Table of Contents
What happened to Cholly in The Bluest Eye?
He abuses his wife, Pauline, then deserts her as he retreats into a world of alcoholic chaos. In a confused state of love and lust, fueled by drunkenness, he rapes his daughter, Pecola, and leaves her on the kitchen floor. Eventually he dies in a workhouse.
Why does Cholly hate Pecola?
Cholly could both be thinking of the love that was absent in his own father’s eyes when he was rejected. In this sense, Cholly sees Pecola as the physical embodiment of his desolate past. This hatred for his own past makes Cholly disgusted with his own daughter.
Why does Cholly hate Darlene in The Bluest Eye?
We learn that Cholly hated Darlene only because his subconscious knew that directing his hatred towards the white men would have consumed him, and while having an explanation does not make the action any less inexcusable, we are told the emotions and thoughts that lead him to rape his own daugther.
Did Cholly get raped in The Bluest Eye?
Toni Morrison examines such a scenario in her 1970 novel The Bluest Eye through the rape Pecola by her father Cholly Breedlove. The incestuous rape is nearly impossible for a reader to comprehend. Since he was abandoned by both parents, Cholly did not grow up in an environment where he was successfully nurtured.
Who is Jake in The Bluest Eye?
Jake is one of Cholly’s cousins. Jake is slightly older than Cholly, and he encourages Cholly to flirt with Darlene. Aunt Jimmy is Cholly’s great-aunt; she raised him, having saved him after his mother abandoned him on a junk heap.
Who is Pauline in The Bluest Eye?
Pauline is Pecola’s mom, and her character allows us to see how cultural conceptions of beauty can play themselves out in a more benign, though still unfortunate, form than in Pecola’s case. Pauline’s lame foot is a constant source of humiliation for her.
Is Pecola raped?
Pecola is the eleven-year-old black girl around whom the story revolves. She is abused by almost everyone in the novel and eventually suffers two traumatic rapes. She is raped by her drunken father and self-deceived into believing that God has miraculously given her the blue eyes that she prayed for.
Who lives above Pecola?
Pecola visits three prostitutes—China, Poland, and Miss Marie—who live above her family.
What does Pauline want in The Bluest Eye?
Once she loses her tooth, Pauline’s preoccupation with making herself beautiful is replaced with an obsession with being the perfect servant for the Fishers.
What does the little girl call Mrs. Breedlove?
Breedlove is more attuned to the needs of her employer’s family than to her own child’s pain. She sends Pecola away so she can comfort her employer’s child—a girl younger than Pecola and who calls Mrs. Breedlove “Polly.”
Who is Cholly Breedlove in the Bluest Eye?
Character Analysis Cholly Breedlove. To Cholly, being a parent means to abuse and to desert. His parents did both to him. Raised for a short time by a caring great aunt and sustained for a while by the kindness of Blue Jack, a fatherly stand-in, Cholly grows to adulthood never knowing the sustained protective, unconditional love of family members.
What happens to Cholly in the Bluest Eye?
Cholly’s first sexual experience leads to his hatred of women, hatred of his own race, and his feeling of being unlovable. The combination of these things leads to the rape of his daughter. Soaphead Church’s failed marriage and hatred of women leads to the direction of his repressed sexual desire toward children.
Why is there racial self loathing in the Bluest Eye?
This belief that white sets the standards for beauty is a major factor to the racial self-loathing, which occurred in America in the past as well as today. The show of racism through white beauty, and the desires of the black society to acquire this beauty, led to the destruction of many characters in this book.
What are the themes in the Bluest Eye?
Everything you need for every book you read. Everything you need for every book you read. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bluest Eye, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. In The Bluest Eye, sex is associated with violence, humiliation, and immorality.