The Character of Cholly in The Bluest Eye
Morrison has divided her portrayal of a fictional town of blacks, which suffers from alienation and subjugation, into four seasons. I believe that her underlying message is to illustrate the reality of life's travails: the certain rhythms of blessings and tragedies. Some blacks understand and acccept this philosophy and Morrison's use of the seasons portrays and echoes the bible verse, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven"(Ec. 3.1). Perhaps this is a fatalistic approach or as Darrow says,
Man is the product of heredity and environment and that he acts as his machine responds to outside stimuli and nothing else, seem amply proven by the evolution and history of man. Every process of nature and life is a continuous sequence of cause and effect (156).
This theory is particularly evident in Morrison's development of Cholly, the man who raped his daughter. She could have portrayed him as a degenerate akin to Soaphead, a slimy character, who leaves us with a feeling of revulsion. Instead, step-by-step, she leads us through Cholly's life and experiences; so in the end, instead of hating him, we feel his pain.
Cholly is introduced in the first chapter. He is the father of Pecola. Because of his actions, the whole family has been put out of their home. It was a miserable apartment, as ugly in appearance as the family. Except for Cholly. In his youth he had been big strong long limbed and full of his own fire. Now his behavior was his ugliness. Years of despair, dissipation and violence had turned him into a cruel mean man. Pecola is left with the MacTeeter family and forsaken by her Mother and Cholly. Out of jail for two days, and still he has not checked on his daughter's welfare.
A Time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted (Ec. 3. 2). Cholly was four days old when his Mother planted him on top of a junk heap. His great Aunt Jimmy plucked him out and took him home to rear. She loved him and he had a sense of belonging to a family, but he asked her, "Who was my father?" "Where does he live?" He had a name and place now, and who knew, maybe he could find his Dad: that became his dream.
Cholly quit school at a young age and went to work in the local feed store. There he met a man called old Blue Jack. During some of his darkest days, Cholly's memories of riding in the wagon, listening to stories, eating watermelon with old Blue Jack covered him with a warm blanket of love. He knew that another human being had loved him. He also remembered the love his family showered on him. At the time of Aunt Jimmy's funeral, his aunts and uncles cared for him. They treated him as the child he was. They saw that all his needs were met but more than that they treated him with tenderness and love. It was after the funeral that the bad times began.
A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance (Ec. 3. 4). Cholly began his growth to manhood on the day of the funeral. He joined his cousins in horsing around, joking, laughing and finally coupling off to experience the first thrill of sex. Cholly's pleasure didn't have a chance to bloom. Two armed white men came upon Cholly and the girl. They shone their flashlights on them; berated them; ridiculed them and harassed them. Cholly's fear and his mortification were channeled into hate: for the girl. He, a small black boy, knew deep in his gut that the white men held the power. He couldn't afford to hate them. The emotion of hatred would destroy him. That hatred would have to wait until he was a grown strong man with the same kind of power.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up (Ec. 3. 3). Cholly ran away. The thought that he had impregnated the girl drove him down the road to find his father. He saw his father in a new light. There was a feeling of affinity. It helped him understand why his mother had been deserted. Unfortunately, he left a stable environment for an emotionall-fed quest. Amazingly, he found the man. There he was on a busy street alley shooting craps with group of men. The years of longing for this father were soon turned into bitter ashes. He was rejected and told to get the "F"out here!" Cholly survived--but how? We only know consequences. Later on in his life, Morrison tells us. "Cholly was free. Dangerously free. Free to feel whatever he felt-fear, guilt, shame, love, grief, piety. He could go to jail and not feel imprisoned . . . for he had already killed three white men. He was free to live his fantasies, and free even to die. In those days, Cholly was truly free. There was nothing more to lose" (159-60).
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing (Ec. 3. 5). Cholly traveled up north to Kentucky where he met the girl, Pauline. He was soft and gentle towards her, compassionate and caring. They fell in love and were married. The marriage was good until he was repelled by Pauline's total dependence on him. Buddies and booze replaced her company. The marriage was saved from further damage when Pauline became pregnant. Surprisingly, Cholly was pleased! We wonder how he would have been as a parent if the fighting had not started again. Pauline admitted that she was to blame. This is the last we hear of love. The marriage was filled with bitterness hatred, despair, and boredom. Cholly wondered what had destroyed his desire for Pauline. He felt no need for her. Drinking and carousing became his life. Pauline was the scapegoat for his humiliations and defeats. The depth of his depravity was beyond the realm of even his imagination. The rest of the community looked at him with loathing and disgust. He was not a good father, husband, or neighbor.
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there (Ec. 3. 16). We come to the last scene with Cholly arriving home in a drunken state. He is a burned-out black man, and the sight of his daughter, Pecola, fills him with the gamut of emotions. He is filled with revulsion, guilt, pity, and then love. He touches her. Memories of first touching Pauline, his wife, excite him. The memories, and his lust, carry him forward to the rape of Pecola. The rape is committed with "a border of politeness. . . Again the hatred mixed with politeness "(Morrison 163). Pecola is left pregnant with his child, and pushed to madness by these terrible circumstances: she finds her beauty in the bluest eye.
I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time for every purpose and for every work (Ec. 17). Morrison draws a sympathetic picture of Cholly. She blurs the reality and covers him with emotional longing for the love he knew in the past. Cholly has nothing more to lose. His life is a tragedy.
Works Cited
Darrow, Clarence."Crime and Free Will". Introductory Readings in Philosophy. Ed. Marcus G. Singer and Robert R. Ammerman. New York: Scribner, 1962. 156-57.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume: 1994.
The New Chain Reference Bible. Ed. Frank Charles Thompson. Mt. Morris, N.Y: Chain Reference Bible Publishing. 1929.
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