The Bluest Eye Research Paper
Misdirection of Anger "Anger is better [than shame]. There is a sense of
being in anger. A reality of presence. An awareness of worth."(50) This is how
many of the blacks in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye felt. They faked love when
they felt powerless to hate, and destroyed what love they did have with anger.
The Bluest Eye shows the way that the blacks were compelled to place their
anger on their own families and on their own blackness instead of on the white
people who were the cause of their misery. In this manner, they kept their anger
circulating among themselves, in effect oppressing themselves, at the same time
they were being oppressed by the white people. Pecola Breedlove was a young
black girl, growing up in …show more content…
When Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove, was caught as
a teenager in a field with Darlene by two white men, "never did he once consider
directing his hatred toward the hunters"(150), rather her directed his hatred
towards the girl because hating the white men would "consume" him. He was
powerless against the white men and was unable to protect Darlene from them
as well. This caused his to hate her for being in the situation with him and for
realizing how powerless her really was. Cholly also felt that any misery his
daughter suffered was his fault, and looking in to Pecola's loving eyes angered
him because her wondered, "What could her do for her - ever? What give her?
What say to her?"(161) Cholly's failures led him to hate those that he failed, like
Darlene, and most of all his family. His self loathing and pain, all misdirected at
himself, his family, and blacks in general, all contributed to his ultimate failure,
his rape of his daughter. Pecola's mother, Polly Breedlove, also wrongly placed
her anger on her family. As a result of having a crippled foot, Polly had always
had a feeling of unworthiness and separateness. With her own children, she …show more content…
Black children, or they as Geraldine called them, were like
flies: "They slept six to a bed, all their pee mixing together in the night as they
wet their beds. . . they clowned on the playgrounds, broke things in dime stores,
ran in front of you on the street. . . grass wouldn't grow where they lived. Flowers
died. Like flies they hovered; like flies they settled"(92). Although the Mobile girls
are black themselves, they ". . .got rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of
passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human
emotions,"(83) and most of all they tried to rid themselves of the funkiness of
being black. Because they saw how white people treated blacks, they could not
acknowledge the fact that they, themselves were black, and they tried to become
something else. The easiest way for them to do this was to insult black people,
and push them lower, so they themselves could rise to the top. They were shut
out by the whites because they did not belong, but shut themselves off from their
own black race, by trying to be white. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
being in anger. A reality of presence. An awareness of worth."(50) This is how
many of the blacks in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye felt. They faked love when
they felt powerless to hate, and destroyed what love they did have with anger.
The Bluest Eye shows the way that the blacks were compelled to place their
anger on their own families and on their own blackness instead of on the white
people who were the cause of their misery. In this manner, they kept their anger
circulating among themselves, in effect oppressing themselves, at the same time
they were being oppressed by the white people. Pecola Breedlove was a young
black girl, growing up in …show more content…
When Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove, was caught as
a teenager in a field with Darlene by two white men, "never did he once consider
directing his hatred toward the hunters"(150), rather her directed his hatred
towards the girl because hating the white men would "consume" him. He was
powerless against the white men and was unable to protect Darlene from them
as well. This caused his to hate her for being in the situation with him and for
realizing how powerless her really was. Cholly also felt that any misery his
daughter suffered was his fault, and looking in to Pecola's loving eyes angered
him because her wondered, "What could her do for her - ever? What give her?
What say to her?"(161) Cholly's failures led him to hate those that he failed, like
Darlene, and most of all his family. His self loathing and pain, all misdirected at
himself, his family, and blacks in general, all contributed to his ultimate failure,
his rape of his daughter. Pecola's mother, Polly Breedlove, also wrongly placed
her anger on her family. As a result of having a crippled foot, Polly had always
had a feeling of unworthiness and separateness. With her own children, she …show more content…
Black children, or they as Geraldine called them, were like
flies: "They slept six to a bed, all their pee mixing together in the night as they
wet their beds. . . they clowned on the playgrounds, broke things in dime stores,
ran in front of you on the street. . . grass wouldn't grow where they lived. Flowers
died. Like flies they hovered; like flies they settled"(92). Although the Mobile girls
are black themselves, they ". . .got rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of
passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human
emotions,"(83) and most of all they tried to rid themselves of the funkiness of
being black. Because they saw how white people treated blacks, they could not
acknowledge the fact that they, themselves were black, and they tried to become
something else. The easiest way for them to do this was to insult black people,
and push them lower, so they themselves could rise to the top. They were shut
out by the whites because they did not belong, but shut themselves off from their
own black race, by trying to be white. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison