What Is Pecola's Idea Of Identity In The Bluest Eye
In the novel, The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison introduces readers to the life of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American female who lives a pitiable existence and wishes more than anything that her eyes were blue because in her mind, girls with blue eyes are loved, admired, have a better life and don’t have to endure the hardships that she faces daily. Morrison utilizes a combination of the reminiscing narrative of Claudia, a now adult friend of Pecola’s when they were children, and trips back in time that impart a bit of character history so that readers can draw their own conclusions about events that transpired in a certain person’s life which may have bearing on their present actions, reactions and thought processes. One of the instances of the author’s use of racial aspects to define Pecola’s idea of beauty is a cup that she continually uses to
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drink milk from when living as a foster child in Claudia’s home. This cup has the image of Shirley Temple on it and Pecola is transfixed with this face because to her, it is the epitome of beauty. When she looks at Shirley Temple’s blue eyes and Caucasian skin, she sees beauty, yet when she looks at her own dark skin and dark eyes what she sees is the polar opposite of what she considers beautiful.
With the introduction of Mr.
Yacobowski, an immigrant store owner, Morrison uses an aspect of not only racism, but also ethnic and gender differences to define feelings and further character identity. When Pecola enters the store to buy candy, her presence is all but ignored by the proprietor. As Morrison puts it, “…he looks towards her….somewhere between vision and view….his eyes draw back….he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance….he does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see (Morrison, 1970)”. Mr. Yakobowski cannot see Pecola because as Morrison explains, in addition to being not possible, his actually seeing her is equally undesirable and unnecessary. He does not recognize her humanity. He doesn’t want to risk even touching her to retrieve the money for the candy from her outstretched palm. Pecola doesn’t recognize the character flaw in Mr. Yacobowski. She only recognizes the flaw in herself, a shame that dissipates only when she eats the candy and imagines she is also eating the blue eyes of Mary Jane, the little girl the candy is named after and whose face graces the
wrapper.
This theme is reinforced throughout the book as Pecola is subjected to physical and verbal abuse from an array of different people that reinforce the negative concept she has of herself. She is looked down upon by her classmates, particularly the boys, who call her names and make fun of her appearance. However, this abuse isn’t gender specific because she experiences the same treatment from a monied female classmate who had temporarily befriended her. She suffers humiliation and physical abuse at the hands of her mother in the presence of a small Caucasian child whose family her mother works for. And, while her mother has nothing but harsh words for
Pecola, she does nothing but offer kindness and comfort to the Caucasian child. This sent a message to Pecola that the feelings and needs of this blue-eyed child were more important than Pecola’s, even to her own mother. In another instance, Morrison utilizes an aspect of class difference to illustrate how certain members of the African American community who considered themselves middle class looked down upon those members who were less fortunate. In Pecola’s case, she experiences a mind-numbing confrontation with a class-conscious black woman who has spent the majority of her life disassociating herself from a certain people she considers to be undesirable, but that white society would consider her a member of simply by virtue of the color of her skin. To the people this woman so badly wants to impress and be thought of as equal to she is no better, no different than Pecola. But, Pecola belongs to a class of people this woman considers undesirable. She is close to the source. She can see the difference and for her it’s a line not to be crossed. She sees the difference between her and Pecola as vast, palpable. Whites cannot see it; all they see is black and to them, all black is the same. Due to a set of circumstances not of her design or control, Pecola is made a victim and is the recipient of a scathing insult and dismissal by this woman, done while gently cuddling and stroking her pet cat, which incidentally has blue eyes. This shameful incident further reinforces Pecola’s opinion that blue eyes, even on a cat, were the key to being loved and cared for.
Pecola never equates someone’s opinion or treatment of her as their problem; she feels the problem rests with her. Morrison doesn’t define her as someone with the mental sophistication to equate her mistreatment as a consequence of a society that defines beauty by a standard that she (nor they) can ever measure up to. She doesn’t have positive role models or familial support. Her parents are economically poor and fighting demons of their own design as well as each other. It never dawns on her to retaliate; she only feels that the problem lies with her and that if only her eyes were blue things would be different. Pecola has no sense of self and judges herself through the eyes of other people and their reaction to her. The only place she feels she’s not being judged is when she is visiting the prostitutes who live in an apartment above the storefront home she shared with her parents and brother. She’s in a slow slide down a slippery slope of complete mental collapse when Morrison introduces a spiritual/religious aspect by way of a pedophile and self proclaimed ‘Reader, Advisor and Interpreter of Dreams’, a man named Soaphead Church, to send her careening over the edge.
I think Pecola’s desire for blue eyes was not only to see the world through those eyes, but to experience a world where she was looked upon with love, acceptance and desire, even envy. She wanted to experience what it felt like for someone to look at you and be pleased with what they saw. And, she wanted to look through those eyes into a world that she couldn’t see with the eyes she was born with.
drink milk from when living as a foster child in Claudia’s home. This cup has the image of Shirley Temple on it and Pecola is transfixed with this face because to her, it is the epitome of beauty. When she looks at Shirley Temple’s blue eyes and Caucasian skin, she sees beauty, yet when she looks at her own dark skin and dark eyes what she sees is the polar opposite of what she considers beautiful.
With the introduction of Mr.
Yacobowski, an immigrant store owner, Morrison uses an aspect of not only racism, but also ethnic and gender differences to define feelings and further character identity. When Pecola enters the store to buy candy, her presence is all but ignored by the proprietor. As Morrison puts it, “…he looks towards her….somewhere between vision and view….his eyes draw back….he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance….he does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see (Morrison, 1970)”. Mr. Yakobowski cannot see Pecola because as Morrison explains, in addition to being not possible, his actually seeing her is equally undesirable and unnecessary. He does not recognize her humanity. He doesn’t want to risk even touching her to retrieve the money for the candy from her outstretched palm. Pecola doesn’t recognize the character flaw in Mr. Yacobowski. She only recognizes the flaw in herself, a shame that dissipates only when she eats the candy and imagines she is also eating the blue eyes of Mary Jane, the little girl the candy is named after and whose face graces the
wrapper.
This theme is reinforced throughout the book as Pecola is subjected to physical and verbal abuse from an array of different people that reinforce the negative concept she has of herself. She is looked down upon by her classmates, particularly the boys, who call her names and make fun of her appearance. However, this abuse isn’t gender specific because she experiences the same treatment from a monied female classmate who had temporarily befriended her. She suffers humiliation and physical abuse at the hands of her mother in the presence of a small Caucasian child whose family her mother works for. And, while her mother has nothing but harsh words for
Pecola, she does nothing but offer kindness and comfort to the Caucasian child. This sent a message to Pecola that the feelings and needs of this blue-eyed child were more important than Pecola’s, even to her own mother. In another instance, Morrison utilizes an aspect of class difference to illustrate how certain members of the African American community who considered themselves middle class looked down upon those members who were less fortunate. In Pecola’s case, she experiences a mind-numbing confrontation with a class-conscious black woman who has spent the majority of her life disassociating herself from a certain people she considers to be undesirable, but that white society would consider her a member of simply by virtue of the color of her skin. To the people this woman so badly wants to impress and be thought of as equal to she is no better, no different than Pecola. But, Pecola belongs to a class of people this woman considers undesirable. She is close to the source. She can see the difference and for her it’s a line not to be crossed. She sees the difference between her and Pecola as vast, palpable. Whites cannot see it; all they see is black and to them, all black is the same. Due to a set of circumstances not of her design or control, Pecola is made a victim and is the recipient of a scathing insult and dismissal by this woman, done while gently cuddling and stroking her pet cat, which incidentally has blue eyes. This shameful incident further reinforces Pecola’s opinion that blue eyes, even on a cat, were the key to being loved and cared for.
Pecola never equates someone’s opinion or treatment of her as their problem; she feels the problem rests with her. Morrison doesn’t define her as someone with the mental sophistication to equate her mistreatment as a consequence of a society that defines beauty by a standard that she (nor they) can ever measure up to. She doesn’t have positive role models or familial support. Her parents are economically poor and fighting demons of their own design as well as each other. It never dawns on her to retaliate; she only feels that the problem lies with her and that if only her eyes were blue things would be different. Pecola has no sense of self and judges herself through the eyes of other people and their reaction to her. The only place she feels she’s not being judged is when she is visiting the prostitutes who live in an apartment above the storefront home she shared with her parents and brother. She’s in a slow slide down a slippery slope of complete mental collapse when Morrison introduces a spiritual/religious aspect by way of a pedophile and self proclaimed ‘Reader, Advisor and Interpreter of Dreams’, a man named Soaphead Church, to send her careening over the edge.
I think Pecola’s desire for blue eyes was not only to see the world through those eyes, but to experience a world where she was looked upon with love, acceptance and desire, even envy. She wanted to experience what it felt like for someone to look at you and be pleased with what they saw. And, she wanted to look through those eyes into a world that she couldn’t see with the eyes she was born with.