The Bluest Eye Summary. it is published in 1970, the first novel written by Toni Morrison. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story is about how she is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her mannerisms and dark skin. As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness".
The novel is told from Claudia MacTeer's point of view. She is the daughter of Pecola's foster parents. In addition, there is an omniscient third-person narrative that includes inset narratives in the first person. The book's controversial topics of racism, incest, and child molestation have led to numerous attempts to ban the novel from schools and libraries in the United States.
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| The Bluest Eye Summary |
The Bluest Eye Summary
In Lorain, Ohio, nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer lives with her ten-year-old sister Frida with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was burned down by her troubled, drunk and sexually molested father. Pecola is a calm and submissive young girl, she grew up in a poor financial situation, her parents constantly quarreled both verbally and physically.
Pecola is constantly reminded that she is an "ugly" girl by members of her neighborhood and school community. In an attempt to beautify herself, Pecola wishes to become blue-eyed, a beauty standard that has taken root in her memory due to her gifting white dolls with blue eyes throughout her childhood. In addition, most of the chapter titles are derived from the dick and Jane paragraph in the novel's introduction, which shows a white family that may be the opposite image of the Pecola family. Chapter titles contain sudden repetitions of words or phrases, many truncated words, and without breaks between words.
Through artistic retrospectives, the novel reveals the earlier years in the lives of Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline, and their struggles as African Americans in a largely white Anglo-Saxon Protestant community. At the present time for the timeline of the novel Pauline works as a maid for a wealthy white family. One day, while Pecola is washing the dishes, a drunk Cholly rapes her. His motives were largely confused, which apparently was a mixture of love and hate. After raping her a second time, he runs away, leaving her pregnant.
Claudia and Frida are the only ones in the community who hope that Pecola's child will survive the coming months of the events of the novel. Therefore, they give up the money they were saving to buy a bicycle, and instead sow the seeds of the calendula plant (its scientific name: velvet) believing in a superstition that if the flowers bloom, the baby of Pecola will survive.
The flowers of the calendula plant have never bloomed, and the Pecola baby, who was born prematurely, dies. As a result, a dialogue appears in the novel between two sides of Pecola's delusional imagination, through which she refers to her conflicting feelings about being raped by her father. In this internal conversation, Pecola speaks as if she has been granted her desire to have blue eyes, and believes that the change in the behavior of those around her is due to her new eyes, and not because of the news of her rape or her increasingly strange behavior.
Claudia, as the narrator of the events for the last time in the novel, describes the recent phenomenon of Pecola's madness, and suggests that Cholly (who was dead by that time) probably showed Pecola the only love he is capable of by raping her. Claudia laments her belief that the whole society, including herself, used Pecola as a scapegoat to make themselves feel more beautiful and happier.
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The Bluest Eye Themes
Beauty vs. Ugliness: The novel centralizes the concept of beauty as a defining factor in one's worth, particularly in the context of a racist society. Pecola Breedlove, the protagonist, yearns for blue eyes, the symbol of white beauty standards that she believes will make her loved and accepted. The novel critiques this obsession with Eurocentric beauty and exposes its damaging impact on Black self-esteem and identity.
Race and Racism: The Bluest Eye is a powerful indictment of racism in America, highlighting its pervasive presence in everyday life and its devastating effects on Black individuals and communities. Pecola's internalized racism and desire for whiteness are directly linked to the racist messages she receives from society, media, and even within her own family. The novel challenges readers to confront the realities of racism and its lasting consequences.
Women and Femininity: The novel explores the complex experiences of Black women and girls within a patriarchal society. Pecola, her mother Cholly, and Pauline Breedlove all face different forms of oppression and marginalization due to their gender and race. The novel highlights the importance of female empowerment and the need to challenge societal expectations of femininity.
Innocence and Loss of Innocence: Pecola's journey is marked by a tragic loss of innocence, as she grapples with poverty, abuse, and the harsh realities of racism. Her desire for blue eyes represents a desperate attempt to escape this harsh reality and find acceptance, but ultimately leads her to a tragic downfall. The novel explores the fragility of innocence and the lasting impact of trauma on young minds.
Home and Family: The concept of home and family takes on a complex meaning in The Bluest Eye. Pecola's dysfunctional family life, marked by poverty, violence, and neglect, fails to provide her with the love and support she needs. The novel raises questions about the societal factors that contribute to broken families and the importance of creating safe and nurturing environments for children.
Self-Perception and Identity: Pecola's struggle for identity is central to the novel. Bombarded with negative messages about her Blackness and ugliness, she struggles to find a sense of self-worth and belonging. The novel challenges readers to consider how societal expectations and stereotypes influence our self-perception and identity formation.
Mental Health and Trauma: Pecola's descent into madness is a consequence of the trauma she experiences throughout her life. The novel explores the psychological effects of racism, abuse, and neglect, highlighting the importance of mental health awareness and support.
Hope and Resilience: Despite the bleakness of Pecola's story, the novel offers glimmers of hope and resilience. Characters like Claudia MacTeer and Soaphead Church offer alternative perspectives and possibilities for Black identity and self-acceptance. The novel reminds readers of the importance of hope and fighting for a better future even in the face of adversity.
Questions and Answers about The Bluest Eye Plot
What is the lesson of The Bluest Eye? The Bluest Eye explores the dangers of predominantly white beauty standards (blond hair, blue eyes) upon young African-Americans, as well as they toll they take in Black Culture at large.
What is the conclusion of Bluest Eye? At the end of the novel, Pecola's child dies, and she becomes insane due to the difficulties and traumatizing experiences she went through. The final reflection of Pecola's foster-sister Claudia provides insight into the main themes that Morrison aimed to highlight in his novel.
What is the theme of love in The Bluest Eye? In The Bluest Eye Morrison illustrates how deficient love can develop into a bitter, hazardous form of love. Morrison continues this theme in Sula and describes the pitfalls of deficient love and the dangers of being too dependent upon another person.
What does blue symbolize in The Bluest Eye? To Pecola, blue eyes symbolize the beauty and happiness that she associates with the white, middle-class world. They also come to symbolize her own blindness, for she gains blue eyes only at the cost of her sanity.
What happened to Pecola in the end? At the novel's end, she delusively believes that her wish has been granted, but only at the cost of her sanity. Pecola's fate is a fate worse than death because she is not allowed any release from her world—she simply moves to “the edge of town, where you can see her even now.”
Who is the protagonist in The Bluest Eye? The protagonist of the novel, an eleven-year-old Black girl who believes that she is ugly and that having blue eyes would make her beautiful. Sensitive and delicate, she passively suffers the abuse of her mother, father, and classmates. She is lonely and imaginative.
What is the feminism in The Bluest Eye? It demonstrates how the systems of oppression are sustained by the white supremacist and patriarchy. The Bluest Eye makes a scathing attack on the imposition of white standards of beauty on black women and the creation of cultural perversion.
What is the climax of The Bluest Eye? The climax of the plot is when Pecola is raped by her father, Cholly Breedlove, a troubled soul who is full of rage.
What is the climax of The Bluest Eye? The blue eye symbolizes the characteristic of white people. In other words, Pecola wants to become a girl with blue eyes so that she can be accepted and loved by the surrounding people and society. Influenced by the mass culture which means the culture of white people, Pecola follows it blindly.
What are the metaphors in The Bluest Eye? In The Bluest Eye, the author uses conceptual metaphors of dolls, seasons, birds, and flowers to depict the negative influence of racial discrimination and sexism on black people.
What does milk symbolize in The Bluest Eye? Milk has come to represent whiteness. Claudia and Frieda's mother, Mrs. MacMeer, calls Pecola greedy and claims that her excessive drinking of milk symbolizes her desire for whiteness. If Pecola continues to drink milk, then she will become white – this whiteness will somehow make her more beautiful.
What is the mental illness in The Bluest Eye? As a result, Pecola suffers from schizophrenia, and spend the rest of her life in her own world. She is influenced by perceptual distortion, rational disorganization, emotional instability and loss of control.