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Courtney Drake
Brandon Schrand
English 490
11 May 2015
Pecola’s Formation of Identity in The Bluest Eye
In 1970, Toni Morrison published her first novel, The Bluest Eye. Little did
she know at that time that she would set in motion a movement towards the
recognition of historical trauma African Americans faced. As a strong, female,
African American writer she challenges readers to confront the truth in compelling,
uncomfortable ways. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye set in Morrison’s hometown of
Loraine, Ohio, dares readers to confront themes of identity, domestic abuse, rape,
prostitution, and racism. The Bluest Eye is told from the perspective of Claudia
McTeer, a young woman, recounting her days as a child and her friendship with
Pecola Breedlove. Although told from Claudia’s perspective as the narrator, the
novel heavily focuses on Pecola Breedlove’s infatuation with the ideology situated in
1940’s popular culture, specifically with Shirley Temple-like characters. Due to her
desire for blue eyes, a trait deemed as beautiful associated with the white Western
ideology during this era, Pecola will do anything to obtain them. Unable to form an
identity, succumbed to self-loathing, Pecola drives her self to madness at the cost of
her childhood innocence. Although her yearning for blue eyes is a strong attribute to
her downfall, Pecola’s socio-economic background and familial circumstances play
just as big of a role as the impact of popular culture. Ultimately it’s a mixture of her
environment and aspiration to live within the confines of beauty that 1940’s

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popular culture has etched out for her that leads to her madness and her becoming
an unsuccessful member of society.
The discovery of self is something that all children face and it is during
childhood that this discovery be made in order to thrive or succeed on a basic level
as a member of society. But what happens when a child is unable to do this, due to
extenuating conditions? It’s possible that the child will be unable to overcome their
circumstances, leaving them underdeveloped and vulnerable for the rest of their
lives, much like Pecola Breedlove’s outcome. On top of coming from a broken home,
dysfunctional family life, and overcome with an obsession of blue eyes, Pecola
Breedlove is economically and socially at a disadvantage. As the narrative follows
the post-Great Depression era of the 1940’s, white middle-class citizens are still
pained by the financial despair. Follow the narrative of a young, black, poor, female
and there’s a whole other story to imagine. These social economical factors play a
huge role in Pecola’s success as a developing child. However, with so much racial
tension surrounding the area and era in which she is living in, it is almost more
challenging for Pecola to overcome obstacles in relation to race. Then tack on the
fact the she is a young female child, the most vulnerable person in society, it’s hard
to imagine Pecola ever succeeding at all. Not only is there extreme racial tension
boring down on African Americans via white Westerners, but within The Bluest Eye
there’s a lot of commentary on racial struggle within one’s own race, which in many
ways is even more detrimental to Pecola’s formation of identity. In an interview
with Christopher Bollen from “Interview Magazine”, Morrison describes her feelings
in writing The Bluest Eye as a way to highlight the destruction that racial tension can

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cause within a race and as a way to respond to the “black is beautiful” campaign of
the 1960’s,
One of the aggressive themes of the ‘screw whitey’ movement was
‘black is beautiful.’ I just thought, ‘what is that about? Who are they
talking to? Me? You’re going to tell me I’m beautiful?’ And I thought,
‘Wait a minute. Before the guys get on the my-beautiful-black-queen
wagon, let me tell you what it used to be like before you started that!’
(laughs) You know, what racism does is create self-loathing, and it
hurts. It can ruin you. (7)
While it’s common to imagine racism being one race against another, it’s hard to
imagine the damage that takes place within a race. This is definitely displayed
throughout The Bluest Eye due to the backlash for her appearance that Pecola
receives just within her own race. It’s just as important for the reader to understand
the tragedies that take place within one’s own race, white Western values set aside.
A scene that depicts this hatred towards another of the same race, is the scene in
which Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola are walking home from school, as they see a
couple of black boys playing on the playground calling out racial slurs and offensive
language, hoping to hurt the girls. As the boys are black too, Morrison calls attention
to the nature of racism regardless if it’s projection from someone of opposite or
different color,
‘Black e mo. Black e mo. Yadaddsleepsnekked. Black e mo black e mo
ya dadd sleeps nekked. Black e mo…’ That they themselves were
black, or that their own father had similarly relaxed habits was

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irrelevant. It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the
first insult its teeth. (65)
The self-hatred Pecola begins to feel is due to the teasing she receives from white,
light-complected black, and black children of her age. This kind of inner racial
tension is part of Pecola’s self-loathing and self-hatred, especially at a time in history
as this where the white Western ideology seems to be conveying that “white is
right”. Because Pecola wishes to escape her physical appearance she nourishes an
ideal that she cannot obtain beauty with the way she currently looks, encompassing
her race even expanding further, to include idols of beauty with blonde hair and
blue eyes.
Within the first few pages of The Bluest Eye the reader begins to quickly
understand that blue eyes is an object of desire to Pecola. Everything about them
draws her in, especially since she has formed the identity of being “ugly” from a very
young age. In relation to 1940’s white Western ideals of beauty, Shirley Temple
stands a cut above as “America’s Darling” displaying an idyllic portrayal of what
young girls should want to aspire to be like and look like. Morrison carefully poses
Claudia, the protagonist and narrator, against Pecola, unwavering in her quest for
blue eyes. Claudia is Pecola’s antithesis in relation to what each girl deems as
beautiful. While Pecola succumbs to the ideal that to be beautiful is to have blue
eyes, Claudia simply does not care for the kinds of idols Pecola longs after. This
interesting dichotomy set up between the two girls conveys the differences between
who becomes successful and who becomes fruitless. While Claudia doesn’t come
from the best home, filled with love and adoration, she is equipped with a tough-

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love mother who comes to her aid if necessary. She is also quick tempered and
angered at things that aren’t right keen on teaching people lessons. She is strong
willed and eager to stand up for her friends and most importantly herself. She
allows herself to be removed from things that could hinder her development as a
strong, self-assured woman, becoming the narrator of the story. It is her ability to
see beyond the ideals of beauty that she’s presented with that allow her to form her
own identity of beauty. Ruth Rosenburg in her article, “Seed in Hard Ground: Black
Girlhood in The Bluest Eye” explores The Bluest Eye’s employment of beauty,
contrasting Claudia and Pecola’s formation of identity based on Western society’s
ideals of beauty. Through this contrast Rosenberg draws attention to the
explanation behind Pecola’s social downfall in contrast to Claudia’s intact identity,
Claudia’s ability to survive intact and to consolidate an identity
derives form her vigorous opposition to the colorist attitude of her
community. In marked contrast to Pecola Breedlove’s surrender to
Western values, Claudia refuses to be tamed into conventional
behavior and smashes the Shirley Temple doll that is imposed on her
at Christmas. (440)
Through Claudia’s dismissal or challenge towards Western values, she is able to
evolve and develop into a successful member of society. Submission to Western
values—of which is deemed acceptable or even necessary to survive—is what leads
to Pecola’s inability to form an identity, which leads her to become an unsuccessful
member of society. This juxtaposition between Claudia and Pecola magnifies
Pecola’s lust for blue eyes even more, creating a sort of mania within Pecola’s

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attempt at forming her identity, while Claudia is so against the ideals of beauty that
surround her, insisting on the imposition they create. Pecola’s desire for blue eyes
are intertwined within white Western ideals of beauty coinciding with this idea that
“white is right”. Pecola is continuously faced with idols of beauty such as Shirley
Temple and Mary Jane, ideal versions of beautiful little girls. In relation to the
Shirley Temple as the idyllic beauty, Marco Portales in his article, “Toni Morrison’s
The Bluest Eye: Shirley Temple and Cholly”, focuses on the aesthetic associated with
Shirley Temple as an iconic source of “beauty” during the 1940-1950 era. He offers
comparisons of how this ideal of beauty affected Claudia and Pecola in different
ways, in which speaks to the danger associated with trying to live up to what society
deems as fit, “To the girls, Shirley Temple represents everything that society finds
adorable, everything worth having.” (497) Through this revelation, the reader
comes to an understanding how this ideology can be detrimental to a young girl’s
formation of identity. Furthermore there is this value placed on “doll like”
visualizations of beauty, specifically dealing with the contrast between Claudia and
Pecola and is best dealt with in Trinna S. Frever’s article, ‘“Oh! You Beautiful Doll!”:
Icon, Image, and Culture in Works by Alvarez, Ciscernos, and Morrison”. Frever
explores the use of “doll” imagery as an example of an ideal woman. In focusing
specifically on Morrison and her usage of the doll in The Bluest Eye, Frever draws on
the damaging affects the icon of the “doll” has on Pecola in contrast to the rejection
of the “doll” imagery by Claudia. Through Claudia’s rejection of the physical doll and
what it represents Morrison is redefining the impact of culture on identity,

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What the doll represents is an encroachment on the cultural identity
of a young African American girl. By cracking open the baby doll, she
(Claudia) attempts to reclaim a racial, cultural, and gendered identity
that is separate from what the outside world, in all its media
manifestations, tells her it should be. (124)
The doll itself and the iconic physicality of “doll like” characters like Shirley Temple,
is what draws Pecola to desire blue eyes. However, Morrison employs the doll as
both an object of desire and a tool of repression. Another important piece of the
“doll” imagery and representation of pop culture is how it’s used ultimately as a tool
to enforce white Western ideology. New World Encyclopedia magnifies this “doll”
culture that accompanies the pop culture surrounding Shirley Temple, who was not
only an idol of childhood beauty, but also seen as a way to commoditize her “doll”
likeness,
Many Temple-inspired products were manufactured and released
during the 1930s. Ideal Toy and Novelty Company in New York City
negotiated a license for dolls with the company's first doll wearing the
polka-dot dress from Stand Up and Cheer!. Shirley Temple dolls
realized $45 million in sales before 1941. (3)
In commoditizing Shirley Temple’s beauty, it’s creating a wide spread availability,
allowing more female children to come into contact with it as an object. The
commoditizing of Shirley Temple as a character is best displayed in the beginning of
the narrative when juxtaposing Claudia against Pecola’s ideals of beauty, separating
the two and allowing the two to form different identities in relation to beauty.

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Pecola’s formation of identity in relation to beauty is not only through her
desire for blue eye’s, but also due to the fact that her and her family have been
deemed as “ugly” members of society. This is best displayed through the lack of
adoration she feels from the people that surround her, creating an even deeper layer
of feeling unwanted. Patrice Cormier-Hamilton explores the formation of Pecola’s
identity as a product of the Western ideas of which were forced upon her. Her
explanation of Pecola’s victimization allows the reader to grasp a deeper
understanding of what went wrong during her development or rather lack there of,
in drawing attention to society’s ideals of beauty, in her article ”Black Naturalism
and Toni Morrison: The Journey Away from self-Love in The Bluest Eye”,
As many critics have noted, Pecola is victimized by a society that
conditions her to believe that she is ugly and therefore worthless,
because she doesn’t epitomize white Western culture’s idea of beauty.
In both fiction and poetry Western culture, outward beauty has often
been an indication of inner virtue. (115)
Due to this linkage between virtue and beauty, Pecola strives to form herself to
societal standards of beauty in order to receive love and admiration. Pecola’s lack of
admiration leads her to believe that she is ugly and unwanted. Pecola experiences
victimization from white and black culture and society in relation to the way she
looks. Apart from being black, she is also victimized for being “ugly”, something she
was taught at a very young age. Morrison displays the Breedlove’s “ugliness”
through a heart-breaking passage,

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But their (Breedlove’s) ugliness was unique. No one could have
convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly.
Except for the father, Cholly, who’s ugliness was behavior, the rest of
the family—Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola
Breedlove—wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did
not belong to them. You looked at them and wondered why they were
so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you
realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. (38, 39)
The Breedlove’s are aware they don’t look a certain way or don’t arise to a certain
ideal, blindly believing they must be truly ugly. Pecola’s blind acceptance of her
“ugliness” feeds her desire for blue eyes as well as stems from her mother’s desire
for beauty. The mother-daughter relationship is heavily played on by Morrison to
look at how ideals of beauty can be passed on generationally. While a mother is a
figure of beauty upon a daughter usually looks up to, Pecola is unable to do so with
her mother because she, too, has succumbed to popular cultural ideals of beauty—
idolizing glamorous movie stars. Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother, conforms to
the ideals of beauty of her time attempting to win “favorable glances” (118)from the
women around her although at first she does not really care for the physicality of
clothes and makeup—it is the ideal that attaches itself to these beautiful things. Just
as Cormier-Hamilton draws conclusion on virtue and beauty as being connected, so
does Pauline Breedlove, fastening herself to a disillusioned ideal of beauty, much
like the one that pop culture of her time has displayed for her, “In equating physical
beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by

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the heap.” (122) Just as Pecola equates beauty with the things that pop culture
represents, so does Pauline, worshiping actresses like Jean Harlow. The sheer
visualization that’s displayed through pop culture is the thing that both Pecola and
Pauline grasp hold of. This idea of Morrison’s usage of visualization is displayed in
Malin Walther’s article “Out of Sight: Toni Morrison’s Revision of Beauty”. The
primary focus of Walther’s article is on the visualization that Morrison focuses on in
The Bluest Eye. Outward beauty is often what is associated with social acceptability,
continuously being displayed through several mediums of pop culture. Walther
writes in relation to Morrison’s visualization,
Morrison explores the visual system upon which definitions of beauty
are based. Morrison’s The Bluest Eye reveals the crippling effects of
white standards of female beauty on a young black girl, Pecola
Breedlove. The movies are the primary vehicle for transmitting these
images for public consumption. (775-776)
In utilizing forms of popular culture such as the movies, Morrison tears down the
shroud protecting the mythic unreality that is encompassed within modes of pop
culture. In doing so, she allows the reader to get a better sense of what kind of
reality a low-class, young, black girl would actually experience. The characters of
Pauline and Pecola are examples of the determent followed by succumbing to the
ideals these sort of visual representations convey.
Furthermore, these visual representations convey idyllic and mythic
childhood innocence. Though Shirley Temple represents an idealized form of beauty
to Pecola, thus fueling her craving for blue eyes, in many ways Shirley Temple also

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represents a mythic form of innocence. Debra T. Werrlein in her article, "Not so Fast,
Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in the Bluest Eye" is offering a
new perspective and an understanding of Morrison’s reinvention of childhood in her
article. she focuses on Morrison’s use of children as both the oppressed and
oppressors, drawing attention to the use of Shirley Temple as an ideal
demythologizing the innocence of childhood,
Through Morrison’s references to Shirley Temple, I examine images of
children as both producers and consumers of commodities that are
themselves ironically charged with the ideology of childhood
innocence. (54)
In displaying this thematic element throughout The Bluest Eye, Morrison examines
the nature of childhood. When writing about children or from the perspective of a
child, it’s a common happening for the writer to hint at or reveal that the loss of
innocence is caused by the child him or herself. However, in challenging this idea,
Morrison draws upon the child’s circumstances as a major cause of the loss of
innocence. The sort of mythic childhood innocence that accompanies much of what
Shirley Temple represents, can also be found in the usage of the “Fun with Dick and
Jane” headings and excerpts scattered amongst the text. Using a text within in a text
particularly through the usage of “Dick and Jane” in juxtaposition with Pecola’s
reality, Morrison cracks open the societal “myth” that surrounds childhood
innocence. In addition to focusing on the usage of Shirley Temple as a
representation of a mythic childhood, Werrlein’s article deals with the “myth” that

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surrounds ideals of childhood through Morrison’s usage of the “Dick and Jane”
headings,
Morrison focuses on family, education, and popular culture to expose
childhood innocence as a pervasive ideology that simultaneously
perpetuates and mystifies the harsher realities of white nationalist
hegemony. The Bluest Eye explores the contrast between oppressed
local culture and innocent national ideal through the friction that
erupts between Pecola’s life and 1940s models of childhood. (56)
In drawing attention to the symbolism behind the different styles of the Dick and
Jane headings, Phyllis R. Klotman’s article “Dick-and-Jane and the Shirley Temple
Sensibility in The Bluest Eye” takes a closer look. The first style of heading being of
Standard English correctly spaced and grammatically correct as a representation of
white culture. The second style of heading is written clearly, but without
punctuation as a representation of Claudia and Frieda McTeer. The third style of
heading completely runs together representing Pecola Breedlove. Employing the
Dick-and-Jane headings is a useful and powerful juxtaposition against the harsh
reality of the lives of the characters within the novel. Klotman refers to the headings,
“It is the world of the first-grade basic reader—middle-class, secure,
suburban and white, replete with dog, cat, non-working mother and
leisure-time father.” (123)
There’s a focus on the culture that surrounds the characters in the novel and how
they react differently, setting apart the reality of the lives of Claudia against Pecola
and the both of them against white Western culture.

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Morrison also sets up an interesting concurrence with the way the town
looks itself, post-Great Depression to the home in which the Breedlove’s themselves
live in, casting a vast separation between these families against the backdrop of
white Western civilization. It is in the home that Pecola’s development of identity is
constantly put on hold. She faces a considerable amount of abuse from both her
mother and her father. However, abusive both Cholly and Pauline Breedlove are
towards their children, it’s important that the provision of knowledge on both their
backgrounds is presented. Due to a foot injury, Pauline was sentenced to a dull and
unimaginative childhood. She felt unimportant and as though she never belonged
anywhere, transforming her into a melancholic woman. Following her marriage to
Cholly Breedlove, initially she was happy until she felt the pang of desire for
beautiful things, things Cholly could never giver her,
Their marriage was shredded with quarrels. She was still no more
than a girl, and still waiting for that plateau of happiness, that hand of
a precious Lord who, when her way grew drear, would always linger
near. Only now she had a clearer idea of what drear meant. More and
more she neglected her house, her children, her men—they were like
afterthoughts on has just before sleep…(127)
Pauline learns that she will never be able to obtain the life she wants due to the life
she has. She becomes increasingly neglectful and increasingly violent toward her
children and husband. Though in some ways Cholly Breedlove has always been the
target for neglect, abuse, and taunting. At four days old, Cholly was left abandoned
by his mother in a garbage heap, only to be rescued by his Aunt Jimmy whom he’d

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grow to resent. He idolized a man whom he likened to the devil and feared white
men after he was humiliated and victimized by a couple of hunters who forced him
to continue having sex while they watched. Instead of hating and enacting revenge
upon the men, he developed a slow, burning hatred towards women, likening the
situation to be Darlene’s—the girl he was caught having sex with—fault,
Sullen, irritable, he cultivated his hatred of Darlene. Never did he once
consider directing his hatred toward the hunters. Such an emotion
would have destroyed him. They were big, white, armed men. He was
small, black, helpless. (150)
Although Cholly attempts to find his father, who’d abandoned his pregnant mother,
upon finding him, his father wants nothing to do with him, allowing Cholly to
cultivate his love of drink, “only in drink was there some break, some floodlight…”
(160) It is the culmination of Pauline’s neglect and Cholly’s drunkenness that leads
to the constant abuse of their children, specifically Pecola who wants nothing more
than to disappear or assimilate into something beautiful with the chance to escape.
The feelings of being unloved due to violent domestic abuse is part of what fuels
Pecola’s desire for blues eyes because if she is beautiful, then she will be loved.
Scenes of domestic and sexual abuse are clearly present throughout the narrative,
directing themselves at Pecola. Pauline strikes her daughter continuously, even
when Pecola has done nothing wrong. And the ultimate act of abuse is enacted upon
her from her father, Cholly, stripping away any last bit of innocence she may have
possessed as he impregnates her following his brutal raping of her,

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Removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and
snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina. She
appeared to have fainted. Cholly stood up and could only see her
grayish panties, so sad and limp around her ankles. Again the hatred
mixed with tenderness. The hatred would not let him pick her up, the
tenderness forced him to cover her. (163)
It’s this ultimate act of abuse that leaves Pecola broken, hinging on every last bit of
disillusion as she seeks the power of Soaphead Church to receive blue eyes. Hanging
by a thread, Pecola seeks to obtain blue eyes if it’s the last thing she does, thus
bringing her to the doorstep of Soaphead Church, a wacky man with just as much
disillusion as his customers. He convinces Pecola to test him to see if she will really
obtain blue eyes, he tricks her into feeding his dog poisonous meat, informing her
that if the dog acts strangely that she has indeed obtained blue eyes. Following the
dog’s death, Pecola is absolutely convinced that she has acquired blue eyes,
maddening herself with the achievement—one that in reality does not exist.
Soaphead Church likens himself to God as he writes Him a letter,
I, I have caused a miracle. I gave her the eyes. I gave her the blue, blue,
two blue eyes. Cobalt blue. A streak of it right out of you own blue
heaven. No one else will see her blue eyes. But she will. And she will
live happily ever after. (182)
As Claudia narrates the close to the story, the reader is given another
visualization—one of Pecola in all her madness muttering to herself about her
beautiful blue eyes. Pecola’s socio economical environment, societal displays of

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beauty, and extreme domestic abuse all play a part in her downfall as a character
and member of society. Morrison revolutionizes the narrative of “a little black girl
who yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her
yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.” (204) Once she is under the
illusion that she has in fact obtained blue eyes, there’s no stopping her in believing
she has. Her one true desire comes true, but by succumbing to the acceptability’s of
the white Western culture that surrounds her, she is unable to form a secure
identity leading to her detriment. Her successfulness is the completion of her
disillusion—she has blue eyes, the bluest.

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Works Cited
Cormier-Hamilton, Patrice. "Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: The Journey Away
from Self-Love in The Bluest Eye." MELUS 19.4, Ethnic Women Writers VI
(1994): 109-27. JSTOR. Web.
Frever, Trinna S. ""Oh! You Beautiful Doll!": Icon, Image, and Culture in Works by
Alvarez, Cisneros, and Morrison." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 28.1
(2009): 121-39. JSTOR. Web.
Klotman, Phyllis R. "Dick-and-Jane and the Shirley Temple Sensibility in the Bluest
Eye." Black American Literature Forum 13.4 (1979): 123-25. JSTOR. Web.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume Book, 1994. Print.
Portales, Marco. "TONI MORRISON'S "THE BLUEST EYE": SHIRLEY TEMPLE AND
CHOLLY." The Centennial Review 30.4 (1986): 496-506. JSTOR. Web. 1 Feb.
2015.
Rosenberg, Ruth. "Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in The Bluest Eye." Black
American Literature Forum 21.4 (1987): 435-45. JSTOR. Web.
"Toni Morrison." Interview by Christopher Bollen. Interview Magazine n.d.: 1-11.
Interviewmagazine.com. Web.
Walther, Malin Lavon. "Out of Sight: Toni Morrison's Revision of Beauty." Black
American Literature Forum 24.4, Women Writers Issue (1990): 775-89.
JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.

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Werrlein, Debra T. "Not so Fast, Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in
the Bluest Eye." MELUS 30.4, Home: Forged or Forged?(2005): 53-72. JSTOR.
Web.