The Bluest Eye 2

One thing I have learned in reading Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is how little I truly knew of the details of racism prior to reading this book. Of course I understood the concept – but having grown up in a relatively sheltered community with a very open-minded family surrounding me, I have never had the experience of witnessing racism directed at any particular person or group. Nor have I had it inflicted upon me. Morrison is incredibly gifted not only at telling one of a billion stories of racism clearly and effectively, she is able to do so in a way that people like me – with little firsthand experience regarding the subject – are able to not only grasp the deeper meaning of the story but can actually put themselves in the shoes of the characters in the novel.(image courtesy of:http://www.lemel.co.il/global/racism.jpg).As professor Bump himself notes in his article on race and appearance in the Bluest Eye, “I would suggest that ultimately [the thing] is judging by appearance, and that Morrison focuses on ugliness to enable white readers to feel something of what it is like to be judged by racial hierarchies of skin color and the master and family narratives that reinforce them,” (Course Anthology, 332).Essentially, as a result of Morrison’s writing and storytelling talent, I find myself feeling the pain of each of the characters uniquely; not a fun experience, but probably a necessary one for me.

Particularly, I find myself feeling for Claudia and Pecola, especially when it comes to their self-esteem, which seems to be continually brought to a lower level with each “life experience” they undergo. Last class I wrote about Claudia’s hatred for a white doll she received as a gift and about how her intense hatred for and jealousy of the doll drove her to destroy it.(Claudia HATED her little white doll - for many reasons that later bled into her real life with real white individuals and "whiter" African American girls like Maureen . image courtesy of:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLfz83V1vwO6b5sZuckfh8TL35EEYNRpNpcFc7QVYsFAJqPlYQnt_kswhItw3uPHddFxfS2bFUf037-VmBF77KCcTKXGNz1EQN4xXXLzYgoH13KpWfCOHqbsrcN4oDY-eWOFn3cgIghM/s320/Bluest+Eye+Web+Image.jpg). So, when I read about Claudia and Pecola’s interactions with Maureen Peal – the lighter skinned African American student whom the girls were both mystified by and jealous of. Though they get along originally, Maureen’s constant questioning of the girls eventually leads to a full-scale argument, where Maureen ends up shouting at the girls, “I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos! I am cute!” (Morrison, 73). When I read this, I admit I was surprised. Ignorantly, I had never understood the concept of racism within a single race. Now I see that not only does it exist, it is probably more painful than racism coming from an outside race. I could almost feel Pecola’s pain, which Claudia describes in this way: “[Pecola] seemed to fold in on herself, like a pleated wing,” (Morrison, 73). I finally understood the line from earlier in the chapter about Maureen, that she was “someone who splintered the knot into silver threads that tangled us, netted us,” (Morrison, 62). For someone of their own race to make fun of Pecola and Claudia for being “too black” must have hurt doubly because it was as if one of their own had turned on them – effectively splintering that aforementioned knot.

Another part of Maureen, Claudia, and Pecola’s conversation that affected me the most and truly saddened me occurred after Maureen yelled insults at the girls. Claudia at one point muses, “we were sinking under the wisdom, accuracy, and relevance of Maureen’s last words. If she was cute – and if anything we believed she was – then we were not,” (Morrison, 74). "Many emotions, including shame, are generated by comparing someone with an ideal, making them seem less than, inferior, a mistake," notes Professor Bump (Course Anthology, 332). I can honestly say that Pecola's pain in this instance and Claudia's plummeting self-esteem was painful for me to read. Just because some girl decided to spew pointless racial stigmas and insults to get a rise out of these girls, Claudia and Pecola will be mentally and emotionally damaged forever. Not fair isn't strong enough to describe this.

I know that the day after tomorrow I will again crack open this book and begin to read more of the struggles of Pecola and Claudia just to survive. I know that it will be painful. But I also know that because Morrison is talented enough to make someone as naive, innocent, and sometimes plain-old ignorant as me feel this pain, I will benefit from learning about this time in our history. If for no other reason than to make absolutely certain that I do not allow history to repeat itself.