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