Dehumanization in Morrison's the Bluest Term Paper

Pecola represents this imperfection to them and that only reinforces their insecurity. Every time one must look upon her, one realizes what ugly means and may even see a bit of that ugly in him or herself. This inability to deal with what society has laid upon them simply reinforces how very deep the issue runs. It is not something that easily be wiped away. Then notion of beauty is buried deep in the human mind and it is impossible to turn a blind eye in this day and age. In short, Pecola represents imperfection and all the ugliness the world can offer.

It is also important to realize that Morrison felt obligated to protect Pecola's identity. By leaving some aspects of her character somewhat mysterious, she creates a distance between the reader and the character. Pecola is no doubt victim of violence and that is all we need to know to understand the novel. She is important because we learn from her. We know that she is a victim by no fault of her own. The narrator confirms this assertion by admitting that she avoided Pecola and that she "had failed her" (204-5). Pecola was victimized by her own kind. The others dumped on Pecola because they could not stand the truth.She admits, "All of us -- all who knew her -- felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were beautiful when we stood inside her ugliness" (205). In a sense, the others needed Pecola if only to make themselves look better - if only for a little while.

Morrison chooses not to dehumanize the characters that dehumanize Pecola because it allows us to see the humanity in them. There is nothing artificial about them; in fact, they are too real. They are real people that have good and bad flaws and they allow the bad flaws to get the best of them. Because they are human, we can related to them and empathize to a certain extent. Morrison also allows Pecola to remain somewhat of a mystery to us. As stated earlier, we know all we need to know about Pecola - it is those around her with whom we should be more concerned. Because Pecola represented the ugliness they could not face, she became their victim. It was simply easier to hate her than anything else. In the end, there might have been pity for the girl but all of it too late to mean anything.

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New….....