The bluest eyes is a tragic novel which describes the abuse and torture
protagonist Pecola was subjected to. Pecola was a young American girl. Her mother knew that her black daughter will not grow up to be an attractive girl. The story in the novel happened in 1940. It is narrated by Claudia, a girl two- year -old younger than Pecola. In a white dominated period, Pecola, a black girl, began to believe: if her skin is white, her life would be much better. And she also regarded blue eyes as a symbol for a white. She saw his father Jolly with broken dreams, gradually becoming a mob. What’s more, as an African-American, her father also constantly suffered from frustration and humiliation; her mother Pauline worked as a maid into a clean and neat white family. On a spring afternoon, Pecola's father returned home after drinking wine, and he raped Pecola. At that time, there were only she and her father at home. When her father raped her again, she was pregnant. Because of the physical and psychological damage, Picola more eager to escape from the reality, so she visited liar priest Micah. Pecola asked Micah to give her a pair of blue eyes. For money, Micah claimed to be able to help Pecola realize her dream, but Pecola must perform a task for him first. Micah had long wanted to get rid of a sick old dog. He then gave Pecola a piece of poisonous meat to feed the old dog, and told that only in this way could she realize her dream. The old dog struggled bitterly after eating the poisonous meat and eventually died, which frightened pecola very much. This fear, in addition to the rape incidence, makes Pecola mad. she completely lost contact with reality. Pecola thought she has a pair of blue eyes, and imagined that she had a close friend time who is always by her side and value her.
The novel represents the racial discrimination against the blacks and the dominant white culture’s destructive impact on the black’s cultural mutilation in American society. To Pecola, blue eyes symbolize the beauty and happiness that she associates with the white, middle-class world. They also come to symbolize her own blindness, for she gains blue eyes only at the cost of her sanity. The “ bluest ” eye could also mean the saddest eye.
The root of the tragedy of pecola is the discrimination against the black. Almost none of us will ever feel surprised when hearing that the black have been living under discrimination. In the past, the black did not have equal rights in politics, and met unfair treat in life. They were treated no better than animals. What’s more, they were even treated as slaves, bought and sold from a buyer to another, and from home to a place far away. The tragic life of the black comes into our eyes during reading these books, leading us to think over the misery.
It seemed that it was Cholly who spoiled Pecola. Actually it was the social system in America, the value system and the aesthetic standard based on the social discrimination which are the roots of Pecola’s tragedy. In that period, uniform aesthetic standard was white skin, blue eyes. Furthermore, black people are inferior to white people. In fact, black people have their own culture. If they can stick to and live in their own culture, the tragedy may be avoided. This innocent girl should have lived happily under the black people culture. But her parents, classmates and villagers told her that she was inferior to white people. Black skin was ugly and antipathetic. The doll which was given to Claudia as birthday present was a white girl, white skin and a pair of big blue eyes. The picture published on the sweet wrappers was a lovely white girl. The shop owners were hostile to her. Pecola awared that all these were attributed to her black skin. People around told her that black girl was not popular, which led to her tragedy. What’s worse, black boys despised and bullied her. They were despised by white people, so they gave vent to black girls because males were superior to females. It was them who spoiled themselves. They regarded white people’s aesthetic standard as theirs. Inevitably, they despised themselves. When she was conscious, she was torturous. Now she was released from the torture. She thought she owned a pair of blue eyes and lived under this kind of satisfaction. What a satire, obnubilation becomes a person’s saviour. But at that time, it was absolutely true. Toni Morrison uncovers that black people should recognize their own value, stand on their own culture and then absorb other nations’ strength, instead of losing themselves in other nations’ culture.
The Bluest Eye shows the discrimination of the black and their tragic life through description of different characters’ misfortune in different periods, such as the youth of Cholly and Mrs Breedlove and the time when Pecola stayed with my sister and me(the narrator). All their misfortune was caused by discrimination, and made up the whole story. And it seemed that they should have lived easily and happily, far away from the disturbance of the white. However, things do not turn out the way you want, their life still went under discrimination, and the discrimination filled everywhere in their life. And they even began to complain about the fact that they are black instead of hating the white. They even thought discrimination was common and they deserved it. Though the black lived together with the white in the same world, they seemed to live in two totally different levels.
At the beginning of the story, the author makes a description of harsh and difficult life situation of the black, showing us the survival environment and status of the black in that dark society. In the American society, the black are marginalized by mainstream society. Economic and political oppression makes them in darkness and silence, and black culture is also gradually replaced by white culture, resulting in the absence of their own culture. Therefore, they deny their own social status. As a part of the society, the black are not respected, also not be accepted and recognized, not to speak to be concerned about. Instead, they are often ridiculed and mocked by the white. All these are proved by Pecola's father Charlie’s first dating experience. Charlie first dated with the black girl Linda and made a love, which accidentally met by two white people who made them go on sexual activity in the flashlight. This makes Charlie deeply irritated. For a long time, the black live in the dark and the oppression of the white, but they are unable to resist. They even begin to accept the unfair fate and abandon their black culture and values.
The tragedy happened to Pecola makes every reader feel a pity, and disappointed about the discrimination. I am sure that there must be something similar going on everywhere in the world. However, it is useless to complain about it, and aimless rebellion is useless, too. The first and most important thing for the black to do is to change their concept and awareness about themselves. The concept is that black people were born equally with white people, in politics, and in the right of living on the same world, and white people have nothing better that is worth admiring。