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Jagdeep Singh
ENGL 85
Interpretive Essay Draft 2(Revised)
Nicole Brown
Nov 17, 2012

Shame and Trauma Faced by Pecola

Toni Morrison, in her novel The Bluest Eye, depicted the life of a poor and
innocent girl named Pecola .She was exploited by many people and even by
her father. First, she abused by a group of boys in her school due to her skin
color. Secondly, she became pregnant with her fathers child. Finally, when she
got shelter in a church, and she raped by Prophets in the name of God. She
kept her rape a secret from society due to shame and she did not want to feel
worse mentally. She bearded so much pain and trauma in the hands of devil
peoples in her life. Moreover, she feels trauma, self-hatred, and victimized
themselves in others hand.
Morrison given a vivid example of Pecolas trauma when she was teased
by a group of boys and the boys were calling her black emo .The boys hurted to
her by saying that her father sleeps naked. They said, Black e mo. Black e mo.
Yadadsleepsnekked. Black e mo black e mo ya dadd sleeps nekked .Black e
mo. (Morrison 65). The boys teased to Pecola because they want to show
their blackness to become her self hatred. The boys were in fact also feeling

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self hatred by attacking Pecola.

Pecolas life was also very difficult because her father was drunk and he
abused her innocent daughter. She was very upset from her fathers brutality
and Morrison explained about Pecola, Pecola covered her head with quilt. The
sick feeling, which she had tried to prevent by holding in her stomach, came
quickly in spite of her precaution (45). Pecola also felt shame because her
parents were fighting with each others. Morrison depicted that Pecolas mother
was also feeling shame from her fathers action and she said, Strike the
bastard down from the peas-knuckle of pride. Get him, Jesus! Get him! (42).
Pecola also felt ashamed because of her black color and ugliness. She
thought that she was very ugly. Morrison explained her thought, As long she
looked the way she did, as long as she was ugly. Long hours she sat looking in
the mirror, trying to discover the secret of ugliness (45). However, she had a
dream that she would have blue eyes. Pecola was so innocent that she
compared beauty with whiteness and she prayed to god for blue eyes. She
thought about blue eyes and sang a song, Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big
blue pretty eyes. Run, jip, run. Jip runs (Morrison 47). She prayed every night
to God about blue eyes.
Pecola when turned toward God to recover from trauma in her life, she got a
worse experience because she was exploited by Prophet of church where she
goes in search of dream. She was innocent and she gets trapped in Prophets
net. The Prophet asked Pecola, If you overcome with trouble and conditions
that are not natural, I can remove them; Over-come spells, Bad luck, and Evil
influences (Morrison 173). The prophet raped Pecola; however, she did not tell

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about her immolation by Gods man. She got depressed and she felt trauma in
her whole life by society.
Pecolas was so innocent that she did not understand intent of the Prophet
and James Mayo explained, devil minded Prophet connect the summer with
strawberries, and ripe strawberries with storms and want to break the tightness
of strawberries to see summer storm (233). Mayo detailed about Prophets
thought, I gave them mints, money, and theyd eat ice cream with their legs
open while I played with them (232). Pecola was trapped into Prophets net
because he made false promise of blue eyes to Pecola. The Prophet raped the
Pecola, however, Pecola keep their rape secret due to shame and trauma. She
wants to keep traumatic events secrets because she did not want to felt worse.
Mayo described it as, a traumatic, shame laden subject matter with
conspiracy by invoking the back fence world of illicit gossip (233). Pecola felt
shame, and trauma in her whole life in hand of bad people, however, she was
strong and she kept all events secret from society because did not want felt
shame from society.

Work Cited:-

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage Books. New York. (2007). Print.
Mayo, James. "Morrison's The Bluest Eye." Children's Literature Review.
(2005).Web. 10 Oct. 2012.

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