Soon after, we go back to learn about Pauline’s own childhood and her experiences. Growing up in Kentucky, the only inclination that she was different or unattractive stemmed from her bad foot. She disappeared into fairytale-like daydreams of someone coming into her life and loving her as she is. She longed to find some distant kind of peace in a person that would see beauty where her insecurity lied. When Cholly came along and embraced her foot, she found power in his worship and embraced it, too.

After meeting and marrying Cholly, she moves North to Ohio. There she becomes familiar with the societal ideals of beauty and her realization of her ugliness began to stem from more than just her bad foot. In her hometown, she was surrounded by people like herself, who spoke like her and had the same customs. The white people that did reside there were scarce, and rarely showed their faces. Now, however, Pauline had become hyper-aware of the countless white people that surrounded her in her new home, as well as the black people who alienated her for the same characteristics that brought her Kentucky neighbors together. This isolation began her increasing dislike for herself. As time progressed, Pauline sought pleasure in spending time with Cholly when he arrived from work, and eventually from getting her own job. Here, she was able to get a glimpse of how “the other side” lived. However, the idealization of beauty and privilege was heavily contrasted from intelligence, as Morrison makes sure to show that white does not always mean better.

A prominent moment of the mirror of beauty being shattered for Pauline, was the loss of her first tooth. She had become absorbed into trying to look her best, causing fights with Cholly in order to shop for new clothes and makeup. In the continuous rollercoaster of trauma she is built up by keeping up with these fads, but torn down again at the understanding that her makeup recreations were terrible in comparison to the other women in her town. In the midst of her attempted transformation, Pauline became exposed to the big screen and beauty as it was defined by the media. On one occasion,  she did her hair up like her favorite white actress only to have her tooth shatter at the bite of a candy bar. Pauline was seemingly putting on a costume with her hair, aiming to mimic the beauty she continuously saw praised. This literal shattering of her tooth metaphorically represents the fragility of the mirror reflecting a made up reality.

Jean Harlow on the cover of a magazine. Pauline did her hair up like this to go see her film at the theater. Harlow’s blonde hair, blue eyes, and cherry red lips encompass the ideal beauty in the 1940’s.

Even in present day, a Google search of “beauty in the 1940’s” turns up an excessively predominant white result.

This moment caused a turn in Pauline, as she stated “I don’t believe I ever did get over that. There I was, five months pregnant, trying to look like Jean Harlow, and a front tooth gone. Everything went then. Look like I just didn’t care no more after that. I let my hair go back, plaited it up, and settled down to just being ugly.” Soon after, when she gives birth to Pecola, the same feelings of her own ugliness in not looking like Jean Harlow is projected onto the child who she knew from birth “was ugly”. This projection is prominent in Pecola’s journey throughout the novel, as we see in the first moment that we are introduced to her mother.

As long as human beings live, they keep encountering many experiences that influence them either positively or negatively. In Arabic, we say that “the human being is a son of his environment” which means that we are influenced by many factors such as, our social relationships, level of education, socioeconomic status, culture and religion. So, if the environment is good, good citizens will be promoted, if not the opposite will happen. In “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, the author wrote her novel about how hurtful racism is especially at a young age. Cholly Breedlove is a poor man who has a wife named Pauline and two children Sammy and Pecola. In her novel the author mentioned the Breedlove family as dysfunctional, its members were convinced that they were ugly because of their race.
Cholly was influenced by many factors that contributed to shaping his personality and become who he is. His misery started when he was a baby, he was abandoned by his mother and raised by his aunt. Growing up he could never ask his aunt about his father until he was about nine or ten years old, but he regrets when asked (132, 133). Going through this experience of neglect and abandonment by his parents left a deep scar on him. The lack of sense of family and home affected Cholly’s reactions. When he became a father, he had no idea about father’s responsibilities so he became and careless. In the novel, Morrison states “you sure ain’t bringing in anything. If it was left up to you, we’d all be dead…” Her voice was like an earache in the brain”…If you think I’m going to wade out in the cold and get it myself, you’ better think again” (41). Thus, his refusal of helping his wife, shows that he is irresponsible. Cholly is acting like his parents who refused to take responsibility and provide him with love, shelter, and food. Sometimes a person becomes who he/she hates.
The fact that Cholly never met his father, he had no idea how he looked like. But for sure he hated him. In the novel, Cholly remembered being at a church picnic and how he described the father of the family. Saying that the man looked like a devil, not like God who “was a white man, with long white hair, flowing white beard, and little blue eyes that looked sad when people died and mean when they were bad” (134). Hence, linking bad people to the black race, especially fathers shows the hatred Cholly had towards his father. Cholly convinced himself that he is ugly, and he will never be a good person because he is a devil too, which explains his deviation. Blue jack is a figure that Cholly met at a young age and considered him as his spiritual father. Stories about sex, racism, and violence that were told by Blue Jack reflect the dangers of being black which influenced Cholly negatively and made him act like a black person to maintain his place within the black community.
The inhuman way Cholly was abandoned by wrapping him in newspaper and placing him on a junk heap by the railroad, created a deep hatred towards women. This can be seen in the way he fights Polly. In chapter 3 Morrison describes the fight between Polly and Cholly, “he fought her the way a coward fights a man -with feet, the palms of his hands, and teeth” (43). Accordingly, a person who abuses a woman this way tends to deeply hurt her and leave inside and outside scars. Living with Polly although they don’t get along is Cho Also, this hatred can be seen when he hated Darlene instead of hating the two white men. In the text it says “Cholly moving faster, looked at Darlene. He hated her. He almost wished he could do it-hard, long, and painfully, he hated her so much” (150). Knowing that he is powerless and that he cannot do anything to the white men who humiliated him, was the reason why he hated Darlene and it was his way to execute his power over her. Hatred towards women did not stop at this point, it got worse and Cholly raped his own daughter and ran away. This act demonstrates how Cholly was dysfunctional. Being exhausted by power, led to hurt his relatives and become the oppressor instead of being oppressed by whites.
Examining the damaging factors that influenced Cholly’s development, it can be concluded that the environment played a big role in shaping his personality. Racism, sexism, and violence were reflected in Cholly’s behaviors. Cholly was the product of his environment.

There are lots of people who stop Pecola from flowering and being her best. We have the boys who bullied her, Maureen and Junior. Some of these people were pretending to be good innocent people. They manipulated Pecola because maybe they thought she was weak.

The boys who bullied her were making fun of her because they heard her dad sleeps naked They were calling her names based on the color of her skin and the way her dad sleeps. It made Pecola cry and feel bad for something that wasn’t her fault. This situation with her dad was something she couldn’t control. Freida, Claudia, and Maureen step in to help her and make the bullies go away. Pecola starts to feel better about herself knowing some people are there for her and care about what was going on.

Maureen, who was one of the people who helped, offered to buy Pecola ice cream as a friendly gesture. But after they get the ice cream Maureen starts to interrogate Pecola about her dad and seeing him naked. Maureen starts to repeat herself over and over asking the same questions to Pecola. It upsets Pecola because she thought she could trust Maureen. This is why Pecola is stopped from being her best because she is conflicted about who’s on her side and who isn’t. She doesn’t know what’s the truth and what isn’t.

The last person is Junior. He pretends to be a nice friendly cat person. He wants to show Pecola his cats but instead tries to kidnap her. Pecola runs away and goes home where she feels safer. Pecola is being misled by certain people and she seems like someone who is very trusting. She goes along with people because she is too nice and can’t really speak up for herself. We see this in the scene when she gets her period for the first time but is afraid to tell Frieda and Claudia’s mom in fear of getting yelled at. Pecola was already in trouble for drinking 3 quarts of milk in a day so that was another reason was afraid to say anything.

It seems like people are trying to destroy any self-confidence she has for herself. Her parents are always yelling at her and people are telling her she’s not beautiful. It makes her self esteem go down and feel like this happening to her because of the color of her skin. Pecola sees the differences in the way she is treated and the way the white kids are treated. All of this makes her feel a certain way about herself. It probably makes her feel like she isn’t loved by many people. These things are what stops her from flowering because she is always being put down by others and she can’t grow into the person she wants to be. Pecola sees herself differently from the way some of these people view her but sometimes these people make her lose her sense of self.