Preview

What Is Pecola's Fondness Of Blue Eyes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
905 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Pecola's Fondness Of Blue Eyes
Pecola Breedlove is seen as worthless by almost everyone she interacts with. Pecola is forced to internalize her feelings because everyone around her in society hates her. This is evident through the way everyone in town protrudes malice towards her and her baby. As a result of all of the abuse that she suffers through because of her father, mother, strangers and other children, she comes to believe that her life would improve if she had the ability to obtain blue eyes. “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (Morrison pg. 46). To explain her fondness of blue eyes, Pecola …show more content…
She’s changing what she sees into what other see; she is changing her perception by changing herself. The blue eyes would give her that beauty. If she had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines, people would not want to do ugly things to her. This insight is affirmed by her experience of being teased by society because she does not possess those white features. The unrealistic desire for the blue eyes coincides with the unrealistic desire to do away of a world of absolutes; just as the praised blue eyes blind Pecola of her beauty, the desire to be white and the ideal perception of beautiful continues to turn her away from understanding the significance of appreciating one's culture and identity. This misfortune, mirrors the black community’s failure to appreciate their worth as they wish to become what is perceived as beautiful. In addition, as they worship and continue to desire white features, they fail to recognize the darkness that exists among the white community, in regards to having and enacting inhuman conceptions towards the Black community, such as Jim Crow Laws which limit the beauty perception among the new upcoming …show more content…
Pauline Breedlove made the realization and acceptance that she is not living up to the standard of beauty. Pauline says, “It looked just like her. Well almost just like...I taken a big bite of that candy, and it pulled a tooth right out of my mouth...I just didn't care no more after that” (Morrison pg. 123). This demonstrates how Pauline has given up on the lifestyle that is supported by the Colorist. Morrison highlights this by giving the reader Pauline’s recollection of the picture show and revealing the disappointment that she felt when her rotten tooth was yanked out. Which is an extension to the reason why young black girls have a distorted perception of beauty regarding the standards of beauty and the amount of love that they receive because the adult in society plays the unwritten role of the leader who passes down experiences. If a parenting adult cannot express caregiving, that caregiver is unable to provide his child with any type of unity or
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Bluest Eyes Ap Short Form Essay Example
    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bluest Eyes Ap Short Form Essay Example

    * Pecola Breedlove: She is an eleven year old black girl who believes she is ugly. She wishes for blue eyes to make her feel beautiful which is granted at the cost of her sanity.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bluest Eye Theme Essay
    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bluest Eye Theme Essay

    A main theme in the novel is that Pecola believes traditionally white features such as blue eyes are seen as more beautiful than her own black features and often longs for them, thinking it will make her life easier if she was prettier, and other characters in the book, like…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bluest Eye Analysis Essay
    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Bluest Eye Analysis Essay

    Cholly demonstrates his internal battle when “the hatred would not let him pick her up, the tenderness forced him to cover her” (163). He meets these feelings in the middle when he leaves her on the kitchen floor covered by a blanket. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola, the victim of incestuous rape, is unfortunately rejected by the community around her, Cholly was also rejected by the community following the death of Aunt Jimmy. In The Bluest Eye, rape serves as an example of the importance of the community raising the child, instead of only the parents. “Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe” (206). This quote from the last chapter of the novel describes love as a potentially damaging force. Cholly was the only person who loved Pecola “enough to touch her.” Perhaps if the readers can understand Cholly’s behavior as driven by love, even in the case of raping his own daughter, then it can be understood that Cholly is not a monster and there is still some good in…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Claudia And Frieda Quotes
    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Claudia And Frieda Quotes

    To me this quote represents how Claudia anticipates the events that the book will give us the reader’s attention to, most notably Pecola’s pregnancy. She remembers that she and Frieda pointed fingers at each other for failing to grow the plants one summer, but now she thinks if the earth itself was a danger to them, a more radical possibility. I believe this quote represents the levels of Pecola’s desire, she does not want blue eyes because they apply to the standards the whites have applied, but because she wishes to obtain different sights and pictures, as if changing eye color will change reality. She feels that changing her eye color will change her perspective of life/ the way she is viewed.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pecola Beauty Standards
    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Pecola Beauty Standards

    Beauty standards set by society for black women fuels into their insecurities and drives them towards self-hatred. From the start, Pecola’s community, classmates, teachers and parent’s drill into her head that she is unattractive. Pecola Breedlove comes to admit she is ugly as she starts obsessing over the idea of having the bluest eyes to make her attractive. Pecola full-heartedly believes that blue eyes are a necessity for beauty and if she were to by some means acquire them, all of her problems in life would disappear. “Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes” (46). Pecola assumes blue eyes are the key to gaining admiration from her community and love from her family. While Pecola Breedlove is constantly reminded of everything she is: ugly, poor, and black; her innocence is also stolen from her as she is figuratively raped by society and literally raped by her father.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Plea Bargaining In Court Cases
    • 2149 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Plea Bargaining In Court Cases

    Plea bargaining is a commonly used prosecutorial method to dispose of a case without going to trial. A plea bargain or negotiated plea is an agreement between the defense and the prosecutor in which a defendant pleads guilty to a criminal charge and in exchange he expects to receive some form of consideration from the state. (Neubauer, 2002, p. 323) Most cases never make it to trial, more than 80 percent of criminal cases filed ended with the defendant entering a guilty plea. (Fagin, 2003, p. 61)…

    • 2149 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Critical Lens
    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Critical Lens

    In The Bluest Eye, the main character Pecola is a young girl, who lives in Lorain, Ohio during the 1940s. She grows up in a very abusive household, where she is verbally, physically and sexually abused by her mother and father. Specifically, her father rapes her and impregnates her. Pecola is also constantly ridiculed by her community and her family for being ugly. This same community has established certain standards for beauty. In order to be considered beautiful, an individual had to conform to the standards set forth by popular icons of the time period like Shirley Temple and Ginger Rogers. It was most desirable to have white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Pecola did not fit this ideal, so she desperately prayed for blue eyes, in the hope that she could become beautiful and be accepted by society. Unfortunately, Pecola was unable to acquire blue eyes. True to her human nature, Pecola tried to improve her life but failed.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Defining African-American Beauty
    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Defining African-American Beauty

    Beautiful, pretty, good-looking are all the adjectives that women and girls aspire to be or encouraged to strive for in their life. From the first years of a young girl’s life, she’s told to wear dresses and comb her hair so when she looks into the mirror, she’ll see beauty reflected back at her so that consequently this shallow image of beauty is adopted by her consciousness. Yet as the years pass, she comes to a point in her life where the very aspect of her being is put into question because of what she’s seen on television or heard on the radio so that as a young woman she constantly feels the need to conform to a patriarchal society’s standards of beauty in order to be accepted. Now let’s look at this transition in a young female’s life through the eyes of an African-American girl who grows up being told to wear this and to do her hair like this in order to look pretty. At such a young age, she may not have been affected by the demands and expectations of beauty that was put upon her, but as she grows and develops a deeper understanding of the images around her, she will realize that the images of beauty presented before her do…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Geraldine's Dysmorphia
    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Geraldine's Dysmorphia

    In an article titled “BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER IN THE BLUEST EYE” by Liana Beian, Beian states “Society functions as the source of physical and psychological evil and, through the example of Pecola, represents the ultimate, destructive consequences of evil. ”(Beian 131). This statement has merit because it pertains to Pecola and the demise of her character because Pecola's self hate stems from other peoples perception of her, based off of her looks. Beian goes on to say that “Not being white is, in Pecola’s case, the pretext for her being bullied and subject to manifestations of racism. Pecola’s existence is illustrative of the fact that the set of values called beauty generally implies prejudice and damage done to individuals.…

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Comparing The Bluest Eye And All The Pretty Horses
    • 1950 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Comparing The Bluest Eye And All The Pretty Horses

    In The Bluest Eye, Protagoras’ argument would have been more accurately phrased as “White man is the measure of all things.” The most prevalent and reoccurring theme in The Bluest Eye is the equation of whiteness as the standard of greatness, beauty, or otherwise “normalcy” and “desirability” in the novel. Whiteness being upheld as the paragon of beauty and societal norm is best seen as Frieda and Pecola “…had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was,” (Morrison 19) which culminates into the inference that Pecola eventually drinks three quarts of milk as an excuse to admire the Shirley Temple cup. The most obvious example of characters assuming whiteness as the beauty standard is Pecola Breedlove, the main character. So disillusioned is Pecola with the trials of her life, and so severely has Pecola assimilated her opinion to match that of the surrounding society, Pecola believes that if she were to abandon her black appearance and assume more European features, such as blonde hair and blue eyes, she would be removed for her tragic circumstances.…

    • 1950 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Race and Beauty in a Media Contrived Society
    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Race and Beauty in a Media Contrived Society

    Throughout Toni Morrison 's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by the mass media contribute to the status at which young African American girls find themselves early on and throughout their lives.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Bluest Eye Research Paper
    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bluest Eye Research Paper

    In my final example we'll look at Pecola and her wish to have blue eyes. Pecola believes that if her eyes were blue, making them beautiful in accordance to white standards, her life would be less "ugly", and her problems would go away. I believe Pecola also thinks that if her eyes were blue that her peers and teachers would like her more, making life easier. Pecola also hates the fact that she stares at herself in the mirror attempting to figure out how she became way she is.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Racial self loathing in the bluest eye
    • 1059 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Racial self loathing in the bluest eye

    'The Bluest Eye" provides a description of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards disfigure the lives of black girls and women. Obvious messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere, for example the white baby doll given to Claudia, the praising of Shirley Temple, the fact that the light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls, the idealization of white beauty in the movies, and Pauline Breedlove's preference for the little white girl she works for over her daughter. Adult women, having learned to hate the blackness of their own bodies, take this hatred out on their children Mrs. Breedlove shares the conviction that Pecola is ugly. The lighter-skinned Geraldine also curses Pecola's blackness. Claudia remains free from this worship of whiteness, but she does realize that society does, imagining Pecola's unborn baby as beautiful in its blackness. Morrison describes Claudia's rage against this belief, while at the same time, shows the other characters being enveloped by this nonsense. This standard of beauty can be seen throughout the novel. But the book…

    • 1059 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pecola And Claudia's Husband: Plot Summary
    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page

    Pecola And Claudia's Husband: Plot Summary

    All year, Pecola and Claudia are faced with racism wherever they go. From a candyman not accepting money from her, to black schoolboys calling them black e mos, they’ve been through a lot, having them finally believe that only blue eyes can stop the nonsense. And although it seems that they have a lot in common,…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Bluest Eye
    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bluest Eye

    Everywhere we go there are going to be stereotypes that can affect us in our daily lives. Even stereotypes from years ago are still sometimes present today. For years Caucasian blue-eyed dolls was considered the best and most perfect gift for every little girl. For this time period it was considered perfect but many girls did not have the features that the doll had. This in some cases would affect minority's, who would come to think that their features such as dark skin, and nappy hair were ugly. In "The Bluest Eye", Claudia a little girl receives a little white doll for Christmas. In receiving this doll Claudia shows that receiving one of these dolls does not make every little girl happy.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics