A Beautiful Ending

Last Friday we wrote an essay on The Bluest Eye, focusing on a single scene within the book. I felt like I did better on this essay compared to the MAUS essay. Looking back at it, I felt more connected with The Bluest Eye. I am not saying MAUS was a bad novel, but I could draw parallels between my life and Pecola’s (as seen from my past blog posts). However, my experiences are not as damaging as Pecola’s; I can never truly understand Pecola’s life because of her extreme suffering. At the end of the novel, she becomes trapped in a schizophrenic state, believing that everyone is jealous “ever since [she] got [her] blue eyes” (Morrison 195). 

Pecola’s destruction stems from her disconnect with society; she cannot find a community that can relate with her experiences. Even though Claudia and Frieda are friends with Pecola, they are still ignorant of the pain she suffers though, learning the dirty truth in society by watching Pecola’s experiences. Without someone to help her cope through her tough life, Pecola goes down a spiral of self-loathing, hoping for blue eyes to fix her problem.

Furthermore, I loved the way that Morrison ended the novel. Combining a metaphor with insightful statements, Morrison is able to clearly elucidate the damaging effects of racism, incest, etc. The bird that was “winged but grounded…intent on the blue” (Morrison 204) is Pecola; the blue eyes are higher than her, surrounding her just like the blue sky. The blue eyes are there to remind her of her insignificance because she is unable to attain them.

Morrison also presents one final argument that differs from society. She says that “love is never any better than the lover,” (Morrison 206) contrasting with the thought that love is always positive. Cholly may have “loved her” (Morrison 206), but Pecola was destroyed by it. Cholly has never felt real love or had a normal childhood. Any love that Cholly gives to Pecola will make her “shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye” (Morrison 206).

Finally, alluding back to the metaphor of the earth, Morrison demonstrates how the damage on Pecola is total. However, by ending the novel with a qualifying phrase, “at least on the edge of my town,” Morrison displays a sign of hope within society. Pecola’s life may be a reminder for the damage that can be done, but with a communal effort, we can fix the issues that plague our society.