As far as this form of violence is concerned, it is important to note down that Toni Morrison does not completely condemn the actions of Pecola’s parents. Indeed, she has previously described their childhood, which makes us see things a little bit different. As regards Cholly’s childhood, we suddenly understand that his physical violence comes from his sad past. Firstly, we know that his scarcity of love and his no sense of fatherhood come from the fact that he never knew his own parents. Secondly, he always lived in the middle of the violence and when he grew up, he became an oppressor. Therefore, he is not born with the tendency to hurt people instead he is taught to do so when himself is hurt, which is why he fights his wife Pauline and rapes his daughter. Now it is important to say that Pecola’s mother’s violence comes also from her difficult childhood. However, she had parents but they neglected her and brought her in a world where the ideal beauty and life was the white middle class. She has so been herself hurt by the oppressive adults and racist ideology. Measured against this concept on physical beauty, Pauline is ugly,and this leads her on the one hand to accept her assigned role on the hierachy of colour, beauty and privilege and on the other hand, it leads her to negate her own race and deny her own beauty. Therefore, Pauline learns to love her employer’s white child and despise her own daughter. All this is very well reflected in her contempt for her own daughter Pecola or anyone in her family. It can be seen in the chapter of spring in the first section when the little girl asks Mrs Breedlove “who [the black girls] were” and Pauline answers “Don’t worry none, baby” (p.109). That shows us very well that Pecola is born in a world of ideologized beauty. Indeed her mother despises her because for her Pecola is ugly,which leads the desire of Pecola to have blue eyes in order that her parents would see her beautiful. Moreover, Pecola thinks that if she had blue eyes her parents would stop fighting and it would stop with violence.
The other aspect of violence in the book is the presence of racism. It is interesting to notice that there are different forms of racism. The first expression of this violence appears between black people namely between the same race. In fact, they believe the stereotypes about their own race and imagine that European American are superior in beauty, morality and intelligence. This is represented in the book by physical violence and verbal abuse mainly throughout Pecola’s character. Indeed, she is always victim of cruel and brutal jokes, which usually refer to her very dark skin and her dismembered family. For instance, once in the playground four young black boys hold her hostage inside a small circle that they had formed and were tormenting her by chanting about her blackness and father’s supposed habit of sleeping naked, as if they were not black themselves. It is important to pay attention to the fact that if racism is coming from your own race , it also hurts and the wound left is more severe and painful. This physical violence here increases psychological violence in Pecola, which is one of the causes of her destruction.
As far as this problem is concerned, a more ambiguous category of racism exists. It is a racism, which distinguishes between black people and coloured people. This latter has a lighter colour of skin and at this time the lighter your are the better it is. If we look at the chapter with Geraldine and her son Junior, this thinking is very well transcribed. In fact, Geraldine explains to her son that there is a “difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. Colored people were not neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud. He belonged to the former group:” (p.87). This very cruel passage demonstrates the strength and extent that this concept could reach at this time. Moreover, it goes further with Junior’s character. He uses this ideology of superiority, which has been imposed to him, in order to make jokes to the other children. And this is expressed through his violent behaviour against Pecola right at the end of winter chapter when Pecola “stepped inside the door…..
She was deep in admiration of the flowers when Junior said, “ Here!” Pecola turned.
“Here is your kitten!” he screeched. And he threw a big black cat right in her face.
She sucked in her breath in fear an d surprise and felt fur in her mouth….Junior
was laughing and running around the room clutching his stomach delightedly. Pecola
touched the scratched place on her face and felt tears coming . When she started
toward the doorway, Junior leaped in front of her. “You can’t get out. You’re my
prisoner, “he said. His eyes were merry but hard….”No!” He pushed her down, ran
out the door that separated the rooms, and held it shut with his hands. Pecola’s
banging on the door increased his gasping, high-pitched laughter. (pp.89-90)
Once again Pecola is the victim of the cruelty from people of her own race, which indicates that hatred of blackness often comes from blacks. In this scene, like in the whole novel, it is interesting to note that both verbal and physical violence are present. This two forms lead to another one, which is psychological. Firstly, we will examine the presence of verbal abuse through Junior’s behaviour. This is transcribed in his sharp, offensive and brutal words that he uses as in “Here is your kitten! he screeched”(p.89) and in the short answer “No!” (p.89) . In addition, he is a real sadist and he is proud of what he is doing, which describes a form of strong violence inside himself. In other words, he has no scrupules for what he is doing to Pecola, in fact his own reason is to feel pleasure in being cruel. That is why ”[he] was laughing and running around the room clutching his stomach delightedly” (p.90). This violence is increased by the fact that Junior wants to do her “prisoner” and hold the door shut. So he dominates her, what is even more unbelievable because both are children and belong to the same race. Secondly, physical violence is seen in Junior’s action of throwing the cat to Pecola’s face, whose physical mark is “the cratched place on her face”. Then this violence increases to the point that “he pushed her down”. Here he really attacks her physically. Consequently, all these actions lead a psychological pain to Pecola, who is terrified and hurt deeper. That contributes to herself destruction and her descent into madness.
The last form of racism is the common one, that is to say between the black and white people. There is an interesting and main scene in the novel, which shows it, namely when Pauline is in the hospital giving birth to Pecola. Indeed, the doctors come by her bed and the attending physician says “these here women you don’t have any trouble with. They deliver right away and with no pain. Just like horses.The young ones smiled a little.” (pp.124-125). Here the verbal abuse is very strong and cruel. It is an unbelievable scene, which by the same way demonstrates up to where the racism can go. Indeed, the doctors dehumanize Pauline comparing her to an animal. So the gaze in this passage is very important, it shows the disdain and ignorance of the white people.
In conclusion, mixing all the forms of violence, Toni Morrison succeeded in highlighting the relevant aspect of the novel. The topic of violence, which is present from the beginning to the end of the book has been very well explored by her. The use of Pecola’s character as the victim of all this cruelty has made the novel even more touching and moving. All this pushes the reader to have a critical point of view despite the focalized narrator Claudia. Nevertheless, the top of this violence is the presence of racism. Morrison has exploited both white/black racism and black/black racism. The latter is found to be especially prevalent and revolting in this novel. However, is it very reasonable to condemn the oppressors , are they not also victims of their past or ancestors ideology ? It creates an ambiguous question that everyone is free to interprete and makes the novel even more rich.
