he had a tough time connecting with her and accepting her has a real parent. He even things as a child that “when she made him sleep with her for warmth in winter and he could see her old, wrinkled breasts sagging in her nightgown—then he wondered whether it would have been just as well to have died there” in the trash (Morrison 133). If Cholly had seriously seen her as a legitimate parent, he would have enjoyed the experience, as sharing a bed with a parent tends to be a fond childhood memory for most children. Since Aunt Jimmy raised Cholly since birth, it would be expected he would view her as his parent, if not his “mother;” however, his disgust for her ways (Morrison 132-133) proves