Symbolism In The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

The mother, Pauline, who is supposed to look after her own children, prefers to take care of the white children of her employers instead of her own. The father, Cholly, who is supposed to look after his children and support them with love, rapes his own daughter and kills her innocence. Pecola calls her mother with Mrs. Breedlove instead of mother. Each member of the family lives separately from the others; no one cares for the other. There is no living thing in the house except for the stove. Symbolism is one of the techniques used in the novel. Morrison uses the blue eyes as a symbol in her novel. The blue eyes that Pecola has been praying for all the time stands as a symbol for respect and appreciation that people get

Reviewing Cholly's past, for instance, one can understand the reasons behind his horrible action of raping his own daughter. Looking at his past, one sees that ''there was nothing more to lose. He was alone with his own perceptions and appetites, and they alone interested him'' (Morrison,160). Flashback is very important to understand the psychological and mental states of characters. The Bluest Eye is introduced from two points of view; the first person narrative technique, employed by Claudia, and the third person omniscient narrator. Claudia narrates the incidents from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl and the perspective of an adult woman. She shades light on her won story and the story of Pecola Breedlove. As for the third person omniscient narrator, it is used to narrate the stories of Pauline and Cholly Breedloves. These are the major techniques used in The Bluest Eye to explore the incidents and characters and deliver Morrison's point of