Depressingly Cobalt

The thing about the Bluest Eye is that the narrator is not the protagonist. While Pecola Breedlove is the protagonist of the story, a lot of the narration was done in the perspective of Claudia, which makes me wonder why.

While we're on the topic of characters, let's... well, talk about characters. While Claudia's actions have mostly been active, such as when she destroyed the white baby doll, Pecola is quite the opposite. She is, I suppose, passive, and she isn't as brave as Claudia is in terms of her actions. In fact, while Claudia represents the black community's courage and hope, Pecola represents its ignorance and cowardice. Or something like that. Pecola truly believes that white is beautiful and black is ugly, such as when said "Yes, you are right," when told that "you are ugly people".

Pecola is the physical manifestation of the opposite of black pride, and she wishes, "Please make me disappear." She wonders if things were different and if she were beautiful, people would treat her differently.

"Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big blue pretty eyes."

Each night, Pecola wishes for blue eyes. She hears a song about a happy brown boy that makes the "dirt leap for joy" and doubts whether it's real. She isn't treated the best way by both the white community and the black community. She's a joke. She is "ugly". These situations and looks into Pecola's mind imply the way black people are treated, Pecola's mindset, the pressure, the sorrow, the whatnots. That's just sad.

I really like seeing humor in my books, and this doesn't seem lighthearted. When it is, it implies something even more depressing.

The book is excellently written, but I have to say that I prefer books that make me happy when I go to bed, books that don't make anything that is blue seem like something I should be ashamed about.