Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Whiteness as the Standard of Beauty
The Bluest Eye provides an extended depiction
of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform
the lives of black girls and women. Implicit messages that whiteness
is superior are everywhere, including the white baby doll given
to Claudia, the idealization of Shirley Temple, the consensus that
light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls, the idealization
of white beauty in the movies, and Pauline Breedlove’s preference
for the little white girl she works for over her daughter. Adult
women, having learned to hate the blackness of their own bodies,
take this hatred out on their children—Mrs. Breedlove shares the
conviction that Pecola is ugly, and lighter-skinned Geraldine curses
Pecola’s blackness. Claudia remains free from this worship of whiteness,
imagining Pecola’s unborn baby as beautiful in its blackness. But
it is hinted that once Claudia reaches adolescence, she too will
learn to hate herself, as if racial self-loathing were a necessary
part of maturation.
The person who suffers most from white beauty standards
is, of course, Pecola. She connects beauty with being loved and
believes that if she possesses blue eyes, the cruelty in her life
will be replaced by affection and respect. This hopeless desire
leads ultimately to madness, suggesting that the fulfillment of
the wish for white beauty may be even more tragic than the wish
impulse itself.
Seeing versus Being Seen
Pecola’s desire for blue eyes, while highly unrealistic,
is based on one correct insight into her world: she believes that
the cruelty she witnesses and experiences is connected to how she
is seen. If she had beautiful blue eyes, Pecola imagines, people
would not want to do ugly things in front of her or to her. The
accuracy of this insight is affirmed by her experience of being
teased by the boys—when Maureen comes to her rescue, it seems that
they no longer want to behave badly under Maureen’s attractive gaze.
In a more basic sense, Pecola and her family are mistreated in part
because they happen to have black skin. By wishing for blue eyes
rather than lighter skin, Pecola indicates that she wishes to see
things differently as much as she wishes to be seen differently.
She can only receive this wish, in effect, by blinding herself.
Pecola is then able to see herself as beautiful, but only at the
cost of her ability to see accurately both herself and the world
around her. The connection between how one is seen and what one
sees has a uniquely tragic outcome for her.
The Power of Stories
The Bluest Eye is not one story, but
multiple, sometimes contradictory, interlocking stories. Characters
tell stories to make sense of their lives, and these stories have
tremendous power for both good and evil. Claudia’s stories, in particular,
stand out for their affirmative power. First and foremost, she tells
Pecola’s story, and though she questions the accuracy and meaning
of her version, to some degree her attention and care redeem the
ugliness of Pecola’s life. Furthermore, when the adults describe
Pecola’s pregnancy and hope that the baby dies, Claudia and Frieda
attempt to rewrite this story as a hopeful one, casting themselves
as saviors. Finally, Claudia resists the premise of white superiority,
writing her own story about the beauty of blackness. Stories by
other characters are often destructive to themselves and others.
The story Pauline Breedlove tells herself about her own ugliness
reinforces her self-hatred, and the story she tells herself about
her own martyrdom reinforces her cruelty toward her family. Soaphead
Church’s personal narratives about his good intentions and his special
relationship with God are pure hypocrisy. Stories are as likely
to distort the truth as they are to reveal it. While Morrison apparently
believes that stories can be redeeming, she is no blind optimist
and refuses to let us rest comfortably in any one version of what
happens.
Sexual Initiation and Abuse
To a large degree, The Bluest Eye is
about both the pleasures and the perils of sexual initiation. Early
in the novel, Pecola has her first menstrual period, and toward
the novel’s end she has her first sexual experience, which is violent.
Frieda knows about and anticipates menstruating, and she is initiated
into sexual experience when she is fondled by Henry Washington.
We are told the story of Cholly’s first sexual experience, which
ends when two white men force him to finish having sex while they
watch. The fact that all of these experiences are humiliating and
hurtful indicates that sexual coming-of-age is fraught with peril,
especially in an abusive environment.
In the novel, parents carry much of the blame for their
children’s often traumatic sexual coming-of-age. The most blatant
case is Cholly’s rape of his own daughter, Pecola, which is, in
a sense, a repetition of the sexual humiliation Cholly experienced
under the gaze of two racist whites. Frieda’s experience is less
painful than Pecola’s because her parents immediately come to her
rescue, playing the appropriate protector and underlining, by way
of contrast, the extent of Cholly’s crime against his daughter.
But Frieda is not given information that lets her understand what
has happened to her. Instead, she lives with a vague fear of being
“ruined” like the local prostitutes. The prevalence of sexual violence
in the novel suggests that racism is not the only thing that distorts
black girlhoods. There is also a pervasive assumption that women’s
bodies are available for abuse. The refusal on the part of parents
to teach their girls about sexuality makes the girls’ transition
into sexual maturity difficult.
