sweets. As a failed adult, he also fails the children, giving them trauma and distress. Here are the molestations which are committed by the Soaphead Church:
The little girls are the only thing I’ll miss. Do you know when I touch their sturdy little tits and bit them – just a little – I felt I was
being friendly? I didn’t want to kiss their mouths or sleep in the bed with them or take a child bride on my own. Playful, I felt, and
not friendly. Not like the newspaper said. Not like the people whispered. And they didn’t mind at all. Not at all.
Morrison, 1970:142
I gave them mints, money, and they’d eat ice cream with their legs open while I played with them. It was like a party. And there
wasn’t any odor, and there wasn’t any groaning – just the light white laughter of little girls and me.
……………………………………………………………. With little girls it is all clean and good and friendly.
Morrison, 1970:143
The failures of morality which can be seen in the Soaphead Church aren’t only the molestation which is done by him, but also in his courage in equalizing himself
with God. He often uses the name of God to do and to get things that he wants. He is not only using Pecola as the victim to kill the dog that he hates, but he is also using
God as his victim to hide his true identity. He deceives people around him, he deceives children, and he deceives God. He
becomes the Soaphead Church and uses his privilege for his own sake. He abuses children sexually and mentally. As an adult who is supposed to take care of and
protect the children, he fails them, making himself as a failure adult as well.
4.2.2 Parents’ Centrism in The Bluest Eye
For people who have got married and have got children, children are usually their priority. Fulfilling children needs physiologically and emotionally is a must.
However, through this novel, the selfishness of Pauline Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove as an adult as well as parents can be seen. As a mother, who usually cares
more about the family, Pauline turns her focus more on herself. Compare with children’s needs, she is more concerned with her own needs and happiness, ignoring
the children. Pauline as Pecola’s mother is the oldest girl in her family. Thus, she is
supposed to be a very good role model for her children. She is full of responsibility in dealing with housework. She is a very good house wife indeed.
. . . , and Pauline, now the oldest girl at home, took over the care of the house.
………………………………………………………… She was not only good at housekeeping, she enjoyed it.
Morrison, 1970:90 However, things are changed when she moved to North with Cholly. Problems
are arising day by day. Due to the poverty, a plentiful of basic needs can’t be fulfilled and the family discord issue emerges. She can’t have the basic needs, the love, and
the happiness that she yearns for. These cause her to keep on having a fight with her husband. However, woman is a human being that if feel threatened by the low
expectations, rather than fighting back, she may identify her interests in somewhere else, just like Pauline. Soon, her selfishness evoked when she found working with the
whites is a very calm and happy thing to do. Pauline starts to turn her focus more on herself rather than her children, her family and her house. Her family becomes her
afterthought of the day, which means she only gives a little attention and time to them. Her main focus now is her work.
Soon she stopped trying to keep her own house. The things she could afford to buy did not last, had no beauty or style, and were
absorbed by the dingy storefront. More and more she neglected her house, her children, her man – they were like afterthoughts one has
just before sleep, the early-morning and late-evening edges of her day, the dark edges that made the daily life with the Fishers lighter,
more delicate, more lovely. Morrison, 1970:101
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
