Dehumanization in Morrison\'s the Bluest

Dehumanization in Morrison's The Bluest Eye

In her novel, the Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison admits that she did not want to dehumanize the characters that dehumanize Pecola. She succeeds because she presents us with characters that are real without being overdone. She also succeeds because she does not point a finger at any one individual (or race, for that matter) for Pecola's suffering. It is a collective soul that destroys Pecola and we see these characters best when they are painted with true colors. They are not completely good or evil and we must look at them warts and all. Only then can we begin to understand their hatred for Pecola.

Morrison humanizes characters by allowing us to see them as broken individuals. For example, while me may want Cholly to suffer because he is "dirty" (Morrison 189), we know that he comes from a broken past. Soaphead is another character that is despicable but there is something different about him in that he wants to help Pecola. In fact, he is one of the few individuals that tries to comfort her. We read that for the "first time he honestly wished he could work miracles" (174). The man might have been a bad person in many ways but he was a good person in that he gave Pecola hope. We can look upon these characters and glean some sympathy for them because of their own suffering. Morrison is also careful not to dehumanize the people that injure Pecola because she would only be doing to them what they have done to the young girl. She wants to show us how brutal people can be without making them look too brutal. She wants us to see them in their environment and she wants us to see Pecola in her environment as well. In order to shield Pecola from further injury, Morrison writes from several different perspectives, a technique that allows her to show us not just different perspectives regarding Pecola but the others characters as well. She is not just telling Pecola's story, she is telling the story of an entire generation of little girls that were forced to deal with a very specific notion of beauty that had nothing to do with them. Morrison had to find a balance between those worlds because they all play a part in this novel.

The real reason for Pecola's mistreatment is misplaced societal values. Beauty is equated with something that was only attainable by a certain few and everyone else was simply out of luck. Pecola represents this imperfection to them and that only reinforces their insecurity. Every time one must look upon her, one realizes what ugly means and may even see a bit of that ugly in him or herself. This inability to deal with what society has laid upon them simply reinforces how very deep the issue runs. It is not something that easily be wiped away. Then notion of beauty is buried deep in the human mind and it is impossible to turn a blind eye in this day and age. In short, Pecola represents imperfection and all the ugliness the world can offer.

It is also important to realize that Morrison felt obligated to protect Pecola's identity. By leaving some aspects of her character somewhat mysterious, she creates a distance between the reader and the character. Pecola is no doubt victim of violence and that is all we need to know to understand the novel. She is important because we learn from her. We know that she is a victim by no fault of her own. The narrator confirms this assertion by admitting that she avoided Pecola and that she "had failed her" (204-5). Pecola was victimized by her own kind. The others dumped on Pecola because they could not stand the truth. She admits, "All of us -- all who knew her -- felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were beautiful when we stood inside her ugliness" (205). In a sense, the others needed Pecola if only to make themselves look better - if only for a little while.