Soaphead is not sorry that she has been brainwashed into thinking she’s ugly; he is simply sorry that
Pecola is indeed an ugly child
and is doomed to eternal ugliness because of her coarse African features. … All of them have found Pecola ugly, and all of them have victimized her because of her strong African features.
Does Soaphead give Pecola blue eyes?
One day,
Pecola visits and asks Soaphead to give her blue eyes
. Soaphead is sympathetic. He knows he can’t do such a thing, but he tells her to give some meat to the dog. If the dog reacts to the meat, he tells Pecola, she will get her blue eyes.
What does Soaphead do for pecola?
Soaphead buys
poison to kill the dog
but is too repulsed to go near it. At this point, Pecola comes to ask him to give her blue eyes. He is touched by this request—his own attraction to whiteness makes it easily comprehensible.
What does Soaphead Church represent?
Soaphead is the novel’s
quintessential dirty old man
. He internalizes his family’s obsession with whiteness but takes it in a surprisingly pedophilic direction. Just as Pecola associates whiteness with purity and beauty, Soaphead associates whiteness with purity and the innocence of children.
What do Frieda and Claudia decide to do for Pecola?
Claudia and Frieda decide to
help Pecola by praying and by giving a sacrifice
; they will give up their seed money and plant the rest of the marigold seeds. They will bury the money by Pecola’s house and bury the seeds in their own yard so that they can tend them.
What does Pecola think will happen if she has blue eyes?
She believes that if she had blue eyes,
their beauty would inspire beautiful and kindly behavior on the part of others
. Pecola’s desire has its own logic even if it is naïve.
Does Pecola actually get blue eyes?
When Pecola is finally granted her wish for blue eyes, she receives it in a perverse and darkly ironic form.
She is able to obtain blue eyes only by losing her mind
. Rather than granting Pecola insight into the world around her and providing a redeeming connection with other people, these eyes are a form of blindness.
Why did Velma leave Soaphead Church?
At seventeen, Soaphead Church meets a woman named Velma, and marries. She is drawn to his meticulous habits and lack of humor, as she desires to introduce him to the pleasure and joy of life. After two months of marriage, however,
Velma realizes that she will never change him, and leaves
.
How are Claudia and Pecola different?
Like Pecola,
Claudia suffers from racist beauty standards and material insecurity
, but she has a loving and stable family, which makes all the difference for her. Whereas Pecola is passive when she is abused, Claudia is a fighter. When Claudia is given a white doll she does not want, she dissects and destroys it.
How does Mr Yacobowski see Pecola?
Yacobowski looks at Pecola,
his eyes draw back
, as if he sees right through her. Pecola notices a complete lack of human recognition in his eyes and recognizes it as a trait that exists in the eyes of all white people she’s encountered. She assumes Mr.
Who is Elihu in The Bluest Eye?
Born
Elihue Micah Whitcomb
, Soaphead Church soon learned the art of self-deception and developed a fascination and revulsion for dirt and decay. Soaphead married a woman named Velma, but she left him two months afterward. Next, he pursued the ministry but soon discovered that the profession was not right for him.
Who dies in The Bluest Eye?
The flowers refuse to bloom, and Pecola’s baby dies when it is born prematurely.
Cholly
, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.
Why did Pecola’s mother beat her?
Pecola’s mother beat her
when she found out what happened
, and Cholly run’s away. Some community members believe Pecola is to blame for the horrible situation. Some believe she should be pulled out of school. Others hope the baby dies.
Why does Pecola pray for blue eyes each night?
Pecola begins to think that if she were prettier, her parents would be nicer to each other and to her. Since
Pecola equates beauty with whiteness
, she begins to pray for blue eyes in order to change the way she sees the world as well as the way she is seen by others.
Why do Frieda and Claudia want Pecola’s baby to live?
Claudia and Frieda want Pecola’s baby to live in
order to validate their own blackness and to counteract the universal love for white baby dolls
, Shirley Temple look-alikes, and the black community’s flawed-but-Anglicized beauty, Maureen Peel.
How do Claudia and Frieda learn that Pecola is pregnant with her father’s child?
Through gossip
, the sisters learn that Pecola is pregnant with her father’s child. They feel sympathy toward her and they’re bummed that no one else in Lorain seems to care. Frieda and Claudia decide to bury their marigold money and plant marigolds for Pecola.
