Prettier Eyes to See Prettier World

A Review on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

…“Please, God,” she whispered into the palm of her hand. “Please make me disappear.” She squeezed her eyes shut. Little parts of her body faded away. Now slowly, now with a rush. Slowly again. Her fingers went, one by one; then her arms disappeared all the way to the elbow. Then her chest, her neck. The face was hard, too. Almost done, almost. Only her tight, tight eyes were left. They were always left.

Try as she might, she could never get her eyes to disappear. So what was the point? They were everything. Everything was there, in them…

Everything was there indeed. Pecola Breedlove couldn’t be able to make her own self whole fully disappear from this catastrophic and miserable life. Her eyes were always left, forcing her to see the world with those eyes. World full of calamity and misery, world of never-ending whipping and beating, world where you see yourself seen with a distant gaze, a total absence of human recognition even by the storeowner from whom you bought candy, world where your friends, if you might call them so, use your name to mock others, world where you see other kid call your mother Polly, a given name you could never ever dare to give to your mother, world where you’re always afraid, world of pain, world of total submission.

You could not possibly do anything about it, for your eyes were always there. Like it or not they would seemingly force you to see that world. And even for the worst part of it; those eyes let you see yourself, there in the mirror. Your face, stood there in a nauseating distant. You’d then begin to see and realize that your face stood there without the skin of fairest complexion and without a sheer of beautiful pink blush on each cheek, without the hair which is dazzlingly blond and the curls that shines, and the eyes which is so not beautiful, which is not blue. Those eyes force you to see all of the ugliness of life, all of the ugliness that could ever bear by a person.

Pecola Breedlove could no longer bear those ugliness. And because God couldn’t grant her wish to make her eyes disappear to save her from seeing those ugliness, she’s thinking of another wish. Another wish that would solve her problem. She wished and she prayed to God, to make her eyes blue. Because blue eyes are pretty and if she could see through prettier eyes, then probably she would see prettier world. Probably everything would be better if she’s prettier.

It’s a complete package of pain, anger and pitiful feeling as Toni Morrison, the author of this novel, brought the issue of racist beauty through this novel. At first she brought up the issue of standard beauty with the haven standard of living; a happy beautiful white family with pets in a happy beautiful house. If everyone wants to seek for a happy life, everyone should refer to that concept. The results for those who can not fulfilled to reach those described, however, is a mix of frustration and anger.

The frustration and the anger are everywhere in this novel. We can feel it in the deep thought of mostly all characters. What is interesting is that their frustration and anger was also the root of other character’s frustration and anger. For instance, Pauline Breedlove, who can not fulfill her standard of happiness she dug up from beautiful actor and actress in the movie screen, uttered her frustration and anger to her family that she considered as a part of her devastated life, something that she always want to deny. The fact that she bore two ugly, not beautiful, children were making her denial even worse. Similar case occurred also in other characters in this novel.

In Pecola Breedlove, the main character of this novel, the frustration and anger had somehow gathered in a different retort of reaction and emotion. For all the calamity, misery and sadness she felt, she was trapped in a situation of hatred and powerless at the same time. This powerless made her could not do anything to save her from her feeling of frustration and anger. The only elucidation she could think of to cope with the situation is to eliminate the ugliness from her, something that she believed as the cause of her frustration and anger.

As a result of her elucidation conversely is the bridge that brings the reader of this novel to the whole real message conveyed by its novel. That’s why it is even more astonishing and enjoyable for the reader to read this novel more than once, because by reading the novel over again several loop holes within the whole flow of the story that would only be patched as the message is fully conveyed would be whole fully patched up, thus make the story even more heart-throbbing.

The issue of racist beauty chosen by Toni Morrison is a strong point that emphasized the eminence of this novel. She successfully conveys the anxiety of the black society in answering the concept of standard beauty. With Pecola Breedlove as her tool, she gives a picture of frustration and anger in the community at that moment. As the result, she left the reader with the feeling of touched, petrified, after finishing this novel. Yet the philosophic questions will still linger, if you were prettier, would life be better?