Morrison in The Bluest Eye pins much of the self-esteem issues that Claudia has on society itself, including other African-American people and Claudia herself. When first noticing the dandelions, Claudia asks "why...do people call them weeds?" (41). At first, she feels sympathy for the dandelions, most likely because she relates to it; like Claudia, the dandelions are rejected for their lack of beauty. However, Claudia is unable to understand why the dandelions are ugly, and why their seemingly beautiful petals are rejected by most of society. In the same way, Claudia is unable to understand why she is apparently ugly. Believing beauty is a concrete object, Claudia even dismembers dolls to "find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped [her]" (20). After Mr. Yacobowski ridcules and treats her as a lesser being, however, she returns and say says "[the dandelions] are ugly... they are weeds" (43), almost if hypnotized and poisoned by Yacoboski, who, in reality, is the weed rather than the dandelions or Claudia.
The passage about the dandelion reveals much about Claudia and her own personality. She is very easily manipulated to believe what others believe due to her already low self-esteem. To Claudia, if others say the dandelion is ugly, it must be true. If others say she is ugly, it must be an unchangeble fact. This reveals Claudia's desire to be accepted by others around her. When describing Maureen Peal, Claudia says "She enchanted the entire school... She never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria" (62-63). Here, Claudia seems to be in a dreamy state, almost as if simply talking about Maureen would cause her to become accepted. Claudia views Maureen as a superior - someone so beautiful that she wouldn't associate herself with someone as ugly as Claudia, further pushing Claudia to question her own beauty.
Nice job this week Richard. I liked the insight you put forth this week and like your outlook on the subject of the flora. However, I personally thought that Claudia was more of the headstrong type that wouldn't listen to what others said. In the narrative she was constantly talking about how she couldn't understand the reason people behaved the way they did. I believe the timid personality better matches someone like Pecola, but that is the beauty of literature. There is no correct or incorrect interpretation as long as it is intelligible. And in my opinion, your blog posts have the intrinsic and very difficult to obtain quality of being layman while maintaining an impeccable level of scholarliness.
ReplyDeleteThank you for listening to my rant and thank you for making just a great Sunday afternoon read!
~Vineet Kamat
I also talked about how the issue that is caused when people feel like they aren't good enough. You talked about how much Claudia wants to be accepted by society, and how much she wishes that she could be like time. I think that this inferiority complex can also be seen in Pecola when she wishes to have blue eyes.
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