Bullying, Power, and The Other in The Bluest Eye - Book Report/Review Example

Bullying, power, and ‘the other’ in ‘the Bluest eye’ ‘The Bluest eye’ provides for a very interesting fictional pieceto read especially in relation to its plot development and its opulence in language skill set. It is the first beautiful literature piece by the famous renowned American author, novelist, professor and editor Toni Morrison. She is known for her formidable works on authoring various notable books like ‘Beloved’, ‘Song Of Solomon’ and the ultimate ‘The Blue Eye’. ‘The Bluest Eye’ picks up the character of a black innocent girl in Lorain, a black neighborhood tucked in the heart of Ohio. She goes by the name of Pecola Breedlove about eleven years old. Pecola wants her eyes to be blue so as to be more beautiful and properly appreciated in the American social setting like every other blue eyed beautiful child. Unfortunate this fantasies rather than bringing positive symbolism in her life brings about gruesome life transformation that is devastating and painful to her self-identity. Pecola’s life story spurs an array of emotions that shows the difficult lives that the blacks girls like Pecola and Frieda led in those neighborhoods with similar social setting. Theme of power is noticed according to racial lines while bulling is easily noticed along different lines like sexual abuse, racism, child violation and self-inflictions. Bulling appears to be an eminent factor in Breedlove’s life, Frieda’s, Claudia’s and other characters in the book as the plot develops. Bullying is a process of intimidation and manipulation to satisfy one’s own selfish desires, this normally happens to the weakly positioned committed by the strongly positioned in the society. In ‘the bluest eyes’ context one of the most horrifying bulling encounters can be linked to sexual abuse. Pecola’s first sexual encounter is characterized by violence. Frieda is manhandled by Henry Washington and forced into a sexual encounter against her will. Cholly is forced to have a sexual encounter in the presence of two white men. The same Cholly rapes his own daughter Pecola which is the most demystifying inhumane insult, sexual humiliation and abuse extreme than the other abuse cases. This shows bulling in the sexual abuse aspect and sexual violence that happens to the lives of these particular characters. Racism is seen as a bulling mechanism because the blacks are seen to be entirely dominated and oppressed by the whites to the extent the black lose their self-identity and replace it with self-hatred. Pecola is a victim of this circumstance because she wants to be as beautiful as the average American girl of her age. This shows the perception of the black community as the white view to being “ugly” as it manifests in this young girl early childhood dreams that causes her to loose herself in identity crisis. Young girls’ aspirations and dreams are being put at stake because of the racial difference, portraying bullying as setback in this setback to the innocent souls who want to make it in life but cannot because of their color or origin. Cholly a black is forced to have sex while two white men are watching, how that amounts is as a result of pure racism bullying because it is more than a social vice that ruins the sacred dignity embedded deep within. Child rights violation aspect in the story is a form of an internalized bullying scenario. Children from the black poor neighborhood are seen to be oppressed both physically and emotionally. They are oppressed physically because they possess the black skin that is viewed as not being “beautiful” and oppressed emotionally because like Pecola she ends up having an identity crisis since as a child she was opinioned to believe that “white” was where the beauty lies. Mrs. Pauline Breedlove violates her own child Pecola because she denies her the care a parent is supposed to give her child and makes her child, Pecola, to believe she is ugly leading to the entire problem cycle she undergoes. This is as a result of Pecola mother being rejected by her own community because of her extreme dark marks and southern accent making her feel oppressed and hence passing the same transgression to her daughter by violating the need to instill in her proper self-identity virtues. Frieda lives in fear of being perceived as a prostitute because of her previous unwanted sexual encounter. Her parents do not “debrief” her of the miss-happening this shows a neglect on their role as parents, child rights violation and that particular group setting that screams out children have no important role or say under the emblem of their parents. They are simply under the rule of their parents. Pecola was raped by her own father. Her rights and her emotional wellbeing were infringed by this heinous act. It is quite ironical that a father should be protecting his child and not violating his own innocent little angel. Power comes with oppression in most cases that is why the stories of various characters in the book are laced with oppression. Claudia tries to overcome this analogy of power by telling a different story that praises the beauty of blackness resisting the fact that power of beauty only lies in the white setting. Pecola parent misuse their power to impact her life negatively starting from her mother Mrs. Breedlove with her negative attitudes and her own father Cholly raping her and nothing is done about it. Frieda’s parents also misuse the power that is naturally vested on them as parent to properly educate and enlighten their daughter of sexual education even in the light of a sexual misconduct that appears to impact negatively on their daughter. Toni Morrison’s major aim was to highlight the theme of power used by the oppressors to suppress and bully the oppressed rights and their rightful place in society. Racism was one such tool used by the oppressors to inflict maximum damage on the minority group which majorly consisted of the blacks, as the lives of the minority were filled with sexual injustices, child violations and lack of self-identity and hope for a bright future. Works Cited Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007. Read More