The Land They Lived on: Reading The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye which made a name for Toni Morrison， the first African American woman writer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature， revolves around a humble Negro girl， Pecola Breedloves tragedy out of a wish for blue eyes. Generally， three types of African Americans attitudes towards the white race are depicted vividly through three different families living in Lorain， Ohio in 1941. The premier of knowing these characters better， I suppose， is learning the land they lived on.

The land they lived on was a place where there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941 and dandelions were called weeds. The marigolds were Claudia and Friedas unique magical way to bless Pecolas baby： planted the seeds， cultivated it with right spells and then everything would be all right after blossom. For years， the death of the seeds was assumed to be caused by Claudias planting too far down in the earth， rather than the earth which might have been unyielding. As a matter of fact， it implies that no matter how sincere the prayer was， the innocence and faith were no more productive than lust or despair then. Millions of African Americans would never sprout to realize their wishes just like Pecola， because the soil of their land was unyielding with deeply buried racism. It rejected to nourish them.

Despite of being called weeds， dandelions might have a slightly different fate with marigolds， because last fall， Pecola had blown their white heads away and this fall， she owned them to interdepend on this world. Pecola adored them， wondered and even argued for their beauty but didnt insist it too long. She left the grocery store with shame and the revelation that “They are ugly. They are weeds.” Beautiful as a dandelion was， it was never recognized. Unlike Pecola， it couldnt speak for itself， but as her， when facing disdain， it said nothing and even agreed the ugly mask. Werent Afro-Americans like this seemingly inferior species， useful and beautiful， whereas they would never know their beauty and saw what there was to see： blue eyes？

The land they lived on was also a place where the fondest wish for a Christmas gift should always be a blue-eyed Baby Doll. Such a doll for Claudia equaled a forced love， but for grown people， stood for the emotion of years of unfilled longing. Claudia disremembered it to see of what it was made， to discover the dearness， to find the beauty， the desirability that had confused her. What was the Thing that made the doll beautiful instead of her， so that the entire world appeared to agree that a blue-eyed， yellow-haired， pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured？ Virtually， every billboard， every movie， every glance had given her an answer： it was the whiteness that accounted for. It accounted for the fact that Pecola drank three quarts of milk for the fondness for the Shirley Temple cup; it explained her nine lovely orgasms with Mary Jane on the pale-yellow wrapper; it made it clear that name “Pecola” was from a movie where a mulatto girl hated her mother because of her ugliness and blackness. All the admiration conveyed the same standard： whiteness or not. And that was the Thing.

Shirley Temple， Mary Jane， Dick and Jane in American primary school textbook all walked to these poor men through various forms of media， getting the power of discourse and defining beauty of the land. Media is always powerful. “Slimness is beautiful” is to modern women what “White is beautiful” was to Pecola and millions of the same colored girls. Their source of ugly essentially pathetically came from their conviction： when whiteness was universally acknowledged to represent beauty， on the contrary， blackness meant ugliness. They believed that when the flashlight did not move， Cholly should not hate the white men but despised the girl; that with exquisitely learned self-hatred， they could spill over lips of outrage， consuming whatever was in its path; that if they looked different， the world to them would change. The cultural movement started in the US in the 1960s by African Americans， Black is beautiful， ironically demonstrated such psychology of black people. The inferiority complex was no longer due to the scorn from the white， but the contempt integrated into the black themselves. They became each others scapegoat. Beauty never has a massively accepted standard. It comes from ones heart， enjoyed by the person himself and recognized by the ones who love him. Being beautiful or not has no need to prove or to question.

Such was the land they lived on， where the most hopeless moment happened in the most vital season. However， no matter how hard was for the Breedlove to breed love， at least the MacTeer still made tears for the tragedies going on around and planted marigolds for blessing. For them， autumn still meant that somebody with hands did not want any family to die. Such was the land they lived on， who knows what would happen in the coming spring and summer？

References：

[1]謝群.最藍的眼睛的扭曲與變異[J].外國文學研究，1999（4）.

[2]王晉平.心獄中的藩籬——《最藍的眼睛》中的象征意象[J].外國文學研究，2000（3）.

【作者簡介】張藝鳴，華東師范大學。