All the meaningfulness of her life was in her work. Morrison, 1970:102
Working with whites makes her praise them more. She becomes totally in love with whiteness. She is more concerned with the cleanness and the beauty of the floor
of the house rather than things which are afflicted by her daughter. She soon neglected and isolated her daughter, focusing herself only on her works. She is not
only become a failed adult but also a failed parent. However, not only Pauline but also Cholly, who then become failed parents.
The reason why Pauline has to work is also because of the inability of Cholly to fulfill the family needs. The failures that he gets make him lost his self confident and
make him frustrated. He then commits himself on drinks. Even Pauline has decided to focus on her own career; Cholly can only spend his time on drinking. The drink
which makes him losing more his self-awareness and becomes insensible with his family needs. Also, due to his low self-awareness as well, he somehow sets fire on
his own house when he is having a fight with his wife. Consequently, the Breedloves are being separated from one another because of the parents’ centrism and egoism.
The country had placed her in our house for a few days until they could decide what to do, or, more precisely, until the family was
reunited. Mama didn’t know “what got into people,” but that old Dog Breedlove had burned up his house, gone upside his wife’s
head, and everybody, as a result, was outdoors.
Morrison, 1970:17 Mrs. Breedlove was staying with the woman she worked for; the
boy, Sammy, was with some other family; and Pecola was to stay with us. Cholly was in jail.
Morrison, 1970:19
4.2.3 Life Desperation in The Bluest Eye
The hustle of big city often gives a large pressure for those who are living in it. Disoriented, stressed and depression are things which are commonly happened. This
is similar to the Breedloves who thought moving to North will make their life better. However, as it is a wrong perception, Pauline also forced to start working to earn
extra money. Working in a white family is somehow fun, but mean. The unequal status
between Pauline and her master makes her have to beg for her own right. The whites’ who owed Pauline didn’t want to give her the salary. Due to her desperation for there
were still a lot of bills to be paid, she decided to loan it. Still, she was not given. The whites’ who is rich doesn’t seem to understand her condition. This can be understood
for the different economy status and class status between the master and the worker often make the worker being looked down and being swindled.
She didn’t never give me the eleven dollars she owed me, neither. That hurt bad.
……………………………………………………………. Then I got so desperate I asked her if she would loan it to me. She
was quiet for a spell and then she told me I shouldn’t let a man take advantage over me.
Morrison, 1970:95
While Cholly, is also desperate with his life. Being black, being jobless, being prejudged makes him try to escape from the reality by drinking. The negative
thoughts of others make him thinks negatively of himself as well, dragging him to the low self-esteem. So, by drinking he won’t need to be worried about life but this
make him lost his self-awareness. Furthermore, the low self-awareness means the increase of aggressiveness,
which makes Pauline and he often have a fight for both of their self-awareness especially Cholly are lowed. Besides, this fight is regularly happened and is seen by
the children. It is actually not good for child development. It will make the children wonder and afraid if he could be one of the objects. It will somehow disturb the
development of children character as well. Thus, it is inevitable. Both desperation which are felt by Cholly and Pauline leads to frustration and ends up with having
continuously fight with Cholly most of the time. The fights which are typically happened in the Breedloves because of Cholly’s escapade in drinking can be seen
from quotes below: Even from where Pecola lay, she could smell Cholly’s whiskey.
The noises in the kitchen become louder and less hollow. There was direction and purpose in Mrs. Breedlove’s movements that had
nothing to do with preparation of breakfast. Cholly had come home drunk. Unfortunately he had been to drunk to quarrel, so the whole
business would have to erupt this morning Because it had not taken place immediately, the oncoming fight would lack spontaneity; it
would be calculated, uninspired, and deadly. Morrison, 1970:35
An escapade of drunkenness, no matter how routine, had its own ceremonial close.
……………………………………………………………….. Cholly, by his habitual drunkenness and orneriness, provided them
both with the material they needed to make their lives tolerable. Morrison, 1970:36
The fight which is always occurred in the Breedloves is basically the result of the desperation that its family has due to the poverty. Nonetheless, Pecola who is
grown there is also felt despair of her life. She can no longer stand with the situation of her family and her society. She wants to become beautiful and possess the bluest
eyes. She believes if she becomes beautiful, people won’t fight and do bad things in front of her again. She also believes that the bluest eyes are the thing that can make
people respect her and love her. Thus, she prays a lot, but she never receives the bluest eye that she wished for. At the end, in her depression, she believes only the
Soaphead Chuch that can grant her wish:
She stood there, her hands folded across her stomach, a little protruding pot of tummy. “Maybe. Maybe you can do it for me.”
“Do what for you?” “I can’t go to school no more. And I thought maybe you could
help me.” “Help you how? Tell me. Don’t be frightened.”
“My eyes.” “What about your eyes?”
“I want them blue.” Morrison, 1970:137
4.3 Finding the Relation between Child Abuse and Adults’ Failures
Child abuse and Adult’s Failures are two terms which are somehow related one and another. When a child is experienced to child abuse, there’s a possibility that he
will become an abuser as well when he grows up. The remembrance which he brought makes him so. Just like what is happened to Cholly Breedlove. When he was
a child, he was sexually and mentally being abused. It turns him to suffer trauma of it. The light of the flashlight and the giggle made him insulted. He is hurt and becomes
not believe others. This is the also the reason of why he can’t really get along with others:
When he was still very young, Cholly had been surprised in some bushes by two white men while he was newly but earnestly
engaged in eliciting sexual pleasure from a little country girl. The men had shone a flashlight right on his behind. He has stopped,
terrified. They chuckled. The beam of the flashlight did not move. “Go on,” they said. “Go on and finish. And, nigger, make it good.”
Even a half-remembrance of this episode, along with myriad other humiliations, could stir him into flights of depravity that surprised
himself – but only himself. Morrison, 1970:37
When a child is going to middle childhood, parents influence children by the way they supervise them and the things they expect for them. Thus, parenting styles
relate to child development. Unlike Pauline, who still lived in a family, Cholly had lost his mother when he was four days year old and had been left by his Great Aunt
