"Pecola Breedlove" protagonist character of "The Bluest Eye"

■  About Author :-

Toni Morrison is a great American writer. she is a black lady who live in society to face many problems. Her earlier life and adulthood started between 1949-1974 and she started writing and teaching between the year 1970-1986.she wrote many great novel and received many prize. 'The Bluest Eye' is her famous novel.

                    

             Now let us discuss the main character of 'The Bluest Eye'.

■  Pecola Breedlove: The protagonist of the novel :-

                Pecola is the twelve year old and the protagonist of the novel 'The Bluest Eye',but despite this central role she is passive and remain a mysterious character Morrison explain in her novel.Afterward that she purposly tells Pecola's story from other points of view to keep pecola's dignity and to some extent her mystery intact.she wishes to prevent us from labeling Pecola or prematurely believing that we understand her. 

■  Her two desires:-

                   Pecola is a fragile and delicate child when the novel begins, and by the novel's close she has been almost completely destroyed by violence .At the beginning of the novel ,two desires from the basis of her emotional life these are,

● She wants to learn how to get people to love her.

● when forced to witness her parent's brutal fight ,she simply wants to disappear.

 Neither wish is granted ,and Pecola is forced further and further into her fantacy world which is her only defense against the pain of her existence. She is not allow any release from her world .She simply moves to,

           

            "The edge of town where you can see her even now."

■  Pecola: as a symbol of black community:-

               Pecola is also a symbol of the black community's self hatred and belief in its own ugliness .Other in the community , including her mother ,father and Geraldine act out of their own self hatred by expressing hatred toward her.

              At the end of the novel ,we are told that Pecola has been a scapegoat for the entire community. Her ugliness has made them feel beautiful, her suffering has made them feel comparatively lucky and her silence has given them the opportunity for speaking. But because she continues to live after she has lost her mind.

■  Only friend of Claudia and Frieda:-

        

                       Except for Claudia and Frieda , Pecola has no friends. she is ridiculed by most of the other children and is insulted and tormented by black school boys because of her dark skin and coarse features.

                    She realized that no one except Claudia and Frieda will play with her, socializing with her or be seen with her.

■  Pecola's  Isolation:-

                     Many people looked down on Pecola, treated her differently. This led to her Isolation. Long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness  that made her ignored or despite at school by teachers and classmate alike. she was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk. The first letter of her last name forced her to sit in the front of the room always but Marie was in front of her but she shared a desk with Luke Angelino .Her teachers had always treated her this way.

                 She also knew that when one of the girls at school wanted to be particularly insulting to a boy ,or wanted to get response from him ,she could say,  

              

               "Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove! Bobby loves Pecola Breedlove!"

                 In addition ,after school one day ,a group of boys circle around Pecola and begin making fun of her chanting ,

                "Black e mo. Black e mo. Yadaddssleepnekked. Black e mo. Black e mo."

            Here we see "her schoolmates name her darker shade of skin as too ugly to accept".

■  Pecola: The victim of society's people:-

   

                     She is always the victim of ,always the object of other's wrath. Pauline abuses Pecola when she accidently  spil the cobbler all over the floor of the Fisher's kitchen, Junior tricks her into his house for the sole purpose of tormenting her, Geraldine hurts Pecola's feelings when she throws Pecola out of her house and calls her "Black" as if to insult her and Mr. Yacobowski degrades her by refusing to touch her hand to take her money. Maureen buys her an ice cream cone in order to "get into her business "and she is psychologically abused by the degrading condition under which she and her brother ,Sammy ,live as they watch their parents abuse one another.

■  Pray for blue Eye:-

                   Pecola's response to this pressure is a desire to have blue eyes , which to her are central to being beautiful , she feels that she would be able to transcend the ugliness of her life and change the behavior of her parents .she worships the white icons of the 1940. She drinks three quarts of milk at the MacTeer's house. So, that she can use the cup with shirley Temple's picture on it,buys Mary Janes at the candy store.so that she can admire the picture of the blond-haired ,blue eyed girl on the wrapper, and even resorts to contacting Soaphead church ,thinking that perhaps he can make her eyes blue .By the novel's end ,Pecola truly believes she has blue eyes.

■  Raped by her Father:-

                     All of the isolation ,self blame and negativity of Pecola's life finally escalates when she in the kitchen washing dishes  and her father ,who is extremely drunk ,become overwhelmed with sexual desire and rapes his young daughter. This incestual act does nothing but bring out more sympathy for the protagonist. In using the causal argument one sees that this terrible act is brought on by Pecola's ugliness and her inability to meet society's standard beauty. Pecola then became pregnant and is asked to leave school .It is during this time that she begins to slip into her madness .She develops an imaginary friends to whom she speaks about her "new blue eyes ".With her new friends Pecola talks about how blue and beautiful her eyes and how jealous everyone is of them. The reader learns that even this internal dialoguing of Pecola does not bring her solace because she is afraid the eyes given her by Soaphead church are not blue enough.

■  Conclusion:-

   End of the novel she meets only destruction as she descends into insanity after the death of her child, finding emotional nourishment in her belief that she not only has blue eyes but has the bluest of them all.