Marla Rodriguez

Novel Update 2
The Bluest Eye
Novel Update 2
Describe the events that happened in the first section that you read.
How did they make you feel? What is your initial reaction to the novel?
The first event in the fourth chapter was the arrival of Maureen Peal to
school. The author describes her as A high-yellow dream child with
long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back.
She was rich, at least by our standards, as rich as the richest of the
white girls, swaddled in comfort and care (Morrison, 1970, p. 62)
Maureen was a very pretty girl and she was also rich, which made her
the center of attention. Since she was light-skinned, Claudia and
Frieda were jealous of her because this meant she was very pretty.
This event makes the reader analyse the girls reactions towards a
pretty girl and how they felt ugly just because they were black. This
helps us understand how important beauty was to them and how it will
be a conflit throughout the novel.
While I read this chapter I realized that young girls have beauty
standards because of what they see on tv or in magazines. This made
me think about how we try to follow certain fashions and get caught on
them, thinking we are not pretty enough. Just like Pecora, we may
think we are not pretty or that someoone else is more beautiful that we
are, but we shouldnt let that affect us the way it did to Pecola.
The other event that happens later on and impacs the reader is when
Junior kills his mothers cat and blames Pecola. This made me very
angry, because Junior searched for the easy way put of the conflict by
blaming Pecola. When he did this, his mother called Pecola a nasty
litte nigger, this kind of insults are the ones that made Pecola feel
ugly. Because of this, she surely grew up wit a lot of psycologhical
problems and low self-esteem. It made me think about the comment
we usually make towards other people that may offend them and make
them feel less, which is why I think people should be more careful with
their comments and the way they talk to other people.