Social Issue in The Bluest Eye

I think the main social issue throughout this book is, self image and negative life changing moments. Pecola's family goes through many hard times and her parents, Pauline and Cholly, both have stories that molded them into the people that they are when the story begins.

Cholly runs away from home after his great aunt's funeral and embarks on a mission to find his father, who abandoned him before he was born.. When he meets his father, he wants nothing to do with him and is more focused on his gambling game to care about Cholly's feeling. At an early age, Cholly develops a ruthless attitude and chooses not to feel emotion because feeling got him disowned by his father and live without a family to call his own.

Pauline, was a lively soul who wanted to fit in with the women of the town she moved to with Cholly after they got married. The women scrutinized her and she continued to buy makeup and clothes in order to win their acceptance, but they never did. She imagined her marriage to be beautiful with scenes of her and her lover kissing in the moonlight or under the sunset but Cholly never gave her that. In the beginning of their relationship, he was bright and alive wanting to take care of her every need especially with her crippled foot. Pauline soon noticed the affection between them dwindling away and their arguments becoming more frequent and intense. She abandoned her dreams and lived a dull life, believing the Lord was punishing her for marrying Cholly.

Pecola as I have mentioned in several posts, has the need for blue eyes because she wants the happiness white girls have because of their blue eyes.

Self image can be how other people see you and how you see yourself. Pauline sees herself as a punished women who is paying everyday for her sin of marrying Cholly. Cholly is a torn man suffering from a life of his own choosing and Pecola would give anything to have the bluest eyes. (Pecola has a brother, but he isn't mentioned in detail). The Breedloves have suffered from hopes and dreams and because their dreams didn't come true, they adapt to a new way of life.

Segregation in The Bluest Eyes

Toni Morrison formatted The Bluest Eyes in a unique way that allowed me to familiarize myself with the characters and have a greater respect for them because I actually see and experience their childhood, teen, and middle aged lives, leading up to the intro of the story. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different character, but the chapter about Cholly interested me the most.

When I first met Cholly, I labeled him as a bitter and violent husband and father.  He was always too drunk to care about anyone or anything and I added him to my mental "bad influences in the book list", but when I started reliving his childhood, I understood why he was such a hard person.

About six months after his birth, his mother left him on the train tracks preparing to desert him, but her mother found Cholly, beat her daughter and as a result her daughter left and Cholly was raised by his Great Aunt Jimmy, lovingly called Aunt Jimmy. After four years of school he asked his aunt about his father and all she could tell him was his name, Samson Fuller, and where he could have possibly gone after his birth, Macon. Sadly, his aunt dies and he has trouble realizing this reality, but at the wake, he fools around with a girl named Darlene in the fields near the house. To raise the stakes, two white men hunting in the nearby woods, stumble along the two and command Cholly to continue having sex with Darlene in their presence. 

Cholly's mind is quickly changed from fun and innocence to hard and unforgiving. He blames Darlene for what happens and runs away in search of his father. In Macon, his father sends him on his way without a nice word as he gambles in an alley. Cholly, at age fourteen, had already lost the one person who loved him and was now turned away from his biggest fantasy; a father that would welcome and love him.

Rereading the title I gave this post, I realized there is not only segregation with skin color in the book, but segregation within yourself. Cholly chooses to be mad at Darlene instead of the two white men that mocked him in the field because she is on the same level as him. The text says, "Sullen, irritable, he cultivated his hatred of Darlene. Never did he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters. Such an emotion would have destroyed him. They were big, white, armed men. He was small, black, helpless."(pg.119) He settles on being angry with Darlene who is an equal because they are both small, black, and helpless. A white man seems so high up on the scale that Cholly decides to settle things with his own kind, by handling his feelings with the people he feels will understand, who are on his level.

The Bluest Eyes

I'm reading The Bluest Eyes written by Toni Morrison. This book has a tight hold on me with the issues of self hatred, racism, and life as an African American girl. It's easy to say, "I hate my nose because it's so big", but when you live your life knowing everything about you; your family, your life, and more over yourself, you wallow in self hatred. This character is Pecola, who constantly finds herself praying for blue eyes.

In this book, blue eyes are cast on a higher standard than any other dream an African American girl could have. Blue eyes belong to "Shirley Temple, Mary Jane on Mary Jane candies, and Jane in the primer school" but not to black girls. Blue eyes signify everlasting happiness and acceptance in a harsh world and with insults hurled your way at school and in the eyes of strangers, blue eyes are the only escape. 

Pecola believes with blue eyes teacher would actually look at her, in her eyes, and people would have to be nice to her. The white girls never had to bear the harsh stares and gestures Pecola did, especially with her "unusual ugliness", so they joined in the taunting, never wanting to be the one ostracized and jeered.

In our lives, blue eyes are the things we want to make ourselves look or feel better, because we expect them to give us the things we pray for . We think "If I only had a car, i wouldn't be late for school" but why can't we be thankful for the things we have, or lack of, and think of them not as a burden but a blessing. This blued blessing sets us apart and makes us different inside and out, because you can try to change your outward appearance, but know you deserve more than the image you're trying to portray.