The Bluest Eyes
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The Bluest Eye
Through the eyes of Claudia, she experienced, abuse, prostitution, rape of a child, the ignorance of prejudice, and the loss of innocence. Pecola mocked often for her dark skin, hair, and eyes, she desired the blond hair and blue eyes that she thought would make her better. She experienced severe hardship as a child and was not resilient. Pecola was permanently damaged, emotionally, and mentally from her experiences of sexual abuse of her Father.
Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola spend a lot of time together. The two girls are introduced to Pecola. They are amused by Mr. Henry, being silly with them and calling them Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers. They were amused by him, initially. They were not used to any adult attention, much less positive as this was. The foundation for Claudias distrust of white people was established when she said, “I felt unsullied hatred. But before that I had felt a stranger, more frightening thing that hatred for all the Shirley Temples of the world.” (Morrison) The family simply mistook her dismembering her doll as a child who did not “know-how-to-take-care-of-nothing.” (Morrison) The young girls experienced Pecolas “ministration” (Morrison) for the first time. The author also introduced the Breedloves, Pecolas family.
Little Maureen Peal was a new girl in school. She was rich, by Claudia and Frieda. Their disdain for Maureen was based on jealousy because of her wealth, clothing, “complexion and her sloe green eyes.” (Morrison) They amused themselves by teasing her calling her “Six-finger-dog-tooth-meringue-pie.” (Morrison) Although the girls experienced a dislike for Caucasian individuals, they also experienced prejudices in their own group of friends. Pecola had a dark complexion and was mistreated by peers. She was teased and called, “Black e mo.” (Morrison) This was an odd self hatred for the darkness of their skin.
Mr. Henry had two women as lady friends, Maginot Line and China. Claudia and Frieda discovered that these two women were indecent, but they decided to not tell their mother about the visit/s Mr. Henry had in their home, since they did not eat off of her plates. Claudia and Frieda also discovered the differences of wealthy black people. It was an entirely different world to them.
Claudia found out what it was to be unable to comfort Frieda in her time of need. Freida had been molested by Mr. Henry and she did not know how to comfort her. She wanted to. Although young and uneducated Freida somehow fount away to distract Claudia from what just happened to her. In their innocence they sought out alcohol so that they would not be “ruined” (Morrison). Thats what brought them to Paulines house where Pecola was. They witnessed the abuse of Pecola by her mother and the favoritism of the young white child