The novel “The Bluest Eye” is a spectacular read, invoking emotion and gives a glimpse of struggles people face due to their life style and emotional suffering they face. The end of the novel we concentrate on the character Pecola who endured life hard times, her father seems to be the main hardship, he drinks and the constant fights with her mother, further the father even tried burning down the house. From all that, Pecola develops her emotional burdens. She has an imaginary friend, and she feels distant from her new community. The concept of the imaginary friend is strong, some say that imaginary friend is your own extension that you build to deal with hard times. Further Pecola has a fascination with blue eyes, she even believes her life would be better if she has the “bluest eyes”, and at some point she even turns on her imaginary friend accusing that she hates her because of her eyes, and that the community is distant from her because they are jealous of her. This enormous traumas were caused to Pecola because she experienced rape and it caused her a mental breakdown, only making her life harder.
One thing that is hard to see in this novel is the concept of “love” it’s simply missing. Pecola endures no love from family nor herself. As a black girl she is constantly surrounded by the while ideals of beauty and love, and she has none of that. Due to that she in a way feels “invisible” and that could be related to the main concept of Ralph Ellison’s book “invisible man”. But one thing that important to have in a hard bearing world is a person who cares and tries to show you that life is worth it. For Pecola it was Claudia, she loves Pecola and admires her beauty, and they shares the experience of rape. Using metaphors of earth and flowers Claudia tries to teach compassion, explaining that racism is part of this world but its what makes Pecola stronger because unlike Claudia she faces that which adds to her already hard life.
The novel is spectacular, showing different perspectives, and today with rape being a big issue its an important read, it gives an insight of what people deal with after rape, and how rape is never a form of love, and neither is violence. Compassion and strength and willingness to live makes characters of the book persevere.
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