8.

                 The ideas of “seeing” and “eyes” play a big role in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.  Pecola, a young black girl, is obsessed with having blue eyes because she believes that the brutality she experiences is a result of how she is seen by society.  An example of the hostility Pecola experiences daily comes when she goes to Mr. Yacobowski’s shop to buy Mary Jane candy.  “see a little black girl? Nothing in his life even suggested that the feat was possible, not to say desirable or necessary.” (Morrison 48).  With his blue eyes, he is unable to see the black girl. In addition to presuming that having blue eyes will allow her to be seen differently by her community, Pecola trusts that blue eyes will allow her to see the world differently.  This young, black girl corresponds beauty with being loved and has been brainwashed into thinking that if she simply had blue eyes, the cruelty in her life would be replaced by love and respect. If she had blue eyes, Pecola imagines that she would not have to see the ugly things people do in front of her because those people would not want to treat her disrespectfully.  This assumption is supported by how Maureen Peal is treated when she joins Pecola’s school. “Black boys didn’t trip her in the halls; white boys didn’t stone her; white girls didn’t suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their work partners; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink in the girls’ toilet, and their eyes genuflected under sliding lids.” (Morrison 62). Because Pecola wishes for blue eyes instead of lighter skin, this is a sign that she desires to see things differently as much as she wishes to be seen differently.  Simply having lighter skin would provide her with the latter but not the former.