The Bluest
Eye: Analysis of
Family Relationship :
The mother-daughter relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her
two daughters, Claudia and Frieda, is loving and strong. They are taught their
own self-worth through their mother’s strength and example, although this love
isn’t fully appreciated by the girls until they are older. During Claudia’s
illness, she is treated with a mixture of concern and anger. Although Claudia
is scolded and her mother complains of cleaning her vomit, at the same time her
mother is nursing her, giving her medicine, and checking on her throughout the
night. Claudia discovers later that her mother’s anger is not directed at her,
but at the world, as she must raise her black family in a world ruled by white
culture. She protects her children and equips them for survival in a hostile
environment.
But things are totally different in Pecola’s family. When the novel starts the
readers notice the abandonment of Pecola from her family while Frieda is
enjoying her family life.The Dick and Jane primer in The Bluest Eye reminds us
of the persuasiveness of the happy, middle-America myth of the perfect family,
which, of course, did not exist in black culture. Although they are good
parents, the MacTeers whip their children, complain about burdens and barely
make ends meet, exploding the Dick and Jane myth. They don’t measure self-worth
by symbols of domestic white culture and accept their difference as a given,
not a deprivation.
Mrs. MacTeer takes in Pecola, put out on the streets when her
father burns down her house, even though its a strain on their finances. As a
temporary mother figure in Pecola Breedloves life, Mrs. MacTeer bestows on
Pecola the care and intimacy that she has never before and never again will
receive. She is loved and accepted for the first time when Mrs. MacTeer hugs
Pecola and Frieda after she begins ministratin. Mrs.
MacTeer then takes Pecola inside to the bath to help her and laughter is
heard.The relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her daughters is in sharp contrast
with the relationship between Pauline Breedlove and her daughter, Pecola.
Pauline and her husband, Cholly, hate their children, Pecola and Sammy as much
as they hate themselves. Again, we see unworthiness breeding unworthiness. Mrs.
Breedlove wanted her family life to disappear and is happiest when she is
working for the white family that employed her, without any reminder of her
failures. Similarly, Pecola wants to disappear and become invisible during her
parents violent fights and Sammy physically disappears as he runs away from
home frequently. Experiences transferred Pauline into a product of hatred and
ignorance, leading her to hold herself up to unrealistic standards that she
could not attain. Pauline, the ninth of eleven children, was ignored by her
family and she in turn, ignores her family. She learned early in life to be
separate and unworthy because of her limp that she acquired by stepping on nail
at age two. She assigns this unworthiness to Pecola when she is born, so she
too will be separate and feel unworthy. These standards and feelings of
rejection are the qualities that Pecola inherits from Pauline.
Pauline suffers a separation of self in which she is
constantly confronted with a world of Hollywood movies.
Pauline differs from Pecola only in the sense that the image she believes in
comes from the movie screen rather than the Shirley Temple milk cup. Whiteness
is goodness. Pauline compensates for her lameness and ugliness by creating
order whenever possible. When she can no longer do this at home, she abandons
her family. She feels more at home in a white kitchen than with her black
family at home.She commits a role reversal by loving her employers daughter,
the perfect little blue-eyed white doll that Pecola was never able to be and
hates her own daughter denying her own children for a surrogate child that does
not belong to her. We find that Pecola and Sammy call their mother Mrs.
Breedlove, but the Fisher child that Pauline works for calls her Polly. This is
endearing to Pauline, because she never had a nickname as a child, but
ironically, it is actually condescending from a family that sees her as the
ideal servant not a member of the family.It is ironic that she finds such
pleasure in colors. She describes her most intimate and happiest moments in
colors, yet her daughters and her own color and ugliness is what makes her
reject Pecola and hate herself.
Pecolas first
perception of her Mothers reflection of her was her own ugliness. As that
little baby looked into its mothers eyes for the first time, she saw and felt
her mother’s disappointment and disgust. But Lord, she is ugly. For a little
girl, her mother is the most important love that she can receive. Without it,
she feels worthless. Pecola is able to find herself only by going insane. The
father/daughter relationship between Cholly Breedlove and Pecola is violent and
hateful as opposed to Mr. MacTeers loving and protective relationship with his
daughter, Claudia and Frieda. When Frieda is fondled by their boarder, Mr.
Henry, her father beats him up and shoots at him with a gun as he runs away. In
sharp contrast, Pecola is raped by her father on the kitchen floor. Again,
breaking the Dick and Jane myth, Father played with Jane and raped her. Cholly
takes away his childs innocence in an instant and his rape of her is a turning
point in her life, just as his own father had done to him emotionally years
before.
In most cases, a
father is one who little girls look to for guidance and approval. Cholly is the
exact opposite. His only image of a father figure is one who brings pain. His
sexual history starts off painfully, just as Pecola does. His father ran away
from him and he will run away from his child who is carrying his
child/grandchild. After the rape, Pecolas mother doesnt believe Pecola and
beats her. This final rejection leads to Pecolas downward spiral to insanity.
Chollys only mother figure, Aunt Jimmy, dies, abandoning him as his parents
did. Sadly, his only father figure, Blue Jack, shares a watermelon heart with
Cholly and this small act of kindness is his happiest memory.
The father in the Dick and Jane myth was strong and kind. The
father/son relationship between Sammy and his father is full of hate and
completely dysfunctional. Sammy hates his father and helps physically defend
his mother against Cholly then asks her to kill him, as he lays unconscious. He
tries to establish some order to the Breedlove household. He doesnt understand
that his mother depends on Chollys behavior for her own self-image. Sammy is
unhappy and runs away for months at a time, searching, like his father had done
at his age.
In the case of Geraldine and Louis, Jr., her fear of funk
will cause her to brush her sons black hair forever in abortive attempts to
wipe out the subtle and telltale signs of nigger. Geraldine experiences a
self-division in order to expel her funkiness and blackness and this soon takes
over her true black self. Louis Jr., too, experiences this self-division, when
he yearns to play with other black boys as a young boy, but is told only to
play with whites, with whom he is not accepted. Louis, Jr., becomes an angry,
violent child, just as his mother became, both of them angry at blackness
rather than at the Dick and Jane myth. Geraldine favors her cat with black hair
and blue eyes to her son, Louis, Jr. The cat becomes her surrogate child as the
blue-eyed Fisher child became the surrogate child to Pauline Breedlove. The cat
will die physically as Pecola will die mentally.
Conclusion:
Finally it can be said that after being abandoned from her
family Pecola tries to materialize her dream with the help of Soaphead who actually manipulate her. And all
these events make the story tragic one where the protagonist, Pecola is seen to
ignore both by her family and the member of her own society. There is a sharp
contrast between the family of MacTeer and that of Pecola . The readers notice Mr. MacTeer to take the
action violently against Henry Washington who tries to touch Frieda’s breasts.
On the contrary Cholly is seen to rape her own daughter which portrays the brutal
side relationship in Pecola’s family. And this may be one of the main reasons
for Pecola’s destruction whose life would be happy if her family could give her
proper love and security.
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