The Bluest eye – Toni Morrison
Adil Baradia – DP1
COMMENTARY
In the autumn section of the bluest eye, by Toni Morrison, the most intriguing passage that I have read occurs in the pages 33-34, beginning with; ”Letting herself breathe easily now...” and ending with; “those pretty eyes.” This passage is particularly unique in the sense that it exposes a lot about Pecola’s situation at that time, her character, her feelings and emotions as well as her desires. The writer uses a number of different literary devices to convey these elements of Pecola’s character.
Throughout the passage there has been a conspicuous repetition of the words ‘eye’ , ‘picture’ , ‘sight’ and ‘faces’. It seems like the writer is trying to make a connection to racism through this emphasis. I get this idea because racism is a very superficial, external subject of discrimination and it is due to the external picture or sight of someone that triggers this form of it. Relating this to Pecola’s character you can see that she is a product of racism, her feeling of inadequacy due to her features is very apparent in this passage. In the fourth paragraph of page 33, “Little parts of her body faded away...they were always left,” shows how much she is despised by what she refers to as her ugliness; pg 34 “as long as she was ugly”, an idea implanted into her and many other black girls by the whites.
