Loss of Innocence in The Bluest EyeAnalysis of Pecola’s Character

Pecola is the protagonist of The Bluest Eye, and a result the most prevalent example of the theme of losing one’s innocence occurs with her. At the start of The Bluest Eye, Pecola is an innocent child who is the subject of insults from almost everyone she knows, with the exception of Claudia and Frieda. Her experiences with her parents, Cholly and Pauline, prove to be no different.

In the first chapter in the novel, the scene in which Pecola has her first period is when the reader realizes that this novel is going to be a coming of age novel, wrapped inside a story about race relations. It becomes clear that Pecola is experiencing a physical coming-of-age, while her mental and emotional state is still very much like that of a child. Before Pecola has her period, she is getting yelled at for drinking three quarts of milk from the Shirley Temple cup. Claudia, the narrator, says that it seems as though she did this out of greediness; however, this is not the case. The narrator states, “We knew she was found of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it, just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face.” Pecola doesn’t idolize Shirley Temple simply because other people do as well. Pecola idolizes how Shirley Temple looks – her whiteness. And, this child-like idolization occurs in the same chapter in which she has her first period. Pecola is starting to understand her sexuality and her place in life, but she still displays those features that make up one’s mentality during childhood. At the same time, the mistreatment of Pecola on the basis of race and superficial characteristics presents itself as one of the primary reasons for her depressingly early loss of innocence.

The Breedlove family is one that is completely torn apart originally in the abrupt ways in which Pauline and Cholly lost their innocence [as was previously outlined by Nick]. When the house is described in the “Autumn” part of the novel, the reader can clearly see that this fits the obvious designation for a “broken home.” When the two histories of Pauline and Cholly are given, it becomes obvious that the family was doomed from the start, especially when one considers the emotional baggage and the ways in which the events of their past effect their personalities in the present. The fact that Pecola is growing up in a home with these two figures makes it so that she understands that not all of life is full of wonder and joy, and that some of it also is made up of despair and loneliness. As children, most people are conditioned to believe that everything is possible in life, but as we grow up we realize this is not really true. Pecola is introduced to this realization because of her socioeconomic state, which contributes to her tragic loss of innocence.

When Pecola goes to buy Mary Janes, she has difficulty communicating with the store owner, Mr. Yacobowski. When Pecola is trying to talk to him, he narrator describes the scene: “She looks up at him and sees the vacuum where curiosity out to lodge. And something more. The total absence of human recognition – the glazed separateness. She does not know what keeps his glance suspended. Perhaps because he is grown, or a man, and she is a little girl. But she has seen interest, disgust, even anger in grown male eyes. Yet this vacuum is not new to her. It has an edge; somewhere in the bottom lid is the distaste. She has seen it lurking in the eyes of all white people. So. The distaste must be for her, her blackness. And it is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes.”

When the school boys torment Pecola, they contribute to a constant abuse that she is subjected to from society. The majority of their torments revolve around her identity in society, by saying “black e mo,” and insulting her over her family’s strangeness, like her father sleeping naked. Of course, when she is saved from the boys who are insulting her and treated to ice cream by Maureen Peel, Pecola seems to think that she has finally found a friend that can understand her. Instead, Maureen only continues the ridicule that the other boys gave her as well, by asking, “Did you ever see a naked man?” Pecola responds by saying “I wouldn’t even look at him, even if I did see him… Nobody’s father would be naked in front of his own daughter. Not unless he was dirty too.” At this point one striking observation takes precedence in the dialogue. Maureen did not mention anyone’s father in her questioning, Pecola did. As the reader continues into the novel, they realize that this mistake by Pecola actually foreshadows the forced sexual intimacy that occurs between Pecola and Cholly. Pecola is used by Cholly because she is still in a rather vulnerable state. For the same reason, Pecola is chosen by Soaphead Church do something that he does not have the willpower to do, kill his dog. She is still very young and therefore very trusting. Pecola’s inability to defend herself is her most detrimental flaw, but it is not her fault. It is her age that is at fault for this.

Pauline abuses Pecola when she accidently spills the cobbler all over the Fisher’s kitchen floor

Junior tricks Pecola into his house for the sole purpose of tormenting her Geraldine hurts Pecola’s feelings when she throws Pecola out of her house and calls her

“black” to insult her Mr. Yacobowski degrades her by refusing to touch her hand to take her money

The school boys torment Pecola about her “ugly blackness” She is psychologically abused by the degrading conditions under which she and her

brother, Sammy, live as they watch her parents abuse one another “The trusting innocence of childhood.” – Acquiring blue eyes from Soaphead Church.

Soaphead Church tells Pecola kill the dog that he does not have the resolve to kill, and makes her think that by doing so she will acquire blue eyes. Soaphead is playing on “the trusting innocence of childhood.”