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Story map of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Cholly raped and impregnated Pecola with his child when he came home drunk and saw her washing dishes. "His soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her..."
Pecola's mother learns of the situation between Cholly and Pecola. Pecola gets a beating but eventually as time passes, they move someplace else.
Pecola drops the pie by accident which causes a mess and her mother, Mrs.Breedlove, in front of Pecola's friends, starts beating her senseless. "Pecola slid in the pie juice, one leg folding under her. Mrs. Breedlove yanked her up by the arm, slapped her again, and in a voice thin with anger, abused Pecola directly and Frieda and me by implication. “Crazy fool . . . my floor, mess . . . look what you...work . . . get on out . . . now that . . . crazy . . . my floor, my floor . . . my floor.”"
A boy from Pecola's school takes Pecola into his yard where he accidentally kills his cat. Then he blames Pecola for his wrong doings. Pecola then gets called a "nasty little black bitch" by the boy's mother. This had to have been very degrading to Pecola because she didn't do anything wrong and still took blame.
Pecola meeta a man named Soaphead Church who is a misanthropist. He claims that he can grant miracles but he is also a child predator. He was willing to help Pecola fill her desires but he tricked her instead. He tricked her by poisoning the dog saying “Take this food and give it to the creature sleeping on the porch. Make sure he eats it. And mark well how he behaves. If nothing happens, you will know that God has refused you. If the animal behaves strangely, your wish will be granted on the day following this one.” Sure enough the dog died because he put poison on the food and Pecola's belief of having blue eyes causes her to be disliked by the town.
Pecola begins to get bullied and made fun of at school. This takes a huge toll on Pecola along with her already existing insecurities of being "black and ugly"
The MacTeer sisters planted marigolds and hoped that the blooming of the flowers would help Pecola deliver her baby. However, the marigolds never bloom and Pecola's baby dies.
Pecola starts her first menstrual cycle while she's with the MacTeer sisters and is informed that she can now have babies. "Then we both looked where Pecola was staring. Blood was running down her legs...A brownish-red stain discolored the back of her dress...There was a long pause in which Pecola and I thought this over. It would involve, I supposed, “my man,” who, before leaving me, would love me. But there weren’t any babies in the songs my mother sang. Maybe that’s why the women were sad: the men left before they could make a baby."
Pecola believes that her wishes of having blue eyes have been granted. She walks around with ignorance and arrogance and thinks everyone else is jealous of her. Ignorance is bliss.
Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove, burned down the family home which sent Pecola into foster care where she is sent to live with the MacTeer sisters. "Mama had told us two days earlier that a “case” was coming—a girl who had no place to go. The county had placed her in our house for a few days until they could decide what to do, or, more precisely, until the family was reunited...that Dog Breedlove had burned up his house, gone upside his wife’s head, and everybody, as a result, was outdoors."
The MacTeer sisters finally come to a realization that the flowers never bloomed because the soil couldn't support the growth for those flowers. "I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live."
Pecola begins to think that if she has blue eyes, then she would be beautiful and loved. This is when her obsession with her physical appearance starts
Pecola Breedlove comes from an abusive family who doesn't live up to the meaning of their family name. The only thing they breed is violence and abuse. The Breedloves are looked down on from society.
Pecola Breedlove
She is the main character of the novel who is eleven years old. She wishes she had blue eyes and a person who loves her. She represents an insecure person who doesn't know their worth and has a hard time grasping the concept of self love. Her aspiration is to be loved by people.
Claudia MacTeer
She is the narrator for most of the novel from when she was a child and an adult. The narration added to the plot because it showed the events that began as innocent and transitioned to a more mature view.
Cholly Breedlove
He is the father of Pecola Breedlove and has a horrible background that was used as retaliation when he gained the superiority. Cholly Breedlove was molested by white men and that was very degrading for him. He was inferior and once he gained superiority, he made others feel the way he did. He beat his wife and raped Pecola. He adds to the plot because he shows the effects of racism and how negative they were.
Setting:
Lorain, Ohio after the Great Depression in 1941
Motifs:
Dick-and-Jane Primer
The primer is repeated multiple times throughout the novel. The novel focuses on the social unit of family and a seemingly ideal household. In the first version, everything flows well and makes sense. In the second version, it starts to get really chaotic and has a loss of rhythm. In the last version, it gets extremely chaotic and becomes hard to understand what the meaning or relevance was to begin with. It is repeated throughout the novel and serves as a motif because it shows how chaotic all the events become as the story goes on.
The four seasons and nature
The seasons serve as a motif because of the meaning behind each.
Whiteness
Whiteness is a motif because it is what the beauty standard was back then. This being the beauty standard created self-loathing and internalized racism.
Blue eyes
Blue eyes are what's considered beautiful. Pecola has a deep desire for blue eyes because she believes it would make her more loved and it will cause her to stop hating herself.
Foreshadowing
Dick-and-Jane primer shows what's going to happen throughout the novel.
Theme
Standard of beauty is whiteness.
Conflicts
External conflict
Pecola’s sexual abuse and being impregnated from her father. She also suffers from bullying and verbal abuse for being an ‘ugly black girl’.
Internal conflict
Pecola and everyone has a messed up mindset of what beauty was since there was a heavy amount of racism. Pecola also yearned for love.
The house and the Dick-and-Jane Primer
The Dick-and-Jane primer represented how chaotic houses can be and the different kinds of organizations that took place. The initial writing of the primer was perfect. The repetition of it became a little imbalanced and off rhythm .The next repetition had thrown off all the rhythm that was once there which connected to socioeconomic status. The houses symbolized the values and situations that were built up emotionally from the characters who live in those houses. The first chapter of the novel has a section where the history of Pecola’s house is being described. The reason is to show the drastic difference between her house and the house described and the initial writing of the primer. Describing the history also showed how the Breedloves have been forgotten in their poverty stricken neighborhood and their chaotic lives.
The name “Breedlove”
The name is ironic because it means to breed love however, the family breeds abuse instead.
Whiteness, milk, Shirley Temple cup, and Mary Jane candies
Whiteness is seen as the ideal beauty standard especially when it comes to women because they suffer the most from racism and being inferior. Pecola drank three quarts of milk from a Shirley Temple cup which is shown in the house window, so she could take in the whiteness and change herself. Pecola also ate Mary Jane candies so she can be like Mary Jane and claims she loves it too.The Mary Jane candies symbolize again, Pecola's desire to be pretty. Pecola’s appearance became an obsession and she’d do anything to become white beauty and become the ideal beauty standard.
Marigolds
Marigolds are associated with birth, natural beauty, and life. The MacTeer sisters plant the Marigolds in hopes that when the flower blooms, Pecola will have her baby but the flowers never bloom and Pecola’s baby dies. This represents the outlandish nature of Pecola's baby caused by incest. Claudia explains how Marigolds don’t grow anywhere because the soil didn’t support certain kinds of flowers which could also show how the Marigolds could also tie into racism because black people denied the ideal living due to the corruption of natural order and life.