Jennifer Nneji
Monica Roman
The Bluest Eye
Chapter 6-7/ spring
Scholarly Perspective
“Morrison’s THE BLUEST EYE” by James Mayo
In this article Mayo suggests that Claudia feels empathy for Pecola instead of sympathy. He
states Morrison’s subtle hints of Claudia’s unknown rape; he considers the possibility that
Claudia and Frieda were victims of Church’s pedophilia. He provides two possible explanations
for her failure to bring up her own rape, either she represses her memories or that she is too
ashamed and guilty to come to terms with it. Mayo also discusses Morrison’s way of having the
reader be a part of this “conspiracy,” where the characters share their intimate secrets of the
traumatic events in their lives.
“Beauty, Virtue and Disciplinary Power: A Faoucauldian Reading of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest
Eye” by Lynn Scott.
Lynn compares Michel Foucault’s theories about the power framework in modern society with
Morrison’s exploration of American racism in the “Bluest Eye”, showing that racism is not just
about exclusion, but is also associated with pressure to assimilate to cultural ideals of beauty and
virtue. He shows how knowledge and truth are constituted in discourse, and also that discourse is
both consulted by and consulting of institutions. To Lynn, the novel used historical reflection to
unmask the structures of power within the society. Lynn believes Morrison shows how closely
associated the discourses of virtue and beauty really are, and how they act together to reinforce
one another.
Themes/Issues
Sexual Abuse: This is a major issue that carries out through the book. Morrison describes the
way the characters become victims of this abuse mainly because of their race and economic
situation. There are instances in which Morrison explains these events occurring to little girls
who live in poverty so they are bribed into these acts. Soaphead Church seems to think he is
innocent and is not hurting anyone and instead he justifies his acts by calling it “love.”
“Two of them, Doreen and Sugar Babe, they’d come together. I gave them mints, money, and
they’d eat ice cream…” (181) “…loving them at awkward times of the day, and in awkward
places… loving those which belonged to members of my family.” (178)
What do you think about Soaphead’s validation on his actions? And what is Morrison saying
about sexual victimization?
Keeping of Secrets: In order to avoid the feeling of shame and guilt or being the talk of the town
the families keep secrets about their personal situations. Pauline keeps her secrets by not making
Pecola’s rape public and the fact that her husband beats her in order to avoid her self-loathing to
get worse. Pecola keeps secret the second time her father rapes her as her mom did not believe
the first time she was raped. In a way this is Pauline’s way of avoiding the situation and keeping
it secret by forcing Pecola to feel shame and guilt; which in turn causes her to keep quiet.
Why did Pauline not protect her daughter when she was hurt?
Jennifer Nneji
Monica Roman
Internalized Racism/Anger vs. passiveness: Claudia has a more stable home life than Pecola,
and has not been taught so directly that she is ugly. Claudia and Frieda have yet to believe the
lies of their society, lies which devalue them for their skin color, and highly prize light-skinned
African Americans and white people. They respond to the internalized racism of their
community in its treatment of the light-skinned Maureen Peel with plans to sabotage her
perfection, reveal her faults. In contrast to them, when a fight about their skin color breaks out
between Maureen, Pecola, Claudia and Frieda, Pecola assumes a passive posture; she “tucked her
head in-- a funny, sad, helpless movement.” When the fight is over, Pecola seemed to “fold into
herself, like a pleated wing.” The sight, to Claudia, was so irritating that she wanted to “open her
up, crisp her edges, ram a stick down that hunched and curving spine, force her to stand erect and
spit the misery out on the streets.”
What made Claudia and Pecola react so differently to racism?
Race vs. Gender: Geraldine has raised a son who acts out the cruelty of an unloved existence on
those weaker than he is. In Junior, Morrison demonstrates the linkage between racist oppression
and gender oppression. Not surprisingly, Pecola is on the very bottom of social estimation, lower
even than a blue-eyed black cat.
“I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!”
What is the significance of the figure of Jesus she sees at the end of the chapter?
What is the significance of the black cat in the story?
Colored People vs. Niggers: Colored people were depicted, by Geraldine, as different from
“Niggers.” While colored people were well groomed and well dressed, niggers were walking
around naked, and were seen as corrupt. Junior’s mother had taught him the distinction between
“colored people” and “niggers.” She told him that colored people were “neat and quiet” while
niggers were “dirty and loud.” “Niggers” also seemed to have a more violent air about them.
Geraldine is color-struck. A societal depiction of the perfect colored female, she believes in a
strict hierarchy of worth based on skin color with the colors closest to white being esteemed the
best. She has adopted a strict code of respectability, often used by working-class people to
emulate the middle-class lifestyle. This code involves denying the body’s pleasures, keeping the
home sacrosanct, imposing a distance between one’s own group and those people one notch
lower on the hierarchy of class and color. In other words, she learned to “do the white man’s
work with refinement” and most especially learned “how to get rid of funkiness.” From Junior’s
point of view, they were not good enough for him. Yet, he wanted to feel their “hardness
pressing on him, smell their wild blackness, and say ‘fuck you’ with that lovely casualness.” His
mother saw in Pecola all that she had been running from all her life. She called her a “nasty little
black bitch” and ordered her out of the house.
Literary Elements
Metaphor: Blue eyes
Irony: “What could go wrong?”
Symbolism: blue eyes, strawberries and summer
Repetition: Black, Ugly, Pretty
Motif: Autumn, Winter, Summer, Dick and Jane, Colored, Family