Polly and Cholly Breedlove are both the results of white supremacy, bad circumstance, and negative influence. Their minds have been infiltrated with “white” ideologies and have deemed themselves ugly because of this. They have lived uncircumstantial lives and have been through terrible things that have shaped them to be who they are. Even in the novel, they live in a storefront because they believed they were “ugly”. It is because of her parents, that Peccola ends up viewing herself as a subordinate to whites. I argue that the reason why she is the way she is because of her father, Cholly. He is a victim of white ideologies and experiences unfortunate circumstances that lead him to grow an aggressive nature and hateful life.
Cholly in the novel is clearly a very aggressive person but what has caused him to be this way? Here I would like to explore his backstory and how he becomes the way he is. We are told about Cholly’s past as a baby and how he was abandoned by his mother. She left him in a “junk heap by the railroad”(Morrison). This is our first segue into an explanation as to why Cholly has a hatred for women. We can analyze and see that Cholly has a hatred for his mother abandoning him even after his Aunt takes care of him. He is still unhappy with his aunt and asks for his father’s name. This is interesting especially if analyzed. You would think Cholly would be grateful and would be respectful towards his aunt for saving her but he is not. Despite being saved by another woman, Cholly still holds a subconscious hatred for women and begins to look for his father despite him not being in his life at all. Here we see how the actions of his mother shape him into forming a hatred for women. It is because of a bad circumstance that he starts this hatred towards women and this later turns him into a violent husband against his wife Polly.
In Cholly’s upbringing, he begins to work and encounters a man by the name of Blue Jack. His encounters with Blue Jake made him happy as Blue Jake told him stories of the past and how he had been with many women. It is with this happiness that Cholly wanted the comfort of fatherhood and yearned for it but he could not have it. We, the readers, get a glimpse of the few sources of happiness that Cholly had as a young child. We begin to see how Cholly has no hatred towards men at this moment but continues to develop his hatred for women.
It is clear that Cholly views himself as ugly and that he has become a victim of white supremacy. There is an interesting scene in the novel where Cholly thinks about God and how he would look like. This scene supports my argument as he describes God as “a nice old 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”(Morrison). With this description, we see how whiteness has overcome Cholly’s head and how he has been taught to remain inferior to white people. He sees God as a white person instead of a black person and compares himself to the devil. It was in this moment and self-realization that we see that Cholly accepts these views and begins to see himself as the “devil” or inferior to be better put. This in turn shapes him to remain in the same position in his life and accept that he is “ugly”. These views then reflect later on in the story as he instills these views on his daughter Pecola. He is a victim but it is interesting to see how grows hatred towards whites but still continues to remain in the same spot and accept his position.
Later in the novel, we are told about an experience that Cholly had with two white men. It was in this experience that Cholly had fully embraced his hatred towards women and hatred towards whites. He submits to his anger and accepts that he is inferior to whites. Rather than be angry at the men who had humiliated him, he chose to be angry at the girl that he was having sex with. He lost his humanity and this obviously mirrors his actions in the novel. He repeatedly abuses his wife and also rapes his own child. He is disrupted and this makes him turn into a “free” monster. Cholly is also afraid that Darlene is pregnant and runs away to find his father. He knows it is wrong to abandon a pregnant woman but takes after his father steps and does it anyway. It is interesting here to see the choice that young Cholly makes. I believe that his hatred for women has clouded his judgment and this in turn makes him leave Darlene despite being the product of an abandoned father. It is with this where he himself becomes distorted and no different than his father. Cholly becomes even more distorted when he finds that his father does not care about him and neglects him. Here we see the sadness and pain that was brought to Cholly, he was utterly alone and even defecated himself to add more to the embarrassment. His one source of happiness did not even know he existed and this crushed him. He later gets the opportunity to form bonds with his children and not make the same mistakes his parents made but he does the opposite. He separates his family and becomes the people he hates so much.
It is with all occurrences that Cholly becomes a “free” man. The book’s description of Cholly’s freedom is ironic as we see how shapes into the alcoholic, aggressive, womanizer that he is presently in the novel. Morrison offers us this backstory so that we the reader could see the results of white supremacy, bad circumstance, and negative influence in his life and how it affected him negatively. Even though he is “free” he becomes a monster and encaged.
