by Toni Morrison
(Plot
Summary)
The Bluest Eye depicts the tragic life of a
young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who wants nothing more than to be loved by
her family and her schoolmates. She surmises that the reason she is despised
and ridiculed is that she is black and therefore, ugly. Consequently, Pecola
sublimates her desire to be loved into a desire to have blue eyes and blond
hair; in other words, to basically look like Shirley Temple, who Pecola thinks
is adored by all. Pecola, soon after entering young womanhood, is raped and
impregnated by her father, Cholly. Her mother, Pauline finds haven, hope, life
and meaning as a servant to the white, blond, blue-eyed, clean, rich family to
which she dedicates her love and her respect for an orderly life that poverty
does not afford. Unable to endure the brutality toward her frail self-image,
Pecola goes quietly insane and withdraws into a fantasy world in which she is
the most beloved little girl because she ends up having the bluest eyes of all.
Morrison’s
argument is how influential society can be on an individual and how strongly
its ideas and views are impressed upon that individual. The ideas and views
that she speaks of mostly pertain to beauty and what makes an individual
beautiful. This idea of beauty can turn someone’s life upside down and, in the
end, lead him/her to madness.
Throughout
the novel, the reader mostly sees Pecola as others see her. People see her as
an ugly child and this one label is the most significant aspect of her life.
Pecola also sees herself as others have seen her, and for this reason thinks of
herself as being ugly. “It is the overriding factor that pushes her fantasy of blue
eyes from a black girl’s wish to have things white to a neurotic fantasy to
make things right.” The implication is that Pecola, like so many other
African-Americans, never had a chance to grow and succeed because she lived in
a society that was inherently racist, and would not nurture her.
Claudia
Mac Teer recounts the events of the year that lead up to her best friend’s,
Pecola Breedlove’s, rape and the death of her baby. The year is 1941, and
Claudia remembers that no marigolds bloomed that year. She thought at the time
that it was because of Pecola’s rape by her father, Cholly Breedlove, that no
marigolds bloomed. Her memories go back to the fall of 1940 (one year before
the marigolds did not bloom). Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, live in a
home that takes in borders. Mr. Henry moves in and flatters the young girls by
telling them they look like Ginger Rogers and Greta Garbo. Soon after that, a
young girl named Pecola moves in with them, as ordered by the county. She will
live there until the county can find a better home for her, as her father,
Cholly, burnt down her old home. Pecola and the two girls become friends and go
through many experiences together, including Pecola getting her first period.
Pecola’s
family background is then described. Her parents, Pauline and Cholly Breedlove,
have a bad marriage. Her mother is always working hard and nagging Cholly,
while Cholly is always coming home drunk and beating Pauline. They yell and
fight, and Pecola and her brother, Sammy, each look for an escape in their own
ways. Sammy will frequently run away to get away from his family. Pecola
meanwhile, prays that her eyes will turn into a beautiful blue color. She
thinks that if her eyes were blue, things would be different - they would be
pretty, and more than that, she would be pretty. Pecola becomes obsessed in her
quest for blue eyes.
Winter
arrives and Claudia tells of a new girl, named Maureen Peal, who comes to their
school. Maureen is revered for her “white” looks. She has long hair, green
eyes, light skin, and nice clothes. She is very popular with teachers and other
classmates. However, Claudia is disgusted with her. Claudia is very turned off
from the part of her culture that seems to favor “white” things, or things that
resemble white people. Pecola, on the other hand, is obsessed with white ways,
and wants to look white herself. She wishes she had blonde hair and blue eyes,
and is frequently found admiring Shirley Temple’s picture on the cups in
Claudia’s house.
The
next section describes Geraldine, her son Junior, and their blue-eyed black
cat. Junior has Pecola come over one day. He meanly throws the cat on Pecola
and it scratches her. Pecola goes to leave Junior’s house, but he does not let
her. The cat rubs against her leg and she is taken with its beautiful blue eyes.
Junior then takes the cat and starts swinging it around. Pecola goes to save
the cat by grabbing Junior, but Junior throws the cat and it lands against the
window. Geraldine walks in and Junior blames the cat’s death on poor Pecola.
Spring
arrives and Claudia tells of how Mr. Henry touched Frieda’s breasts and then
was beaten by their father. The two girls go to visit Pecola in her new house,
a downstairs apartment. Above, there are three prostitutes, Marie, China, and
Poland, whom Pecola often visits and talks with. Pauline Breedlove’s younger
years are described. It explains how she would often go to the movies, and
because of this eventually became fascinated with Hollywood ideals of beauty.
She saw famous movie stars like Jean Harlow as true representations of beauty,
and anything straying from that was not deemed beautiful. She even thought her
own daughter, Pecola, was ugly. This is why Pauline treated the daughter of the
people she worked for, the Fishers, like she was her own daughter. She had
blonde curls and blue eyes, and Pauline became absorbed with their white
lifestyle. It was the closest she could get to having it herself.
Cholly
Breedlove’s background is then explained. He is abandoned by his mother and
father and is raised by his great Aunt Jimmy, who later dies. Cholly has his
first sexual experience with Darlene. They are caught in the woods by two white
men and Cholly is humiliated. He thinks Darlene might be pregnant so he runs
away to Macon, Georgia to try and find his real father. He finds him, but
discovers that his father is a drunk and a gambler who wants nothing to do with
Cholly. Cholly runs to Kentucky where he meets and marries Pauline. They
eventually have two children, Sammy and Pecola.
The
rape of Pecola by her father is then described. Cholly comes home drunk one
afternoon and sees Pecola in the kitchen washing dishes. She reminds him for a
moment of his wife, Pauline, and in a fit of confusion and love, he rapes his
daughter. He leaves her on the kitchen floor feeling ashamed and alone.
The
character of Elihue Micah Whitcomb is introduced. He is a psychic healer of
sorts, who hates people. He comes from a racially mixed family; he is part
white and part Chinese, which accounts for his attitude of superiority over
others. Pecola visits him one day, and asks him to make her wish come true of
having blue eyes. He tricks her into poisoning an old, sick dog that he hates. He
tells Pecola that if the dog behaves strangely, then that was a sign from God
that her eyes would turn blue the next day. After Pecola feeds the dog the
strange meat (which had poison on it), she sees that the dog chokes, falls down
and dies. Horrified, she runs out of the house.
Summer
comes and Claudia tells of how she and Frieda learned from rumors and gossip
that Pecola was pregnant by her father. Claudia feels so badly for Pecola that
she decides to not sell the marigold seeds she was planning on selling for
money for a bicycle. Instead, she and Frieda bury the seeds and say that if the
marigolds bloom, then everything would be fine. And if not, then things would
be bad.
Pecola
is left to talk to her only friend, an imaginary friend about the new blue eyes
that she thinks she now has. She is only concerned that they are the bluest
eyes in the world. She has driven herself into a state of madness over these
blue eyes, and she is all alone. Claudia says that she saw Pecola after the baby
was born and then died. Pecola walks up and down the street flapping her arms,
as if she was a bird that could not fly. Pauline still works for white folks,
Sammy ran away, and Cholly died in a workhouse. Claudia finally says that the
marigolds did not bloom because some soil is just not meant for certain flowers.
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