The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison: Chapter Analysis

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is about a young black girl named Pecola Breedlove. During the Great Depression in 1941, Lorain, Ohio, Pecola’s family life is violent and lacking in structure, love and support. Throughout her story, you hear the voices of many black individuals and how they battle internalized racism. They are always in search of beauty because the world around them finds white or light brown skin and blue eyes beautiful. Blackness is the symbol for ugliness, powerlessness and nastiness. It is also something to be feared and avoided. They make various attempts to rid themselves of their blackness in order to be and feel accepted. Whiteness is the symbol of purity, beauty and cleanliness. This is what Pecola and some of the
black individuals in this book are so desperately trying to achieve.
The book opens with two prolongs.
The first prolong is a Dick and Jane narrative to paint the picture of a happy and innocent upper class white family. At the end of the narrative the words begin to run into each other, symbolizing that this life is a fairy tale and that this perfect white world is not realistic. The second prolong is a brief and suspenseful summary of Pecola’s life. The prolong shows the violence, rape of racism and ultimately the real world. Chapters are broken into seasons to demonstrate the natural cycle of racism and the pain of each character’s experience. Within each chapter as well, there is an omniscient voice who is an all knowing narrator and there is the child and adult point of view of Pecola, Claudia, Cholly, Pauline and other characters to better understand the major conflict of the book because there are always two sides to a
story.
The heart of this book is focused around the main character, Pecola Breedlove. She is an innocent, gentle and passive young black girl trying to find love. Until, she witnesses her parent’s brutal fights and gets raped by her father. As a victim of incest, violence and racism all she wants is to disappear but she realizes she cannot. She then focuses on finding and attaining blue eyes because she believes with these eyes it will change how people see her and what she can see. She thus began to drink lots of milk out of a Shirley Temple cup to try and white wash herself. She thought by doing this it would make her beautiful like the American actress Shirley Temple and accepted by white people. This quest for blue eyes only makes her blind to the truth, that she is beautiful but her self-hatred and belief that she is ugly clouds her mind. Pecola’s soul dies along this quest and the black community uses her as a scapegoat to feel more beautiful. She is also a reminder to the blacks in the community that she is the ugliness they are trying to avoid.
The voice of Toni Morrison is told through the point of view of Claudia Macteer.
Claudia is the opposite of Pecola, instead of accepting what happens or what others do to her she stands up for herself and finds her own answers. She has a loving and stable family. Unlike Pecola, Claudia has not experienced self-hatred and her vision stays clear through all the racist remarks and violence seen and encountered. She is the voice of wisdom and truth in the black community. Claudia is a strong believer in funkiness which is the passion, soulfulness and human emotions that black people have. She never once gives in to wanting to be white, instead she wants to understand what makes white people more beautiful than her. When Claudia is given a white doll, she tears it apart trying to understand what is so special about the white doll. In the end, she finds that the white doll is hollow inside symbolizing that white people have no emotion or funkiness. She learns that the quest for blue eyes and trying to mimic white idols is a false hope and that it will not make you
beautiful.
Overall, black girls and black people should break from internalized racism. Believe and accept the beauty of your own skin and do not try to be someone you are not. Also, do not settle for less, strive to be more. “But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6: 27-28) Trust in God and your pain and wishes will be answered and cured.