In the novel, The Bluest Eye, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove. Pecola longs for acceptance from the world. She is an innocent little girl, however, she is rejected practically by the whole world, and her own parents. Pecola endures physical and verbal abuse at home, and also at school. She is always the main character in the jokes that usually refer to her very dark skin. Her mother cherishes the white daughter of the family she works for and calls her own daughter a “rotten piece of apple.
Her father Cholly is constantly drunk, and sexually molests her daughter more than once, eventually rapes and impregnates her. Pecola has been taught that white is the standard by which all beauty is judged. She prays for blue eyes, thinking this symbol of whiteness will make her beautiful and will win her the love and acceptance she desires. Pecola finally went insane at the end of the story. The whole story is painful and heartbreaking to read.
Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, focuses on the emphasis: African Americans place in society and white standards of beauty and success. For instance, in the novel from Pecola’s wish and from many other events, it becomes clear that most of the people in their black community consider whiteness beautiful and blackness ugly. The title of the novel also provides some interesting insights about standards of beauty, the blue eye which only white people have; Pecola prays for every night and day because she thinks everything in her life will change if she has a pair of blue eyes.
I think Toni Morrison sets the foundation of the novel on these issues in an attempt to make African Americans aware that they do not have to conform to white standards on any level. Meanwhile Toni Morrison writes this novel to illustrate to the African American community how self-hatred will contribute to the loss of their community, as well as of their identity. The author also implies that the social forces that shaped Pecola’s tragedy are still in our society. Our country is land of immigrants. Our nation is one with high diversity. We should learn to love not only our skins but also white and all skins.
And we love white skins because they’re human flesh but not because their skins are white. White skin doesnt mean it is lovable and black or other color skin doesnt mean it is not lovable. I believe that we should love and respect ourselves first before anybody else can love and respect us. Confidence is the key to our success. We should never look down upon us. Because Pecolas family and their community lose their confidence; lose their goal for their life, they cant find their value in the society. That is where Pecolas tragedy comes from.
