The Bluest Eye

      I recently finished reading "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison. This well written novel is about a young girl named Pecola Breedlove, and her longing to be accepted by the people around her. Pecola has had to deal with people being mean and rude to her all her life. As a young girl, all she wants is to feel important and to be loved by someone--anyone. She soon starts to believe that the reason the other people treat her this way is because of her "dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes" and only way to be happy and get people to care about her is if she has blue eyes and was blonde. Her minor longing soon becomes a obsession, as over time she starts to have more trouble dealing with the neglect.
      One relationship that I found especially sad was with her own parents. Cholly Breedlove and Mrs. Breedlove both were horrible people who abused each other and made their children feel awful. In the book, they describe Pecola's brother Sammy's opinion on all the fighting. "He was known, by the time he was fourteen, to have run away from home no less than twenty-seven times." Pecola's method of dealing with the fighting was much different. She was too shy to do anything, yet she couldn't bear to live with it. "She struggled with an overwelming desire that one would kill the other and a profound wish that she herself would die." I think this line is really strong because it shows just how miserable she is. All she wants to do is change the situation, even if that means one of her parent--or even herself--having to die.
         Another relationship that is especially strong is the relationship within herself. She struggles to find the cure of her brown eyes and dark skin, and while doing so, she still has to put up with other people's dicrimination as well. Her father Cholly especially treats her badly. He sexually abuses her, until she becomes pregnent. Cholly tells his wife that it was all Pecola's fault, leading to her mother becoming very angry with her and later phyically abusing Pecola.
       The girls at school, or in the town are also awful to her. Two girls bully her about her family and about how poor she is. They make fun of her, and they make sure that the whole school knows to ignore her and not talk or like her. One day they make fun of her father Cholly by calling him "black." Pecola takes that to much offence, and she says something back to the girl--only the girl replies with, " 'You think you so cute!' I swung at her and missed, hitting Pecola in the face. Furious at my clumsiness, I threw my notebook at her, but it caught her in the small of her velvet back, for she had turning, and was flying across the street against the traffic." The girls seem really mean to her, and I am surprised she was able to deal with them so long.

By the end of the book she goes to a man who she is convinced will help her get blue eyes. He tells her that she just has to poison an animal, and then she will get the eyes. She does so, and by the end, she is completely convinced that she has the blue eyes that she has been yearning for, even though she does not. This book was terribly sad, but it was also a great book. It made me feel and think a lot about what life would have been like as a african-american girl or person growing up in the 1960's. I feel awful for Pecola, because although this is a fictional book, I do believe that people in the 1960's have gotten treated that way in the past, as dicrimination was a big problrm at the time.