Motifs In The Bluest Eye

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The Power of Self-Sight
In Egyptian mythology, Horus, the god of sky and kingship, was said to have blue eyes that when gazed into, reflected back the future. The Eye of Horus, his symbol was known as one of protection and good health. This symbol was used by pharaohs in the afterlife to ward off evils. In the novel, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the young girls, Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola, see the possession of blue eyes as a power that protects and entitles those who have them. They wish to have these blue eyes for they represent the the kindness and love that is received by little white girls and not by them. The motif of blue eyes is representative of the ideal image characters have and the belief that obtaining them would change the way they are seen by the world and therefore the way they see the world.
In the young girls' minds, blue eyes are the primary representation of what they see as the ideal image of those around them. They have built this ideal image from the things and …show more content…

After her eyes have experienced her father raping her she can no longer live with having them. She wishes to "rise up out of the pit of her blackness"(174) and see the world with the bluest eyes. Her sanity gives way and she sees the world through what she believes must be the bluest eyes known to man. Pecola no longer sees herself as others do either, for she believes that God has granted her the bluest eyes. The God granted gift of blue eyes is the end of Pecola's sanity and "the damage [is] done total"(204). She is no longer able to see the real world at all, only the veil of the insanity. This veil of insanity is somewhat of a blessing to her for she no longer sees the terrible things she once did. Those watching her from the real world used her pain and ugliness to glorify themselves. Pecola's wish for blue eyes came true at the cost of her sanity and her true sight of the

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