Pecola’s Descent: The Devastating Effects of Racism and Abuse in Society
Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye Illustrates how a lack of emotional sustenace from her family, sexual abuse, and societal racism all led to Pecola’s descent into hysteria. Toni Morrison explored this through the character Pecola Breedlove. Pecola Breedlove is a young black girl growing up in the 1940’s when society was full of racism and hate. The Bluest Eye tells a compelling story of how trauma affects a young girl through precise imagery and many different characters and perspectives.
Pecola's mother, Polly breedlove, is very negligent of Pecola and never gives her a mothers love and support. She even favors the little white girl who takes care of her own
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In school, Pecola is ignored by her teachers and taunted by her peers, everyone sees her as ugly. For this reason, when a young boy called her attention on the playground and invited her into his home, she went. However, she would soon find out that she was too trusting as he would then trap her in different parts of the house and murder the family cat then frame Pecola. His mother, a privileged black woman, walks in to see her cat dead and her son blaming the girl in her living room,which then leads her to demand Pecola to, “Get out. You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house,” (Morrison 92). Characters in this novel who have lighter complexions are seen as superior in this time and all other skin tones have the burden of falling under them. Thus, having someone her own skin tone put her lower than they already were was extremely destructive to her self image. Numerous times in her life, Pecola has been burdened by the weight of society with racism and standards that made her feel subordinate and …show more content…
At an early age, Pecola was home doing dishes and her father Cholly came home drunk. The novel goes into extensive imagery about the act and then later it is revealed that she is found to be pregnant. Such disturbing news spreads quickly in town, however there is very little empathy for Pecola. Most are appalled at the value of the Breedlove family and some even go as far to comment on how ugly her child will be. Yet, Pecola miscarried and her mental state falls rapidly into delusion. Not only does she have to deal with the trauma of surviving her fathers sexual assault, but once again the society around her is exiling her for things she cannot