Pecola Breedlove:
Introduction:
Pecola Breedlove is a tragic victim of violence and silence in “The Bluest Eye”. In “The Bluest Eye”, Pecola Breedlove emerges as one of the most heartbreaking figures in modern American literature. Through her story, Toni Morrison exposes the devastating impact of racial self-hatred, societal neglect, and familial abuse on a young Black girl’s psyche. Pecola is not merely an individual victim; she becomes a symbol of a society that denies beauty, dignity, and voice to those who do not conform to its dominant ideals.
Set against the backdrop of systemic racism and internalized oppression, Pecola’s life is marked by violence—both physical and emotional—and an overwhelming silence that surrounds her suffering. Her tragic descent into madness reflects the cumulative effects of being unseen, unheard, and unloved. Morrison uses Pecola’s character to critique cultural standards of beauty and the destructive power of silence that allows trauma to persist unchallenged. Thus, Pecola Breedlove stands as a poignant representation of innocence shattered by a world unwilling to acknowledge its own cruelty.
Tony Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ is an untraditional novel having no plot of traditional nature. The whole story rotates round an ordinary man named Cholly who later on rapes his own daughter named Pecola. It is, therefore her character is very important in the novel. She is daughter of Cholly and Pauline and sister of Sammy. Unfortunately, Pecola remains deprived of her parents’ love as well as her brother’s affection though three years elder.
A Neglected Child:
Pecola is a neglected child for Pauline regards her as a cross, a hurdle in her life. Pauline has all the love for his master’s daughter and all the care for that family. Pecola gets nothing in the name of affection and care. In mother’s absence she has to finish all domestic duties. Whenever there is a dispute in the family, she prays God to make her disappear. She feels nobody loves her. She suffers from a strong sense of inferiority that she is ugly. It comes to her mind that she may look beautiful if her eyes are turned to be blue. She hopes then all may love her.
An Accommodating Child:
In spite of being a child Pecola is highly adjusting and accommodating. When she has to live with Claudia and Frieda this quality of her character is exposed. Claudia and Frieda welcome Pecola. She sleeps with them. Their mother informs that Pecola will live with them until the family is reunited. These girls know the difference between being put out and being put out doors. If someone is put out, he can go somewhere else but if he is outdoors, there is no place to go.
Cholly Breedlove having put his family outdoors has gone beyond the reaches of human consideration. He has joined animals. Mrs. Breedlove is staying with the family she works for. Her son Sammy is with some other family. Pecola is in Claudia’s house and Cholly is in jail.
Pecola has come with nothing. When these sisters Claudia and Frieda discover that Pecola does not want to dominate them, they become her friends. Now Claudia and Frieda do not fight with each other and try to keep Pecola as happy as possible. Frieda gives her many gifts. Claudia is younger than both Frieda and Pecola.
One day Mrs. MacTeer discovers that Pecola has drunk all the milk stored in the icebox. Only she is accused for it for Claudia and Frieda do not like milk. Yet they do not approve the way in which their mother rebukes Pecola.
Pecola’s Menstruation:
It is Sunday and the three girls are not able to decide how to spend the time. Just then Pecola’s eyes are filled with terror. Blood begins to run down her legs. Claudia asks if she had cut herself. There is blood all over her dress. She keeps crying with her legs far apart. She fears that she is going to die but Frieda consoles her by saying that she knows it. It is menstruation. It means now she can have a baby. Frieda has learnt it from Mildred and her mother. Frieda asks Pecola to sit down and directs Claudia to bring some water. Pecola is crying. Frieda asks her to be silent. Frieda opens the back door and takes Pecola to the side. She asks Claudia to wash the steps. Frieda sits on her knees and pulls Pecola’s pants off. She takes a piece of cotton and asks Pecola to keep that between her legs. Now she pins the ends of napkin to Pecola’s dress. Rosemary watches them and reports to Mrs. MacTeer that Pecola and Frieda were playing nasty behind the bush. The mother rushes to beat them. Without knowing the truth, she beats Frieda who says sobbing that Pecola is bleeding and she is trying to stop that. She feels sorry for beating Frieda and asks Rosemary to get out. The mother takes Pecola into the bathroom. Claudia asks Frieda if they should beat Rosemary. That night Pecola asks Frieda if it is true that now she can have a baby. Frieda replies if someone loves her.
Pecola’s Sad Experience:
Pecola falls a victim to atrocity of a boy name Junior. One day he sees Pecola walking that way all alone. He calls her in the house to show a cat. She enters the house. She looks at the beauty of the house. He pulls her into another room and throws a big cat on her. She wants to away but he says that she is his prisoner. He comes out closing the door. She bangs and weeps but he does not open the door. He opens it but the cat runs so fast that Pecola and Junior fall down. Just then Geraldine opens the door. Seeing Pecola in that condition she is upset. She rebukes Pecola asking her to get out.
Pecola— A Rape Victim:
It is a Sunday afternoon. Cholly comes home in a drunken state. Pecola is working in the kitchen. She is washing dishes. Her small back is towards Cholly. It is difficult to tell what he sees in her or what he feels. But he feels upset. Suddenly his discomfort dissolves into pleasure. He thinks why she looks so worried. She is a child and she has no burden. She should look happy. His misery is responsible for it. Either he should get rid of misery or this girl. He wishes to break her neck. But then his mind passes through a conflict between guilt and impotence. He can do nothing for her. He can give nothing to his eleven-year-old daughter. She is washing a frying pan. Her hands are going around and around the pan. By chance she scratches her foot with the toe in the manner in which Cholly had found Pauline in his first meeting with her.
Cholly remembers how attractive Pauline was looking leaning over a fence. Her creamy toe was scratching her velvet leg. He remembers how affectionately he had kissed her leg and she had showered a treasure of love on him. He forgets that Pauline is not there. He fails to mark that his own daughter Pecola is there.
Cholly bends his knees and looks at the foot of his daughter. He raises his hand and catches the foot in such a way that her balance is lost. Pecola falls but Cholly supports her hips with the other to save her from falling on the ground. His mouth trembles at the firm sweetness of her flesh. He closes his eyes. His fingers dig into her waist. He feels excited and a bolt of desire runs down his genitals, giving it length, and softening the lips of his anus. He wants to fuck her-tenderly. But the tightness of her vagina is more than he can bear. He makes gigantic thrusts into her. Removing himself from her. is so painful to him, he cuts it short and snatches his genitals out of her dry harbor of vagina. She appears to have fainted. He hates her too much to pick her up. His tenderness forces him to cover her.
Pecola— A Killer:
Pecola hopes the man with supernatural power known as Soaphead Church will make her eyes blue. One late hot afternoon he hears a tap on his door. When he opens it, he sees a little girl of twelve or so. He asks her the cause of visit. She replies perhaps he can help her. She wants to have her blue. It is something new for him that an ugly girl is asking for beauty. He feels excited. He replies that he can’t do anything for him. He says that he is not a magician. He works only through the Lord. His eye falls on old Bob sleeping on the porch.
Slophead Church gives poisoned food to Pecola and asks her to give it to the dog sleeping on the porch. He asks her to show courage. She reaches the dog and makes him eat the food. The dog eats it and dies.
Pecola’s Cursed Pregnancy:
Pecola is pregnant. All curse her. Claudia and Frieda feel embarrassed for Pecola. They feel sorry for her. They forget the new bicycle. They are excited by the story. No body calls her poor little girl or poor baby. Claudia thinks about the baby to be born and everybody wishes her dead. She feels sympathy less for Pecola and more for the baby. They do not give importance to the fact that Pecola is not married. Lots of girls have babies without being married. For these girls it is not important that Pecola’s father is the father of this baby also. They have no hatred for the unborn baby.
Insane Pecola:
It is an ill effect of rape that Pecola grows insane. Her purpose of life of becoming beautiful fails. It shocks her mind. She feels someone is talking to her all the time. It is a cause of splitted personality. In fact, she talks to herself. This state of mind discloses many secrets that perhaps would have never been published. The most serious among them is that Cholly rapes her not only once but twice. Her talking to herself begins with a reference to the old man Soaphead Church.
The way in which the questions are asked and answered it seems a conversation is going on between two persons but the fact is that Pecola is talking to herself. In a way it may be said that her emotional self is talking to her practical self.
Sometimes the practical self makes rational suggestions also. It surprises a bit that a minor girl of eleven has got so much of experience.
But it would be unwise to call her mad for her conversation is quite coherent.
Psychological Interpretation:
Modern psychology interprets this state of mind as a result of defence- mechanism. To save itself from being broken the mind uses this device of making conversation with itself. During the conversation that is a sort of interior monologue it is stressed that now Pecola does not go to school. Her eyes are bluer than the eyes of other girls like Michelena or Jouna. It too is disclosed that she is raped twice by her father. When it is asked if Cholly did something wrong with her. She replies:
‘He just tried, see? He didn’t do anything. You hear me?’
‘You always talk so dirty. Who told you about that, anyway?’ ‘I forgot?’
‘Sammy?’
‘No. You did.’
‘You did. You said he tried to do it to you when you were sleeping on the couch.’
Pecola’s realistic self contradicts if by saying that he did it when she was washing dishes in the kitchen. She claims that it was horrible. She told about it to her mother. But she did not tell her mother when her father raped her again. She was reading on the couch at that time. The mother had not believed on Pecola-when she had told about her father’s wrong action. It is, therefore, she did not even shout when he raped her again. Now she does not want to talk about Cholly, her father. Now Cholly and Sammy both have gone. Therefore, there is no fear of her father’s coming again to her. Now Pecola wants to talk merely about her pretty blue eyes.
Pecola’s Future:
Claudia and Frieda see Pecola sometimes, after the baby’s birth and immediate death. She looks very sad. Claudia and Frieda try to see her without looking at her. They are frightened. Their flowers don’t grow. They avoid Pecola.
The years are folded up like pocket handkerchiefs. Sammy has left town long ago. Cholly died in the workhouse. Mrs. Breedlove still does housework. Pecola lives with her mother on the edge of town. She has grown almost mad. Claudia claims that some loved Pecola. The Maginot loved her. Cholly decidedly loved her. He loved her enough to touch her and even give something of himself to her. Unfortunately, her touch was fatal and what he gave her proved destructive.