CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS
This chapter presents the analysis of the novel. This chapter answers the problems previously stated. It consists of two parts. The first part deals with the
character analysis, which is primarily to answer the first problem. This part discusses two characters in the novel, Pauline Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove. The second part
discusses the abnormal behavior that Pecola suffers from.
4.1 The Description of Pauline Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove
In a novel, a character can be major or secondary. According to Milligan, there are two kinds of characters. They are major and secondary characters. The major
characters are those who appear more often in the story than the other characters. While secondary characters are those who appear less in the story 195. The major
character influences the other characters and even the story itself. By contrast, the secondary character is less important than the major character.
Based on these definitions, it can be concluded that Pauline and Cholly Breedlove are major characters in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. They are
major characters because they give big contribution to the development of the other major character, Pecola. The novel also talks about Pauline and Cholly past life that
effect their present life especially on how they raise their children. Forster states that there are round and flat characters in a novel. A round
character is complex. It will make the readers think more because they cannot predict what the character will do. The round character will change unpredictably in the story.
A flat character does not change at all from the beginning until the end of the story. A flat character has simple characterizations 37.
Pauline Breedlove and Cholly Breedlove are round characters because it is difficult to describe them in a single phrase or word. The readers cannot predict their
behaviors. They have their own ways of seeing lives and solving their problems. Their characters have changed from the beginning until the end of the story. Therefore, to
analyze the characteristics of Pauline and Cholly Breedlove, some of Murphy’s theory of characterization are applied. Pauline and Cholly are described as follows:
4.1.1 The Description of Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother 4.1.1.1 Crippled
It is described in the novel that Pauline looks limp when she walks. It is because when she is two years old, she impales her foot on a nail. She believes that
accident has determined her destiny. In her mind, she is cursed when the terrible incident happens. It makes her limp and ugly.
Although she was the ninth of eleven children and lived on a ridge of red Alabama clay seven miles from the nearest road, the complete indifference
with which a rusty nail was met when it punched clear through her foot during her second year of life saved Pauline Williams from total anomity. The wound
left her with a crooked, archless foot that flooped when she walked-not a limp that would have eventually twisted her spine, but a way of lifting the bad foot
as though she were extracting it from little whirlpools that threatened to pull it under 110.
From the personal description, it is clear that Pauline has a crippled leg. She blames her leg for what has happened to her. This influences her much on her future
life. She is not satisfied with her own physical appearance. She always thinks that she is the most ugly woman; after all she is a black woman and limp. At that time, black
people status is lower than white people. This situation makes Pauline depressed. “Her general feeling of separateness and unworthiness she blamed on her foot” 111.
That is why we can conclude that Pauline Breedlove has a crippled leg. Moreover, she blames her foot for her ugliness and her bad fate.
4.1.1.2 Lonely
During her childhood, Pauline is isolated from other family members, and therefore she cultivates her own pleasures. Her family later migrates to Kentucky
where they move into a larger house with a garden. Pauline is also in charge of caring for the house and her two younger twin brothers, Chicken and Pie.
Near the beginning of World War I, the Williamses discovered, from returning neighbors and kin, the possibility of living better in another place. In shifts,
lots, batches, mixed in with other families, they migrated, in six months and four journeys, to Kentucky, where there were mines and mill-work. In
Kentucky they lived in a real town, ten to fifteen houses on a single street, with water piped right into the kitchen. Ada and Fowler Williams found a five-
room frame house for their family. The yard was bounded by a once-white fence against which Pauline’s mother planted flowers and within which they
kept a few chickens. Pauline, now the oldest girl at home, took over the care of the house. She kept the fence in repair, pulling the pointed stakes erect,
securing them with bits of wire, collected eggs, swept, cooked, washed, and minded the two younger children-a pair of twins called Chicken and Pie, who
were still in school 111-112.
She enjoys her life, but when she turns into fifteen, she becomes restless and melancholy. She dreams that a stranger, a man, or a god will take her away from her
sufferings. When the war ended and the twins were ten years old, they too left school to
work. Pauline was fifteen, still keeping house, but with less enthusiasm. Fantasies about men and love and touching were drawing her mind and hands
away from her work. These feelings translated themselves to her extreme melancholy 113.
She feels lonely without any friends. No one jokes on her and no one talks to her. She is told to take care of the house and her twins brothers, Chicken and Pie.
“Why she alone of all the children had no nickname; why there were no funny jokes PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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