Jealousy In The Bluest Eye

Because of this, the reader can infer that the abuse led to low self esteem and feeling jealousy of “perfect” little girls. Like Pecola, Claudia shows several signs of envy towards white girls.

Although Claudia was filled with jealousy and lived in an abusive community, she had a loving family which helped her to hold on to some of her innocence and not end up like Pecola.

The abuse displayed in The Bluest Eye may have set the strongest tone for the entire story due to the fact that everybody was affected by it in a negative way, and yet nobody knew what to do to make it go away. The character who was put through the most abuse of each type Pecola, because not only was she sexually abused, but also mentally and emotionally. For Pecola’s

entire life she was surrounded by abuse, but it was at the absolute worst when she was sexually abused by her own father.
Pecola’s abuse from her father caused her to be unaware of what love really is, and it caused her to pretty much go insane.
Not only was Pecola failed by her own mother who did not help her overcome the abuse, but she was also failed by her community because nobody reached out to help her.

In comparison, Pauline, Pecola’s mother, was also abused by Cholly and it caused her pain and sadness.

It was not easy for her to find a way to leave her husband, so she continued to be with him regardless of the way he treated her and her family.

Because it was so hard for her to leave him, Pauline changed herself and began to be filled with more hate than love, and instead of feeling like her life had purpose, she just lived to hate Cholly.

In order to make the abuse feel like it was not there, she hid it from the public and almost pretended like it was not real, which in the end only made things worse for her daughter and herself.

While the Breedlove family was full of abuse and sadness, Freida was also a victim of sexual abuse, but it did have a different affect on her. Frieda and Claudia were both exposed to the sexual abuse in their community their entire lives, especially when they were too young to even understand what they were witnessing.

For instance, Frieda was a victim of sexual abuse when she was “picked at” by Mr. Henry one day, and she cried because she did not want to be ruined like the Maginot Line.

For this reason, Frieda was lucky because she was abused and may have continued to be abused if it was not for the help she received from her family and also her

community.

One more theme that was presented throughout the story with various symbols and stories was the theme of love, which was shown in ways that love should and should not be. For example, Claudia feels love and compassion for others mainly because she is surrounded by a loving family and lives in a loving home. Claudia watches Pecola go through abuse, and it hurts her because she is not able to help Pecola.
Similarly, it can be inferred that Claudia had experienced abuse herself since she felt guilt for not being able to help Pecola, but she was able to get past the abuse with love.
Because Claudia may have experienced abuse, she reaches out to help Pecola with the symbol of “marigold seeds”.

Unlike Claudia, Pecola does not truly feel love and compassion for others because she does not know what love and compassion are. She wants to be loved and would do anything to be able to feel love.
Pecola believes that something she could do to be loved, or seen, is to get blue eyes.
The main reason that Pecola does not know what love is and craves it so much is because she is living in an abusive home and community.