Isolation in The Bluest Eye

Usually, when a child is being treated as a scapegoat, no one will dare enough to get closer to him. It is because others are also afraid that they will be treated the same. Thus, a child like Pecola who has been neglected by her family is also isolated by her environment, i.e. among her teachers and her classmates. The main reason why people are ignoring and are isolating her is because the unequal status between her and others which breeds the prejudice. As her father is uneducated, jobless, drinker, poor, and ugly, the Breedloves are socially seen as very low and inferior. People tend to have negative prejudice on her since her father is like that. People are likely to see that nothing is good as well in her. Pecola realizes the isolation which is made to her by them is because of her ugliness. In fact, people see themselves more superior than her and she sees herself as an ugly girl too like what she is told. As the minority as well as the inferior, she has a lifeless feeling. Since she is ugly she belongs to the Breedloves and has to stay with them as well as with the people who judge her. The unfair treatment and the isolation which are befallen by Pecola at school most of the time can be seen from the quotations below: As long as she looked the way she did, as long as she was ugly, she would have to stay with these people. Somehow she belonged to them. Long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike. She was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk. The first letter of her last name forced her to sit in the front of the room always. But what about Marie Appolonaire? Marie was infront of her, but she shared a desk with Luke Angelino. Morrison, 1970:39 Her teacher had always treated her this way. They tried never to glance at her, and called on her only when everyone was required to respond. Morrisson, 1970:40 The isolation which is befallen by Pecola both in the family and the environment makes her has no best friend that she can’t talk to or share with. It leads her rapidly to the frustration. However, this is only a part of abuses that frustrates her and causes her losing her sanity. In addition, losing her sanity afterwards doesn’t mean changing people’s view at her either. People still judge her negatively in her insanity. She doesn’t evoke others empathy but vice versa; she is completely isolated. People looked down at her because she has been raped by her father and has got pregnant. The Breedloves are seen as a morally and socially low family, especially Pecola for she is as fail as her father, Cholly. They laugh at her condition. Moreover, they also look away and avoid her for they can only see her as someone who has failed. Being with someone who has failed will just produce another failure. She is isolated and is treated as the scapegoat where ugliness, failures, and inferiority are all pointed to her. She was so sad to see. Grown people looked away; children, those who were not frightened by her, laugh outright. ……………………………………………………………….. We tried to see her without looking at her, and never and never went near. Not because she was absurd, or repulsive, or because we were frightened, but because we had failed her. ………………………………………………………………... So we avoided Pecola Breedlove – forever. Morrison, 1970:158

4.1.2 Torture in The Bluest Eye

Torture is an act of cruelty which is prohibited under both international and national laws. Torture which belongs to physical abuse is often being related to discipline. However, different from discipline, torture may leave scars that are hardly vanished. Wound which lasts for a long time and turns into scars are usually the result of physical abuse. In addition, if discipline leaves learned messages for children, torture leaves nothing but trauma. Generally, attacks or insults or tortures which are done by others are related to aggressions. An intentional attack by someone to others is a retaliatory attack of something which is afflicted by that person. In The Bluest Eye, the situation where Pecola is attacked by the outsider is a retaliatory attack. She is treated as a scapegoat. At first, Pecola who just wants to see a kitten is thrown with a big black cat that ends up with scratching her face. The fact is the doer hates the cat and instead of bullying the cat by himself, he uses Pecola, he bullies her. Thus, it can be seen when Pecola is hurt, instead of helping her, the doer is laughing happily. This torture can be afflicted by Pecola since she is seen as an ugly black skinny girl who is powerless. Humans are said as a group of bound species. Being in certain group as superiors helps people feel better, and so does the doer. Since Pecola is very black, lonely, and ugly, she is being grouped as a nigger. A nigger is known as someone who is black, dirty, and loud, just like her father Cholly. She is judged and is always teased mostly for this reason. Due to her ugliness, loneliness, and powerlessness, the doer mocks her. At last, Pecola is truly tortured by the outsiders. And he threw a big black cat right in her face. ………………………………………………. Junior was laughing and running around the room clutching his stomach delightedly. Pecola touched the scratched place on her face and felt tears coming. Morrison, 1970:73 Yet, the rougher physical abuse is done by the insider, which is her mother who is supposed to protect her. As Pecola is a daughter who Pauline considers as her extra burden, she doesn’t really like her. Unlike the whites and their house which are white and clean, her daughter is just as ugly as and as black as the other Breedloves. So, when Pecola spills the pie juice accidentally in the whites’ house, Pauline is extremely angry because Pecola has dirtied the cleanness and the beauty that she praises. Pecola is then abused physically in front of her friends. Instead of soothing Pecola, her mother knocked her down, yanked her up again to slap her in rage without considering her wound of the burn. It is also a retaliatory attack by her mother because of Pecola’s blunder. Most of the juice splashed on Pecola’s legs, and the burn must have been painful, for she cried out and began hopping about just as Mrs. Breedlove entered with a tightly packed laundry bag. In one gallop she was on Pecola, and with the back on her hand knocked her to the floor. Pecola slid in the pie juice, one leg folding under her. Mrs Pecola yanked her up by the arm, slapped her again, and in a voice thin with anger, abused Pecola directly and Frieda and me by implication. Morrison, 1970:86 As a proof that Pecola is often subjected to torture in the family can be seen from the statement which is made by the neighbours who know how Pecola’s mother treats her daughter. The treatment which is befallen by Pecola is definitely different from discipline and can lead the victim to death. “Well, it probably won’t live. They say the way her mama beat her she lucky to be alive herself.” Morrison, 1970:148

4.1.3 Rape in The Bluest Eye

Rape is a type of sexual coercion which is done by one human being to another human being. Rape which happens on a child is the peak of child sexual abuse. A child who is being raped especially by an adult whom she knows and believes may lose the trusts to all adults. Besides, rape can also cause a child losing self-