Beauty is considered in many different ways. Some say it is the intelligence of a person." In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, beauty is in the eyes, social class, and skin color. The thought of beauty surrounds and consumes the characters, especially Pecola Breedlove.
Pecola chooses to hide from her disabling life behind her clouded dream of possessing the ever so cherished "bluest of eyes". The Breedlove's constant bickering and ever growing poverty contributes to the emotional downfall of this little girl. Pecola's misery is caused through the touch of her father's hand and of her community's struggle with racial separation, anger, and ignorance. Her innocence is harshly ripped from her grasp as her father rapes her sad existence. The community's anger with it's own insecurities is taken out on this poor, ugly, black, non-ideal, young girl. She shields herself from this sorrow behind her obsessive wanting for blue eyes. But her eyes do not replace the pain of carrying her own father's baby. Nor do they protect her from the judging eyes of her neighbors. .
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When Claudia, Frieda, Pecola, and Maureen Peal, a well-loved "beauty" of Lorain, are walking home from school. As the girls walk down the street, they begin to bicker. The conversation ends with Maureen stomping away and letting them know that she is indeed "cute". Claudia then thinks to herself, "If she was cute--and if anything could be believed, she was--then we were not. And what did that mean? We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser. Dolls we could destroy, but we could not destroy the honey voices of parents and aunts, the obedience in the eyes of our peers, the slippery light in the eyes of our teachers when they encouraged the Maureen Peals of the world. What was the secret? What did we lack? Why was it important? And so what?. . . And all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred.
