I completed the reading of The Bluest Eye and I certainly enjoyed it. In my research assignment, I chose to focus on the violence in the novel because it was so apparent throughout the entire book. Pecola is a victim of violence and even rape by her own father. Her story is so tragic and powerfully devastating. Pecola grew up in such an abusive and un-loving family and it drives her into a yearning to be beautiful. The standards of the society around her sway her into this state of mind. She thinks that all the bad things that happen to her are because of her ugliness. Pecola blames her appearance for all the negative things that happen to her. This novel is unforgettable and definitely made a mark in my mind. Tragic stories like this one stay with me because there are so many underlying messages I learned from it. The tragedy of Pecola Breedlove helped me understand that adults have such a huge influence on children. It seems inevitable that children listen to everything adults teach them in the early stages of life. I know that so many girls even today feel like beauty is everything. They feel like being tall, thin, and beautiful will give them everything and solve all life’s problems. However, this is so untrue. Girls like Pecola must learn to love themselves to find true happiness. Girls need to learn to love and accept themselves for who they are. This is a problem we find in today’s society, as well as in the 1940s, the time of Pecola’s story. I found a great website with criticism and responses to the novel that give strong opinions about the book. There are Critical essays that give the reader a better understanding of the novel.

So this is my second post and I’m still trying to get used to this. My first post didn’t provide a lot about my own opinions about the novel, The Bluest Eye. I am about half way through the novel. Although it is an easy read, the plot challenges me over and over again. The main character Pecola is a character that will stick in my mind for a while. I find this novel to be extremely depressing and because of this, it is sometimes hard to pick up the book again and again. I did some research and it was interesting to learn that this book has been attempted to be banned in some schools and libraries because of its controversial nature of its themes of racism and even child molestation. In the novel, Morrison wrote, "The damage done was total. She spent her days, walking up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach - could not even see - but which filled the valleys of the mind." To me, these lines summarize the true tragedy of Pecola. I am really fascinated by the character Pecola. I feel so sorry for this poor innocent girl. The book is basically centered on Pecola’s tragedy and devastation. Her world is breaking as the novel continues. It is being destroyed slowly as her mind shatters. After researching some blogs on blogspot, I came across another blog that discusses this novel and I agreed with a lot the discussions. http://kevinbenham.blogspot.com/2008/01/toni-morrisons-bluest-eye.html.
In Kevin’s blog, I came across a point about Pecola’s family that I strongly agree with. Kevin says, “This is not a happy, loving family which gives support and a foundation of a healthy life to their children. And it just doesn’t end with the fact that they believed, which seems to stem from Mrs. Breedlove’s education in movies, that they are ugly.” This made me think about how the mother and father not happy with their own selves, so they take it out on each other and even the children. They even ignore the children as a result.

I thought this scene from a school play was a great visual of Pecola expressing her feelings. This gives me such a better understanding of what is really going on inside of her head. All the confusion and desperation really comes alive through this video.

The Start of The Bluest Eye

I am in the process of reading The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. This book grabbed my attention because it a part of Oprah’s book club and I highly respect Oprah and her philosophy. The Bluest Eye is also a winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and a national bestseller. In the novel, an eleven-year-old girl named Pecola Breedlove is caught up in this fascination for blonde, blue-eyed children and wishes that she had blue eyes as well in order to be beautiful. These characteristics unfortunately are what she thinks defines beauty. She seems to be desperate to have blue eyes. She prays and prays in hope to be something she is not. I am getting to experience this black girl’s universe through the novel’s events. I feel like this little innocent black girl wants to be a part of a white girl’s world for the loving attention that she is longing for. This novel is giving me a perspective of a black girl’s yearning and longing for “beauty.” This novel is a true test to a child’s innocence. Her father Cholly is a violent and drunk man who abuses both Pecola and her mother. I can see that her dysfunctional family situations spark Pecola’s unhappy existence. It is sad to see that Pecola thinks everything will be all right if only she had blue eyes and blonde hair. Morrison gives great depth and detail in chapter 2. Most of the objects are symbolic and meaningful to the novel’s purpose. I like how the novel is broken up by seasons, each being significant to the plot of the story.
Oprah’s website provided me with a lot of insight on the novel and its origin. It fully discusses how the novel came to be which is quite interesting. This website includes some readers own reactions to the novel. One woman named Diana said, “this book has served as a spiritual awakening to me, for it taught me to love my brothers and sisters for their humanity- not their color, religion, sexual persuasion but because we are one in the eyes of our beholder.” Sometimes reading other people’s reactions to the novel help build up my own opinions about it. I like comparing my own reactions to those other individuals who enjoyed the book. “Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" is an inquiry into the reasons why beauty gets wasted in this country” Leonard, John. The video i posted below is a great visual as to how this novel impacts the reader. This video includes significant quotes.