The Bluest Eye
By Toni Morrison
Female Characters in The Bluest Eye
Each of Morrison's characters in The Bluest Eye demonstrate the struggle and difficulties that arise when individuals continue to perpetuate the standards of beauty set up by the white American society. In her novel, almost all of the characters are responsible for inflicting hatred upon themselves in an attempt to change the imperfections on their exterior body. In particular, each female character is guilty of either continuing the already detrimental ideas of beauty or coercing their female counterparts to feel insecure within their own body.
Pecola Breedlove
Pecola Breedlove symbolizes the problems within a society that is centered upon beauty and woman's outward appearance. In addition to that, she represents the child in the African American community who is beaten down until she is unable to defend herself from the heinous attacks against her self-worth. So much so that Pecola, a young, sexually and mentally abused child, believes that possessing blue eyes would allow her to escape the horrendous reality she is in. Ultimately, the character of Pecola Breedlove highlights the problems that arise when children are exposed to idealizes conceptions of beauty at a time when racism and discrimination seemes to manifest itself into every aspect of society. Pecola Breedlove symbolizes every girl that wished to change her life through controlling the nature of her situation.
Pauline Breedlove
Pauline Breedlove is first described as a young, adventerous woman who escaped the traditional conventions of society when she met her husband, Cholly. However, due to her lame leg and her inability to socialize with her African American counterparts, Pauline never truly lived up to the standards of beauty set forth in society. In fact, Pauline represents the mother who is unable to accept the reality of her own situation and seeks to distract herself from the unhappiness of her own life by devoting her efforts to a new hobby. In addition to this, Morrison adds the character of Pauline to illustrate the cyclical tendencies of such ways of thinking.
Claudia MacTeer
Claudia is fiesty. She is first introduced as a young African American girl who yearns to break down the superior attitude every white girl seems to be born with. Claudia, unlike Pecola, though, does not think that she is ugly; moreover, she comes from a good, close family. Nevertheless, Claudia is struggles with the idea of beauty as she sees her mulatto classmate, Maureen Peal. At times, Morrison writes Claudia as violent to reveal the anger that grows within children who are subjected to the torture of believing that they are second class citizens. Ultimately, Claudia signifies the strong, assertive yet vulnerable mind in American society.
Geraldine
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​Although Geraldine is a minor character, much like Pauline, she detests the responsibilities as a mother and wishes to be surrounded by light skinned people. Morrison utilizes the character of Geraldine to illustrate the ways people of color determined who was worthy of their attention. That is, she criticizes the African American community discriminating within themselves. By using the character of Geraldine, Morrison utilizes the effects internalized racism to express the detrimental effects, adults can have on children's perceptions of themselves. In fact, though Geraldine is a good housewife, she only feels compassion and love for an animal, her black cat.
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Maureen Peal
Maureen is more than just a mulatto, Maureen represented the beauty that can be created from the intimate relation of a white and black interaction. However, her vain and superior attitude allows individuals to call her reliability into question. Nonetheless, Maureen's actions are also called into questions when she purposefully leads Pecola on to hurt her self-worth. However, Morrison points out that girls like Maureen are often ostracized because of their specific characteristics. In fact, because she was considered exotic, Maureen broke the barrier between both the whites and black males.