Breedlove does to Pecola when she learns of Pecola’s pregnancy by Cholly, Mr. Instead of blaming his daughter, like Mrs. Henry Washington sexually assaulted Frieda. MacTeer is a cold, unfeeling, and uncaring father, but this proves to be the contrary when he learns Mr. All of this figurative language would suggest that Mr.
#Geraldine the bluest eye skin#
MacTeer’s brown skin lightening during the sunless winter is described as his skin taking on “the pale, cheerless yellow of winter sun.” His chin becomes “the edges of a snowbound field,” and his high forehead “the frozen sweep of the Erie” (Morrison 45). Claudia makes effective use of personification to describe how the winter moves into her father’s face and presides there. MacTeer, Claudia does take some time to describe her father in the beginning of the “Winter” chapter. The lone exception is Claudia and Frieda’s father, Mr. Fathers are at best absent, like Cholly’s father, and at worse abusive, like Cholly himself. Men, particularly fathers, are given a predominantly harsh and unflattering representation in The Bluest Eye. We begin to realize that her eyes are critically tied to Pecola’s sense of self. The outlining of Pecola’s disappearing process reveals the importance of her eyes in Pecola’s mind. To Pecola, her eyes are the most crucial part, so their refusal to disappear make all her other efforts pointless. If she concentrates hard, she can make her face disappear too, but she can never get her eyes to recede. On her legs, her thighs are the hardest part, but finally they go too, and eventually so do her stomach, chest, and neck, until only her face is left. First, her fingers go one by one, followed by her arms then her feet. In Pecola’s mind, her disappearance follows a typical process, which she details. One of Pecola’s coping mechanisms for when her parents fight is imagining herself disappearing. Tragically, this is easier said than done, as we see when the story unfolds.
#Geraldine the bluest eye free#
Rather, it’s a mindset, a feeling, and a conviction that the Breedloves must shake themselves free of if they’re ever to change their life circumstances. By comparing the Breedloves’ ugliness to something they can choose to put on or take off, Morrison is telling us that the Breedloves’ ugliness isn’t an unchangeable physical trait. Morrison then moves onto the Breedloves themselves, and describes how they don their ugliness like it is a piece of clothing. This suggests a toxic and dangerous home life that’s only getting worse. She also uses the word “fester,” reminiscent of infected wounds, to explain how they live. Morrison begins with their living situation, where she describes the family as being “nestled together” like a den of animals (Morrison 24). As the family at the center of The Bluest Eye, much care and attention is spent on sketching the Breedloves.