798 Morrison, Toni
narrative interrogates salient issues surrounding the
issue of race through Pecola, her focus on the racial
shame of Claudia MacTeer, one of Pecola’s closest
friends and the novel’s narrator, operates powerfully
in illuminating her multifarious and nuanced ways
of exploring the issue of race in The Bluest Eye.
One of the most important ways in which Mor-
rison has Claudia MacTeer interface with the theme
of race is through her interaction with Maureen
Peal—a young African American with lighter skin
than Claudia and Pecola. Claudia has internalized
her racial shame and desires for Pecola not to voice
her racial shame in the presence of Maureen. In a
pivotal encounter where Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda
(Claudia’s sister) have an argument with Maureen
about Maureen’s claim that light-complexioned
blacks are beautiful and dark-complexioned blacks
are ugly, Pecola’s silence, which endorses Mau-
reen’s claim about the relationship between skin
color and beauty, accentuates and unveils Claudia’s
great internalized racial shame. In demonstrating
her tremendous indignation for Pecola’s conspicu-
ous endorsement of Maureen’s reprehensible claim,
Claudia states, “She seemed to fold into herself,
like a pleated wing. Her pain antagonized me. I
wanted to open her up, crisp her edges, ram a stick
down that hunched and curving spine, force her to
stand erect and spit the misery out on the street.”
Claudia’s internalized racial shame is vividly clear as
she expresses her anger with Pecola for giving Mau-
reen’s disgraceful claim validity. While Claudia and
Frieda attempt to conceal their racial shame through
their incensed retorts to Maureen’s claim, Claudia
becomes increasingly angry with Pecola because she
identifies with the conspicuous way in which Pecola
sinks under “the wisdom, accuracy, and relevance” of
Maureen’s shameful and painful position.
Morrison’s treatment of racial shame in the novel
enables her readers not only to unearth the sig-
nificant psychological impact of Pecola and Claudia
perceiving themselves as racially inferior, but also to
embrace the opportunity to understand the oppres-
sive economic, social, and cultural milieu and prob-
lems that have plagued blacks historically. Pecola
and Claudia are two of the most important vehicles
Morrison employs for discussing salient issues about
race. The novel is an instructive denunciation of the
social construction of race.
Antonio Maurice Danielsviolence in The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is a novel filled with terrible violence.
Toni Morrison’s story revolves around an unthink-
able crime: the rape of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove
by her father, Cholly. Yet Morrison demonstrates
how this sexual violence derives from myriad per-
sonal and social circumstances, all of which must
be acknowledged in order to understand the roots
of Pecola’s tragedy. Therefore, we learn about the
psychological trauma Cholly suffered as a teenager
at the hands of racist white men, information that
does not condone his actions, but does explain their
origins. In addition to Pecola’s tragedy, the novel
details the systematic psychological abuse of racism
that in particular damages the young black girls in
the story. The Bluest Eye chronicles the devastating
effects of both physical and psychological violence in
the black community.
Pecola’s life is fraught with violence from the
very first. Her parents’ marriage has decayed into
mutual loathing, punctuated by angry quarrels and
physical brawls. Our first glimpse of the Breedlove
household is a quarrel that occurs after Cholly
comes home drunk. Morrison writes, “Because it
had not taken place immediately, the oncoming
fight would lack spontaneity; it would be calculated,
uninspired, and deadly.” What begins as a verbal
exchange of insults soon escalates to blows: “He
fought her the way a coward fights a man—with
feet, the palms of his hands, and teeth. She, in turn,
fought back in a purely feminine way—with frying
pans and pokers, and occasionally a flatiron would
sail toward his head.” The children’s reaction to this
brawl differs. Pecola’s older brother, Sammy, joins
the fight against his father, screaming “Kill him!”
But Pecola stays motionless in her bed, praying that
God will make her disappear so she won’t have to
witness these events. Her desire to disappear eventu-
ally shifts to the wish for blue eyes; for she believes
that being beautiful will bring love and happiness
into her life. And according to contemporary soci-
ety, beauty means the big blue eyes of someone like
Shirley Temple. Morrison uses Pecola’s dream of