4. The chapters of The Bluest Eye are divided into the four seasons; however, they do not parallel with the archetype of each season. Spring is characterized as a time of blossom, rebirth, and renewal, but this is the season where Pecola is raped. It is almost as if she is being forced into her blossoming too soon. It is also the time when Claudia is reminded of being whipped with new stitches. Autumn is the season of harvesting, and to the contrary, it is the season where Pecola’s baby dies. The seasons of the novel illustrate a contrasting approach to nature, where nature is usually seen as benevolent.
5. Dandelions help her understand her position in society, and society attempts to weed out people like Claudia in attempts to better herself. Maureen Peel’s external beauty is the stem of dandelion. Humanities strive for perfection. Individuals see perfection and the lack there of.
Marigolds exhibit individual’s independence on the community. They survive with nourishment and constant watering, but people ignore Pecola’s need and desire; thus, the marigolds die
The cat: Geraldine feels close to the cat because he represents her place in society; clean and orderly and she looks down on the dirty “Negros”. Struggle for perfection tramples unique qualities. The fact that Pecola is in her house, she can’t stand it because filthy Pecola is standing next to her pristine cat which she believes is beautiful because of her blue eyes. The juxtaposition of Pecola and the cat leads to Geraldine screaming
Bob the dog is very filthy and Soaphead wants to kill him. He is the opposite of Geraldine’s cat
Soaphead exhibits Geraldine’s strive for cleanliness. Soaphead telling Pecola to kill Bob the dog emphasizes Pecola’s search for beauty because not only does she gain her blue eyes, but Soaphead also destroys his source of filth in his life by killing the dog.
6.THEMES:
Beauty:
Beauty if defined as the qualities that gives pleasure to the senses. Throughout the book, Pecola is on a quest to find blue eyes so that she will be accepted by society. Beauty in this book is standardized as being white and having blue eyes; thus, Pecola feels absolutely rejected by society to the point where she goes insane (then believes she has blue eyes). Geraldine believes she is superior to the dark skinned people and sees beauty in her blue-eyed cat. She maintains her house to keep up white standards where “little lace doilies were everywhere-on arms and back of chairs, in the center of a large dining table, on little tables” (Morrison 89). Pecola believes that she is becomes closer to the blue-eyes standard when “we knew she was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face (Morrison 23). Pauline neglected her family, possessions, and house because “it had no beauty and style”; thus, she believed she was a bigger part of the Fisher household (Morrison 127).
Claudia is the only character in the novel that foils this concept of beauty because “she destroys white dolls” (Morrison 22). This is because Claudia is still very young and has not been exposed to the expectations of society. Beauty plays an integral theme in this novel, and it play a crucial role in Pecola’s life when she becomes insane.
Abandonment:
Abandonment is seen several times throughout the novel and almost every character experiences this. The word abandon is defined as “to give up with the intent of never claiming again”. “Outdoors was the end of something, an irrevocable, physical fact, defining and complementing our metaphysical condition,” illustrates that being put outdoors is the worst type of abandonment possible because there is a large difference between being put out versus outdoors (Morrison 17). Cholly places even more shame on his family by putting them outdoors where he is described as “heartless enough to put one’s own kin outdoors-that was criminal. Cholly abandons his family because he comes from a milieu filled with abandonment. He was dumped by his mother; thus, he never had that incomparable mother-son relationship because she “placed him on a junk heap by the railroad” (Morrison 132). Because Cholly’s father left his mother, Cholly believed that I was okay to abandon Darlene when “it had occurred to him that Darlene might be pregnant” (Morrison 151). Morrison describes Cholly milieu as being “abandoned in a junk heap by his mother, rejected for a crap game by his father” (160). Pauline abandons her family when she cares more for the pristine white girl than Pecola when she drops the hot pie, for “power, praise and luxury were hers in this household (Fisher)” (Morrison 128). Another example of abandonment includes the fact that Geraldine abandons her son for her cat. Mrs. Breedlove also abandons Pecola because “into her daughter she beat a feat of growing up, fear of other people, fear of life” (Morrison 128).
Food:
Food plays a crucial role in the society of The Bluest Eye, for the food almost characterizes where the character stands in society. In normal circumstances food brings people together; however, in this novel the food ends up tearing the people apart. Aunt Jimmy’s last meal was a peach cobbler, and the next morning “Cholly went to empty the slop jar, she was dead” (Morrison 139). Pauline feels as though she loses her beauty when she took “a big bite of that candy, and it pulled a tooth right out of my mouth” (Morrison 123). She claims that “everything went then” and that she settled down to just being ugly (Morrison 124). After Maureen buys Pecola ice cream, they end their conversation in a rude fight where Maureen insults Pecola. Another example of food bringing conflict is when Pecola drops the berry cobbler and burns her hand; however, Pauline rushes to aid the little white girl in the pink. When the little girl asks who they are, Pauline replies, “Hush. Don’t worry none” (Morrison 109).
Incest/Loss of Innocence:
Incest is almost a universal act of sin. Cholly rapes Pecola, and she is unaware that she is losing her innocence because she is only “trying to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her” (Morrison 163). Pecola matures the fastest out of the young characters in the novel when she is the first to have “a brownish-red stain discolor on the back of her dress” (Morrison 27). Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola are further exposed to maturity because Pecola is now physically capable of having a baby. Cholly loses his innocence in complete embarrassment in front of two white men while he is having sex in front of Darlene. Cholly froze in embarrassment when “his body remained paralyzed” (Morrison 148). The characters experience public humiliation in their milieu which contributes to the way they act around their family and society.
Roots and Community:
It is the community and society’s fault for creating the standard of beauty. Innocent Pecola is driven to the point of insanity because she wants blue eyes to become accepted. The reader understands that Pecola is already rejected from society because her family is put outdoors which is considered “the real terror of life” (Morrison 17). Because Pecola’s milieu starts off as very rotten, it can be foreshadowed that the terror, shame, and guilt, will follow her throughout the book. All of the characters’ milieu reflect how they are characterized and interact with each other. Cholly group up without his mother and farther; thus, he has becomes this languid man who consequently rapes his daughter.
7. Although I found the use of the children’s primer very confusing, I soon understood the significance. The excerpts from the children’s primer progress into unreadability or chaos. This primer represents an idealized picture of childhood, family life, and home. Because the purpose of this primer to teach children how to read, this foreshadows that the book will concern how children learn to interpret their world. Because the punctuation and grammar is changed, the reader becomes uncomfortable with the shortness and abruptness of the excerpt. These primers lack cohesion; also, the children in this novel lack ways to connect the disjointed (often frightening experiences). Although this primer sees very ideal and perfect, Jane is left in isolation, for everyone seems to refuse and direct communication with her. The lack of connections between sentences mirrors the lack of connection between the individuals in this story. The repetition implicitly warns us to expect a story that is vivid but fragmented.
