American Literature
Ms. Lawrence
11 February 2013
The Bluest Eye In Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”, Pecola becomes the victim of the society she lives in. Throughout her life she is treated like an outcast by the people she meets. The people of her society make it very clear that she is ugly and worthless. Despite the fact that Pecola Breedlove may not be the prettiest flower in the garden, she is put down by society because they want to make themselves feel better, which causes her to eventually lose her sanity. Society victimizes Pecola and puts her down in order to make themselves feel better. She lives in a black community; however, she has much darker skin than most of the people around her. This makes her an easy victim because she is different. During this time period, black people were oppressed. In the case of Pecola’s community, instead of internalizing their oppression, they turned around and threw it all on Pecola, to make themselves feel better. When Claudia and Frieda were walking home one day, they saw a group of boys circled around Pecola. Claudia narrates, “It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its teeth. They seemed to have taken all of their smoothly cultivated ignorance, their exquisitely learned self-hatred, their elaborately designed hopelessness, and sucked it all up into a fiery cone of scorn that had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds---cooled---and spilled over lips of outrage, consuming whatever was in its path” (Morrison 65). Those boys represent the whole community’s outlook and feelings towards Pecola. Because she is such a weak character, they find it easy to make her the trash where they throw all their problems away. When Claudia says that they dragged all their problems “into a fiery cone of scorn that burned for ages…cooled--- and spilled over…” (Morrison 65), she means that they had internalized their oppression for so long, that they started to believe it. However, when Pecola, a much darker skinned individual, comes along, they use her as a scapegoat and put all the years of self-hatred and hopelessness upon her. This is shown once more when Geraldine yells at Pecola because she thinks she was the one who killed her cat. She says, “Get out…You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (Morrison 92). It is obvious that Geraldine is quite angry in this scene, and because Pecola is such a weak character, she, again, becomes the scapegoat. Junior knows this when he tells his mother that Pecola is the one who killed her cat. Because Geraldine wanted to boost her own self-esteem, she did not hesitate to take her anger out on the weakest person in the room, which is Pecola. By the end of this scene, Pecola believes that it is her fault and feels ashamed. Because society has put her down so much, Pecola internalizes her whole community’s oppression. This eventually leads to her loss of sanity. Pecola believes that she is ugly because society tells her that she is, which makes her feel powerless. She believes she is so ugly that she would do anything to be beautiful, or what society tells her is beautiful. She resorts to asking Soaphead Church for help when she says, “I can’t go to school no more. And I thought maybe you could help me. My eyes. I want them blue” (Morrison 174). Pecola has lost all self-confidence and genuinely thinks she is as ugly as society sees her. At this point, she has hit rock bottom. She does not even want to go out in public because she has developed such a hatred for herself. As readers, we see Pecola struggle her whole life through many tough situations. She does not grow up with any access to support or knowledge, and she has nobody who can give her hope. Towards the end of the novel, she feels so alone that she begins to lose her mind. She talks to her imaginary friend, who is thought to be her old, ugly self. Pecola tells her imaginary friend, “Ever since I got my blue eyes, she look away from me all of the time. Do you suppose she’s jealous too?” (Morrison 195). Her imaginary friend responds, “Could be. They are pretty, you know” (Morrison 195). After her visit to Soaphead Church, Pecola truly believed her eyes were blue, and she felt beautiful. This shows how easily Pecola believes whatever society tells her, and how easily she is influenced by the views of the people around her. Society takes advantage of her vulnerability and victimizes her because they know she will not fight back. Society has the largest influence on Pecola’s life for two reasons. The first is that she has grown up with no one to turn to for support or to tell her what to believe. This causes her to just go with whatever society tells her. In addition to Pecola’s lack of support, she is a very weak character. This comes, in part, by the fact that she has no support system and also because she becomes weaker and weaker every time she is put down by society. In contrast, Claudia has a loving and supportive environment in which she grows up. She is a very strong character, and she does not listen to what society thinks of her. Because Pecola is so influenced by society, she becomes a victim of their oppression. By the end of the novel, she is made to feel powerless against society, and drives herself over the edge as a result of this constant persecution by the people of her community.