Monday, September 5, 2011

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?

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