The Consequences of Child Development in The Bluest Eye

In Toni Morrison’s, The Bluest Eye, whiteness is depicted as relating to the

ideal sense of beauty of the time. The ideal is conveyed in various methods including

blond hair-blue eyed-white baby dolls; an idealization of Shirley Temple, Jean

Harlow, Clark Gable; and also a general consensus that light skinned people are

more beautiful. The characters that do not resemble these “beauties” are ridiculed,

even more so if they share less of a resemblance, such as being darker skinned than

the rest. The indoctrination of the white standard of beauty leads to some tragic

consequences for the characters of the story. Some characters are destroyed, such

as Pecola, while others are barley touched, such as Claudia and Frieda. Curiosity

begs, what is it about these characters that make some of them more resistant, and

others less resistant, to the negative effects caused by the white idealization of

beauty?

Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a theory around the 1940’s to

describe the human stages of development. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as it is

now called, splits human development into five subsequent categories starting from

Physiological going to Safety then Love/belonging followed by Esteem and finally

Self- actualization. Maslow argued that if the needs of the preceding category were

not met, the person would feel anxious, tense and not be able to adequately develop

the qualities residing in the subsequent category. These people would have

problems in their lives ranging from low self-esteem, low confidence to loneliness

and depression. Some of these people would revert to abnormal coping methods,

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many of which would be unhealthy. By applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the

characters of The Bluest Eye, the answer to the question proposed above becomes

evident. The characters each responded uniquely to the negative pressures

originating from society’s conception of beauty, based on how much development

and stability they had encountered in life.

The central victim to the injustice caused by the social forces in The Bluest

Eye is the protagonist Pecola Breedlove. In the beginning, Pecola is a sane teenager

just beginning to go through puberty and by the end of the book, she is utterly

destroyed. She develops an imaginary friend whom she often talks to and is

sometime seen partaking in eccentric actions: “Elbows bent, hands on shoulder, she

flailed her arms like a bird, in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly” [Morrison

184]. To determine why Pecola tumbled so quickly, her life must an analyzed in

relation to Maslow’s hierarchy. The first step in the hierarchy is physiological needs

such as food, water, shelter and warmth. Pecola meets these needs in the book, but

only very roughly. She does have food and shelter but they are not stable sources.

This can be seen early on when she to move in with the MacTeer’s because her

house catches on fire. Her family is also very poor so that is another disadvantage to

Pecola getting her physiological needs met adequately. The second step in the

hierarchy, safety, is not met in Pecola’s life primarily due to her chaotic family. Her

father, Cholly, is a drunk and often comes home intoxicated: “ Even from where

Pecola lay, she could smell Cholly’s Whiskey” [Morrison 40]. This ultimately leads

to many violent fights between Pauline, the mother, and Cholly, including one in

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which Pauline hit Cholly with a stove lid “knocking him right back into the

senselessness that provoked him” [Morrison 43]. The biggest victim in these fights

is often Pecola who in this situation felt “pain [that] was as consistent as it was deep.

She struggled between an overwhelming desire that one would kill the other, and a

profound wish that she herself could die” [Morrison 43]. Since Pecola’s safety needs

was never satisfied, she struggled greatly and did not develop properly. The anxiety

and uneasiness caused by the unsatisfied safety need, placed Pecola in a

disadvantage for fully meeting the social/love requirement that is the third step in

Maslow’s hierarchy. This aspect of the “hierarchy involves emotionally-based

relationships in general such as: Friendship, Intimacy, Having a supportive and

communicative family” (Cloosterman). Pecola struggled greatly with developing

relationships and connecting with people. Her family was unstable, but it was no

better on the outside. She was the laughing stock of the school and did not have any

close friends: “She was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk”

[Morrison 43]. Outside of class kids would often make fun of one another by

accusing each other of loving Pecola Breedlove. Pecola has no sense of belonging

and acceptance and in the absence of these elements became very lonely, and

depressed. At one point she is so dissatisfied with her life that she wishes away her

existence: “Please, God…. Make me disappear” [ Morrison 44]. Pecola never gets to

develop or go onto the next step in the Maslow’s hierarchy, which is the

development of self-esteem and respect from others. This is very evident when

Pecola walks into the grocery store to buy candy. The owner of the store, Mr.

Yacobowksi, never acknowledges her existence, even though she wanted to

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purchase something: “ He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see”

[Morrison 47]. Pecola does not develop properly, her basic physiological

requirements are barley satisfied, while her safety and social needs are not met.

When faced with the media images and other social forces, she reached a tipping

point and was not sanely able to handle the entire piled up burden. By realizing this,

it is not hard to see why Pecola created an imaginary friend, believed that people

were jealous of her blue eyes and dropped out of school. She had an unstable family,

and social life and countless other burdens. When she was old enough to discover

that she wasn’t ‘beautiful’ as well, Pecola went mad.

On the other side of the spectrum, Freida and Claudia experience a more

fulfilling childhood and develop in a healthier way in contrast to Pecola.

Physiologically, their parents provide for them well, even though they are poor.

They are fed properly with included milk in the fridge; they have adequate shelter

and all of the other physiological prerequisites needed for proper development. In

the safety category, the sister are also very well off. It is apparent in the book that

the family has considerable less tension then Pecola’s. The girls have parents who

make sure they are safe and do not harm them themselves. Also, when someone

outside the family induces harm, they are brought to justice. Freida was touched by

one of the characters who was living in the house, Mr. Henry, and as soon as her

father found out, he did what he could to protect his little girl: “Daddy shot him and

Mr. Henry jumped out of his shoes and kept on running” [ Morrison 92]. In the next

category of the hierarchy, belonging- love, the girls once again have this need met.

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When Claudia is sick early on in the story, her mother and Freida take really good

care of her while putting her to sleep: “ In an hour or two my other comes. Her

hands are large and rough, and when she rubs the Vicks Salve on my chest, I am

rigid with pain. She takes two fingers’ full of it at a time, and messages my chest until

I am faint” [Morrison 13]. In another act of compassion from the parents, they buy

them Christmas gifts, all though they are not the most thought out gifts, they are still

something. Finally, the girls are also there for one another and they provide that

love/friendship need to one another by the close bond that they share. Since the

girls have all the basic physiological, safety, and love needs met they focus their

attention on the next category: self-esteem. In the book the two girls realize the

beauty standard in their own childish and immature way. They can’t fully

comprehend it, but they know it is exists. However, they do not respond negatively

to the pressure coming from those images of beauty. They seem to realize that it

exists, they don’t fit the description, but it does not bother them because they have

had a healthy development and have an increased self-esteem.

Early on, the question was raised: what makes some characters more prone

to experience the negative side effects from the societal forces brought on by the

ruling class who define beauty? It is evident that the answer lies in the healthy

development and maturity of the specific character. The insight brought on by

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggest that Pecola developed in an unhealthy manner

while the two sisters, Freida and Claudia, developed in a healthy way. Due to

Pecola’s harsh conditions, she was the perfect prey for the negative effects of the

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media images. In contrast, Freida and Claudia had most of their needs met, they

were safe, fed and happy. When faced with the problem of not meeting societies

definition of beauty, they accepted it, and ultimately moved on with their lives.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Ebook.

Cloosterman, Annemieke. "Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs." . N.p.. Web. 22 Oct 2013. <http://www.mindstructures.com/maslow-hierarchy-of-needs/>

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