Frustration

"She was a child-unburdened-why wasn't she happy? The clear statement of her misery was an accusation. He wanted to break her neck-but tenderly. Guilt and impotence rose in a bilious duet. What could he do for her-ever? What give her? What say to her? What could a burned-out black man say to the hunched back of his eleven-year-old daughter?"

I think this excerpt from the novel effectively portrays the frustration that people (even her own father) feel when they encounter Pecola's meekness and lack of self-worth. It's interesting how one can feel simultaneously both pity and resentment just by looking at her and her "hunched shoulders", let alone watching her interact with others. Her own father is driven to fancifully entertaining the notion of killing his daughter because her sense of self is so incredibly skewed. The manner in which she is hunched over the sink again suggests that she lacks confidence, while exuding an overwhelming aura of utter sorrow. Mr. Breedlove feels a sense of failure and helplessness concerning his daughter, just as others have throughout the novel, but the cruel reality of the situation is that no matter how much someone desires to help Pecola, she is the one who is ultimately responsible for and capable of changing her own demeanor and outlook on life. It seems as though Mr. Breedlove has given up on his daughter, which is interesting in light of the heinous crime he commits just moments later.

So why did Mr. Breedlove rape his daughter? Was he just using her? Was Pecola's timidity just too revolting? Was it due to Mrs. Breedlove's absence in the home, both physically and emotionally?

Selfishness

" Pauline kept this order, this beauty, for herself, a private world, and never introduced it into her storefront, a private world, and never introduced it into her storefront, or to her children." - p. 128

It's interesting how the story begins to revolve around Mrs. Breedlove and Cholly. The novel begins to unfold Pauline's characteristics and her personality. Before, she was presented as this angry women, who was on a mission from the Lord to make her husband suffer from her sins. Yet; there is a completely different aspect to her. In this section of the novel that elaborates on Pauline, the reader discovers that Pauline is capable of love and passion, but just not for her own family. Pauline invests her time and devotion into the household of another family and gives them respect and love. Yet; this passion for beauty and organization is deprived from her own home. Pauline seems to lack that internal motherly instinct, and neglects her home and her children. Not only does she neglect her family and their home, but she doesn't wish to share her happiness with her own children. Instead, she devotes all of her time to escaping from her own home, and living through another family's life.

From this insight into Pauline's viewpoint on life, readers are able to understand the Breedlove's family better. How will much longer can Pauline linger in her "private world" and neglect her family before she completely loses them?

Dylan - 174

“I want them blue” (174).

Pecola’s request to have blue eyes emphasizes her longing to be accepted and for change in her life. She knows that the world views blue eyes as cherished beauty and she is desperate for that kind of adoration. She is deprived of love and thinks that it is her fault, and therefore her responsibility to fix the problem. She rarely, if ever, sees an example of love that does not stem from beauty. She only knows that girls like Maureen Peal are loved not only by peers, but also by adults. She is craving attention and love from adults and she believes that blue eyes is the way to obtain that.

On a symbolic level, however, Pecola’s wish for blue eyes could mean that she is wanting to see different things rather than be more beautiful. All her life she has seen her parents fighting, the looks that other people give her, her own father raping her, and other events that a twelve-year-old girl is not emotionally able to process. New, more beautiful eyes, in this case, represent new and better experiences for Pecola.

What do you think Pecola is most trying to change when she asks for blue eyes?

Loose tooth/Pauline

Page 116.

“And then she lost her front tooth. But there must have been a speck, a brown speck easily mistaken for food but which did not leave, which sat on the enamel for months, and grew, until it cut into the surface and then to the brown putty underneath, finally eating away to the root, but avoiding the nerves, so its presence was not noticeable or uncomfortable. Then the weakened roots, having grown accustomed to the poison, responded one day to severe pressure, and the tooth fell free, leaving a ragged stump behind. But even before the little brown speck, there must have been the conditions, the setting that would allow it to exist in the first place.”

This begs the question: what caused Pauline’s tooth to fall out, and why does it happen right in the middle of a Jean Harlow film?

I think, on one hand, her tooth’s internal decay is symbolic of the idealized poison she has indulged herself in at the movies. The images educate her on the standard of beauty, and tell her how men and women should conduct themselves. Pauline even equates the movies to a religious experience, suggesting that she has finally found “the Presence” she yearns for in her youth; “the black-and-white images came together, making a significant whole--all projected through the ray of light from above and behind.” When she looses her front tooth, she is forced to come to terms with her inability to ever become a Jean Harlow, which re-enforces her despair. A loss of identity is implied here, and she must choose how to cope with the unrealistic expectations that popular culture has established, as well as her inward assumptions of inferiority. Pauline chooses the role of the martyr and servant to a white world, which she fantasizes about still, even though she recognizes her limitations in it.

On the other hand, I think this passage is a pretty clear example of naturalism (perhaps, more specifically, determinism) in The Bluest Eye. Both Pauline’s cavity and her foot wound are forces beyond her control that seem to seal her fate. Her race, gender, and marriage appear to be doomed from the start by the racist, sexist, and beauty-obsessed world she inhabits.

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Discussion question: In this novel, it sometimes seems as though the only free will the characters have lies with how they decide to cope with rejection and judgment. How do you view Pauline’s and Cholly’s actions against Pecola? Couldn’t they have acted differently?

Love and Beauty

"Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another - physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." pg. 122


Mrs. Breedlove expresses her early contempt at placing importance on both beauty and love. This highlights the reasoning behind her seemingly loveless marriage with Cholly later in her life. It also showcases the reasoning behind the entire Breedlove family being viewed as "ugly" and being relatively accepting of that fact. It also constrasts who Mrs. Breedlove once was with who she has turned out to be. It elevates the difference between the hope she had as a younger girl when these ideas were first introduced to her, and the destruction she felt later in life, when all hope had been lost or destroyed. It also allows the reader to understand why Mrs. Breedlove is the way she is, both in regards to her children and her husband. Mrs. Breedlove is jaded by her life experiences and by the hand that she has been dealt. She turns this jaded outlook on life onto her children, particularly Pecola, which in turn causes them to view beauty and love in very disturbing and skewed ways. They have not been allowed to develop a normal concept of either of these things because of their mother's own judgement towards them.


How are Mrs. Breedlove's feelings towards love and beauty reflected in the way Pecola views both these concepts in regards to her own life? How does Pecola's view of these things differ from that of her mother's? Is it important to note Mrs. Breedlove's history/life experiences in regards to Pecola's life and upbringing?

The Bluest Eye- page 174

“’What about your eyes?’

‘I want them blue.’

Soaphead pursed his lips, and let his tongue stroke a gold inlay. He thought it was at once the most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received. Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty. A surge of love and understanding swept through him, but was quickly replaced by anger. Anger that he was powerless to help her. Of all the wishes people had brought him- money, love, revenge- this seemed to him the most poignant and the one most deserving of fulfillment. A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes .His outrage grew and felt like power. For the first time he honestly wished he could work miracles. Never before had he really wanted the true and holy power- only the power to make others believe he had it.”

Soaphead Church is a religious hypocrite. He previously just did what he was told and believed all requests, at least to some extent, to be frivolous and pointless. Pecola’s request throws him off. For once, he believed the request was “the most fantastic and the most logical petition he had ever received.” The fact that Pecola’s request actually instilled in Soaphead Church an actual want or desire to “work miracles” really highlights the importance of beauty as a standard that is presented in this novel. Beauty is encompassed into blue eyes, which are closely linked with ‘whiteness’ as opposed to ‘blackness. Blue eyes, or beauty, are very important in this society, perhaps for ‘happiness.’

Why else does Pecola desire this ‘beauty’ so strongly? Why is ‘beauty’ so important? And why does Morrison choose blue eyes? It seems like Pecola really just longs for the ‘happiness’ of the white-middle class. Why doesn’t Pecola just wish for white-skin?

Impotence

     "Another door opened, and in walked a little girl, smaller and younger than all of us. She wore a pink sunback dress and pink fluffy bedroom slippers with two bunny ears pointed up from the tips. Her hair was corn yellow and bound in a thick ribbon... The familiar violence rose in me. Her calling Mrs. Breedlove Polly, when even Pecola called her mother Mrs. Breedlove, seemed reason enough to scratch her" (108).

     I think this scene exhibits the notion of white 'superiority' that many of the main characters are antagonized by at one point or another. The fact that a smaller and younger girl could call Pecola's mother "Polly" frustrated Claudia very much since none of them, not even Pecola, had the courage to even call her Pauline. But something else takes place here. Pecola, Frieda and Claudia witness how Pecola's mother accepts the little girl's 'audacity' of calling her "Polly." Between the little girl and Mrs. Breedlove there wasn't that sense of authority coming from the latter one. This was a 'first' for Pecola and the sisters and, I think, it definitely marked them deeply.

     This scene helps the reader understand the circumstances of the story from the girls' level. It leaves the adults and the 'real world' aside and shows how powerless Pecola and the sisters are compared to a younger but different-colored girl. How is this new facet of Mrs. Breedlove going to affect Pecola's already-injured confidence? Won't this act as a reinforcer to the girls, suggesting again that whites can and blacks can't?