As an outsider, John takes his values from a writer: William Shakespeare. John’s extensive knowledge of Shakespeare’s works serves him in several important ways: it enables him to verbalize his own complex emotions and reactions, it provides him with a framework from which to criticize World State values, and it provides him with language that allows him to hold his own against the rhetorical skill of Mustapha Mond during their confrontation. Shakespeare’s works embody all of the human and humanitarian values that have been abandoned in the World State. Going along with that, it seems that John’s very life is a work of Shakespeare. John rejects the shallow happiness of the World State. He is unable to reconcile his love and lust for Lenina. Also his eventual suicide. These are themes reflected in Shakespeare’s works including Romeo and Juliet and also Macbeth.
At first, John has a somewhat naïve, optimist feeling about the World State. When he comes into direct contact with the State, John is crushed. The title of the novel, “Brave New World” which originates from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, takes on an increasingly bitter, ironic, and pessimistic tone as John becomes more educated about the State. This is clearly seen as he repeats those very words in Chapter 11 at the sight of dozens of identical twins in a factory. John’s participation in the final orgy and his suicide at the end of the novel can be seen as the result of an insanity created by the conflict between his values and the reality of the world around him.
In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, Pecola is the protagonist. Even though this may be true, she is passive and remains a mysterious character throughout the novel. In fact, it is Claudia MacTeer who is the primary narrator. Morrison explains in her novel’s afterword that she purposely tells Pecola’s story from other points of view. She does this to keep Pecola’s dignity and, to some degree, her mystery intact. Morrison wishes to prevent us from labeling/stereotyping Pecola or prematurely believing that as readers, they may understand her. Pecola is a very fragile and delicate child when the novel begins, and by the novel’s close, she has been almost completely destroyed by violence.
In the prelude of the novel, Claudia says, (see quote 2nd paragraph). Here, Pecola is indirectly referred to dirt which shows the troubles they are handed. Also, Claudia remembers that she and Frieda blamed each other for the failure of the marigolds to grow one summer, but now she wonders if the earth itself was hostile to them—a darker, more radical possibility. The idea of blame is important because the book continually raises the question of who is to blame for Pecola’s suffering.
At the beginning of the novel, two desires form the basis of her emotional life. First, in Chapter 1, Pecola asks (see quote p.32, dialogue) and as the reader goes on, he reads (see quote p.32, last paragraph). So that’s the first desire; she wants to learn how to get people to love her. In Chapter 3, Pecola is forced to witness her parents’ brutal fights. Then and there, she simply wants to disappear. Pecola prays, (see quote p. 45, 1st paragraph and into 3 lns of the 2nd). Neither wish is granted, and Pecola is forced further and further into her fantasy world, which is her only defense against the pain of her existence. From this stems belief that being granted the blue eyes that she wishes for would change both how others see her and what she is forced to see. At the beginning of the novel, (see quote p. 19, 4th paragraph) and later on, Claudia explains (see quote p. 23, 2nd paragraph, 2nd ln). Pecola adores Shirley Temple. Her excessive and expensive milk-drinking from the Shirley Temple is part of her desire to internalize the values of white culture. This is a symbolic moment that foreshadows her desire to possess blue eyes.
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 much 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.”
Pecola is also a symbol of the black community’s self-hatred and belief in its own ugliness. Others in the community, including her mother, father, and Geraldine, act out their own self-hatred by expressing hatred toward her. At the end of the novel, we are told that Pecola has been a scapegoat for the entire community. Her ugliness has made them feel beautiful, her suffering has made them feel comparatively lucky, and her silence has given much to talk about. But because she continues to live after she has lost her mind, Pecola’s aimless wandering at the edge of town haunts the community, reminding them of the ugliness and hatred that they have tried to suppress. She becomes a reminder of human cruelty and a symbol of human suffering.
Both characters are brought into a restrictive society that leads them on to a life of madness, and in John’s case: death. John’s suicide result of an insanity created by the conflict between his values and the reality of the world around him. As for Pecola, she simply goes into the state of insanity. However, as stated earlier, her fate is much worse than death because she must continue to live in that insanity rather than be released from it.