The Bluest Eye

    The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison is about a black girl Pecola believing that whiteness and blue eyes are beautiful and that she is ugly. When Pauline, her mother, looks at the blue eyes of the little girl in the white household she works for, she is full of love and treats that girl gently. She feels jealous and has a craving for blue eyes because she believes that if she has the bluest eyes, she will be loved.

     Sometimes, we love someone at the wrong time or place, or in the wrong ways. Cholly Breedlove, Pecola’s father thinks his daughter is ugly, disliked and despised by others. He loves her but he does not know how to love her. With mixed feelings of tenderness and hatred that are fueled by guilt, he rapes her.
      

     I think my parents are the most influential people in my life. They teach me how to love and knowing I am worthy to be loved. However, her father is always drunk, her mother is indifferent to her, and the two of them often fight. Besides, Cholly who was abandoned by his parents has no idea of how to raise children; hence, he loves his daughter in the wrong way. Both Pecola and her mother are craving for love and getting others’ attention. Pecola asks prostitutes how to get people to love her. Her mother loves the white woman’s home she works for and despises her own.

     They wait others to give them their values, happiness, and self-identity. They cannot create their own values and find happiness within themselves because of lack of self-confidence. However, to some extent, it is not their fault. Pecola is a symbol of the black community’s self-hatred and belief in its own ugliness. Her own sense of ugliness is deepened because many people ignore her, make fun of her, and call her “nasty little black bitch”. They are the less gifted population living under discrimination and prejudices. They are underprivileged even though it is the simplest things such as respect, health, money, and education. Many white people still deprive them from those rights.

     Most of us inherit many discrimination and bias from our society unconsciously. We can learn to tell right from wrong and restructure our value systems. Besides, most important of all, our values are given by ourselves, not from others. We do not need to jealous. Everyone’s eyes are unique. I believe I have the most special and beautiful eyes in the world.