The Bluest Eye Part III

The final Third of Morrison's the Bluest Eye seems to focus its attention most upon the effects that abuse has on the human psyche, specifically the cyclical nature of abuse. Furthermore, it sheds light on the evils of societal prejudice and marginalization, what is worthy and unworthy of attention from society. In this section we are given insight into Cholly's life and past, and a previously despised character becomes somewhat human. "He remembered just how she held it-- clumsy-like, in three fingers, but with so much affection. . . And then the tears rushed down his cheeks, to make a bouquet under his chin." (Morrison, 156) Cholly was abandoned by all the family he'd ever had, spent the majority of his youth and into his adult life alone and uninhibited, then was thrust into a life of marriage. He could not comprehend his plight, and in his incomprehension turned to what he could understand, violence and abuse. This was the universal language for many families. They all attempted to grasp at happiness, which only seemed to exist in life unobtainable to them, and in their shame and their helplessness they punished those people whom it was within their power to punish: husbands their wives, wives their children. This theme can also be seen in the student essays that we read, as the parents, whom were immigrants, attempted to comprehend the alien culture around them, could not do so, and punished their children with rigidity of the few things they understood, such as religion and the importance of education. In a way, all of these parents simply want what they cannot have, and helplessly search for release of this miserable truth. The release mostly came in the abuse, verbal or physical, of their children, such as in the case of Cholly and Pauline or the Asian American family and their gay son.

In the quest for understanding, people often take pleasure is the knowledge that someone out there is worse off than them. This leads to marginalization of the worth of certain members of society. In this narrative, Pecola, in her vulnerability, become this scapegoat for human emotion. "And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. All of us--all who knew her-- felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. . . we honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in teh fantasy of our strength." (Morrison, 203) The people of Pecola's community used her to keep at bay their own inadequacies, the victim of societal subjugation. Just as white people as a whole used black people as their own to victimize, their own to bully and intimidate to make themselves feel better. The point Morrison seems to make is that it is human nature to take pleasure in comparing ourselves to others whom are beneath us. We all strengthen our self image by finding a member of society to pity and be the object of our revulsion. Abuse and marginalization of the worth of others is a never ending cycle of hatred and hypocrisy. We are all affected, but none so much as the weak, as those who love the people that hate them.