The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison

Infancy is the most important and sensitive time of a person’s life. For the duration of this time we form connections with our parents/caregiver; this bond that we create affects who we grow into later in life. In The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison presented a Character named Pecola. Pecola was raised by neglectful parents. They paid little to no attention to her nor did they show her any love/affection. They fought all the time in front of Pecola and never stopped to think of how such violence affected her. Pecola fought with self-hatred. She didn’t like who she was. She became a victim of the white standard of beauty. This caused her to have very low self-esteem. How could she love who she was when her parents didn’t even love her enough to acknowledge
her. She also had no desire for achievements. She gave up on herself before she really got to live and grow. Parents affect their children lives more than they truly know. Now here’s my big psychological question how can the tactic a parent/caregiver choose to nurture their kid affect child development?
A neglectful parent is unsympathetic and uninvolved in their child’s life. Their only concerns are themselves, so they neglect the needs of their children. The child has no parental guidance nor receives any warmth from their parents.
This type of parenting tactic affect children’s in the worst way. Children who tend to have a home full of neglect incline to be insecurely attached, to have uneasy peer relationships, educational complications, and aggression/behavioral problems. A child experiences loneliness because their parents don’t provide them with the essential love that’s needed. According to Mathew J. Miller, who is a psychologist agrees that due these problem children develop a problem when it comes to socializing. In the article “Neglectful Parenting: The Impact on Children” Miller States, “Because they do not receive the necessary love from their parents, they often struggle to develop appropriate social skills with others[…] Healthy parents encourage their children to be involved in activities and friendships and give of their time so that the child can have these healthy experiences. With neglectful parents there are no sports teams or play dates. This leads to a lack of social development and isolation” (pg. 3). Another effect of being neglected is having a tough time when it comes to academics. Neglect parents leave their child’s education all up to the school system; they don’t get involved in any
way possible. They don’t try to seek help for their kid when their struggling. To conclude the results of the parenting tactic is aggression and behavioral problems. Children who tend to grow up in this type of home don’t know how to channel their emotions so they take them out on others, or as Freud call it displacement. The children try to find the love they don’t receive at home in the outside world; which are their peers. The thing with method is that their peers are not always the best influence. Miller concluded, “Without proper guidance and with the anger that develops as a result of the neglect, these children often act out their emotions in ways that get them in trouble with school or with the law. In addition, children that are neglected are prime candidates for gang involvement due to their desire for some semblance of family. Gangs, although unhealthy for children, provide for them the sense of connectedness that they desire” (pg.3). Although a neglect parent causes harm to a child’s development and authoritarian parents has similar effects.