LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:1 January 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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A Traumatized Girl:
Pecola’s Struggle in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Wen-hsiang Su, Ph.D.

Abstract

In her first novel, published in 1970, Toni Morrison used The Bluest Eye to depict an African-American girl, Pecola, who was yearning for a pair of blue eyes, a symbol of beauty. Morrison raised the issue of racial discrimination dominated by a white society, and she made Pecola become the victim alienated by both her own people and society at large. With an inferiority complex, Pecola, constantly regarded as ugly, experienced an extremely different childhood compared with others of her age. From being despised by her classmates to being abandoned by her own mother, and even to being raped by her own father, Pecola suffered psychological and physical deprivation in a world where most of the people adapted a white moral standard. This paper will discuss how these incidents turn Pecola into an individual reflecting the sickness of and calling for revolt against an unjust world.

Keywords: Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, African-American, racial discrimination, inferiority complex.

Introduction

Different from other writers, Toni Morrison adopted a fairy tale-like passage repeated three times in different formats as a way to demonstrate the white dominance over black people at the beginning of The Bluest Eye.

The first format deploys perfect structures and punctuation, through which Morrison symbolizes a harmonious family where every member seemed carefree and enjoyed a happy life. This short passage about a happy family corresponds to a white American family, organized, and idealized. The perspective presented in this passage represents a dramatic contrast to the lives of a section of the black people whose life can never meet the standard, which is far from attainable, as the passage indicates.

The second format, using the same description but run-on structures and no punctuation, symbolizes the MacTeer family whose life, though failing to compete with the white family, at least, represents an attainable way of living. Morrison chose not to use any punctuation in order to “show[s] some disorder in a world that could be orderly” as well as to criticize the ignorance of society about black families (Ogunyemi 113). Better than most black families, the MacTeers, a family of four, still maintain the capacity to provide the basic necessities for the family members, and they even reach out their hands to care for Pecola.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Wen-hsiang Su, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Shih Chien University Kaohsiung Campus
Taiwan
whsu@g2.usc.edu.tw
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