Bluest Eye
"Dandelions. Why do people call them weeds? I think they're pretty. Nobody loves the head of a dandelion" (Morrison 35). "They are ugly. They are weeds" (Morrison 38). Pecola, the main character from the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, compares herself to the dandelions: ugly and unwanted. Pecola is raised with no sense of self-esteem or self-value. She is a black girl with nappy hair and dark eyes. She yearns for blue eyes, the mark of beauty in the United States during the 1940s. She lives a life of tumult and ugliness. Pecola portrays happier versions of her life through the imaginary character, Jane. Pecola is a very static character who changes very little throughout the book.
"Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty" (Morrison 24). The Breedloves live in a shack, a shanty, "a box of peeling gray" (Morrison 25). The house is very boring and doesn't show any signs of a stable, tightly knit family unit. The house contains no cherishable memories, no lost objects, and no life. This is the dark, loveless home that Pecola grows up in. This is the home that helps to make Pecola feel so worthless, so ugly.
"Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the green and white house. They are very happy" (Morrison 29). Pecola has a brother named Sammy. She has a crippled mother whom she must call Mrs. Breedlove and a father named Cholly. Mrs. Breedlove became crippled when she stepped on a rusty nail. When she is younger, she feels a sense of separateness from her own family which probably affects the way she raises her own children. Cholly is abandoned by his mother when he is four days old. He never knows his father. His aunt raises him until she dies when Cholly is fourteen years old. Cholly has never really been around young children. Cholly has no idea that children are supposed to be nurtured and taught about the beautiful characteristics in everyone that make them unique. Pecola's parents never have
"Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty" (Morrison 24). The Breedloves live in a shack, a shanty, "a box of peeling gray" (Morrison 25). The house is very boring and doesn't show any signs of a stable, tightly knit family unit. The house contains no cherishable memories, no lost objects, and no life. This is the dark, loveless home that Pecola grows up in. This is the home that helps to make Pecola feel so worthless, so ugly.
"Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the green and white house. They are very happy" (Morrison 29). Pecola has a brother named Sammy. She has a crippled mother whom she must call Mrs. Breedlove and a father named Cholly. Mrs. Breedlove became crippled when she stepped on a rusty nail. When she is younger, she feels a sense of separateness from her own family which probably affects the way she raises her own children. Cholly is abandoned by his mother when he is four days old. He never knows his father. His aunt raises him until she dies when Cholly is fourteen years old. Cholly has never really been around young children. Cholly has no idea that children are supposed to be nurtured and taught about the beautiful characteristics in everyone that make them unique. Pecola's parents never have